The curious case that has been following the former fourth-round selection out of Mississippi State, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has risen to be near the top of the board throughout the league in terms of QB play. But with how the front office has been reluctant to throw boku bucks at Prescott like he has been looking more makes it a bit hard to understand.
Yes, Prescott is looking for money that would make him one of the highest-paid signal-caller in the league, and while that pay would not be an accurate description of the type of player that he is, seeing as how there are a handful of quarterbacks that are better than him currently in the league, he deserves an extension tacked on to the end of his rookie deal.
An 8-8 record is nothing great and it has obvious negative connotations tied to how well Prescott performed in the 2019 NFL season, but it is not his entire fault that the team barely played .500 ball last year.
2019 Fantasy Statistics
Any quarterback that puts up 4,900-plus passing yards, 30 passing touchdowns, and over eight yards per pass attempt means business, and with Dak Prescott also tacking on 277 yards and three touchdowns on the ground on only 57 carries, his QB2 fantasy finish came as no surprise.
Coming into the year, there were not many that were predicting QB2 numbers for the former Bulldog, yet the Cowboys offense ended up being a well-oiled machine at times, enough time for Prescott to show off his true skill set and will his team to at least be in position to win games.
But his receiving core, which was spearheaded by the threesome of Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, and Randall Cobb, dropped a league-high 30 passes, which is a hard pill to swallow for a team that could have used a few more completed passes to turn a middling, .500 season into one that could have potentially saved the job of now former head coach Jason Garrett.
But moving on from Garrett was inevitable and something that was hindering Prescott’s ability to shine, even if Garrett’s replacement, Mike McCarthy, has been out of the league for a bit and is getting back into the coaching game. Play-action schematic elements have dominated McCarthy’s time as a playcaller, especially while as the head coach in Green Bay, but he also understood the need to throw five pass-catchers out wide and let his signal-caller do work, whether it was Brett Favre (for a short time) or two-time league MVP Aaron Rodgers.
Ezekiel Elliott was a major factor in taking the ball out of Prescott’s hands at times, which was both good and bad. Running behind one of the league’s best offensive line units made things easier as well, which also helped keep Prescott upright and gave him the ability to survey the field and make the choice to take off and run.
A QB2 season is no fluke, and with how Dak Prescott was able to lead a .500 squad, the future looks to be very bright for him, even with the team undergoing a bit of change heading into this upcoming season.
2020 Fantasy Projections
Can Dak Prescott earn his first league MVP award this year? Yes. But with how absolutely stacked his competition is, not even just at the quarterback position, things are going to have to improve and increase hugely.
Incumbent MVP Lamar Jackson has a stranglehold on that award from his absolutely dominating performance in 2019, and with the Ravens looking to be as good as they were last year (if not better), the chances of him repeating are quite high. Now defenses will obviously understand what will be coming their way a bit better (or at least they think they will), but Jackson’s abilities to take over plays and use both his arm and his legs to make something out of nothing is not something that a defense can normally stop.
Newly minted league poster boy Patrick Mahomes is back on the Kansas City Chiefs this year, fresh off signing a half-billion-dollar contract this past offseason. As dominating as the defending Super Bowl champions were last year, their 2020 roster looks to be even more stacked, so the thought of Mahomes lying down and letting Jackson take the MVP award uncontested is absolutely crazy.
Others, like Seattle Seahawks’ Russell Wilson, Carolina Panthers all-purpose weapon/running back Christian McCaffrey, and New Orleans Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas can all be thrown into that conversation as well, but Prescott has a real shot at making that jump this year.
Having added former Oklahoma Sooner wideout CeeDee Lamb in the first round of this past draft to an already stacked receiver core, combined with the predicted emergence of tight end Blake Jarwin in his first season as the top option (after the departure of long-time safety valve Jason Witten to the Las Vegas Raiders), and Prescott’s weaponry looks to be more developed than it ever has been.
But, the offensive line is looking a bit rough on the edges, as incumbent center Travis Frederick suddenly retired at age 29, citing his dealings with autoimmune disease Gullain-Barré syndrome, leaving a huge hole at center. But both Prescott and Elliott will be able to work around any holes in the OL unit, pointing to yet another big season on the horizon.
Playing under a franchise tag can easily upset a player, to the point where their production falls, which ESPN seems to have factored in to their 2020 projections for Prescott. A decrease of around 700 yards, three fewer passing touchdowns, and almost two more fumbles all adds up to just under 40 fewer fantasy points projected for Prescott this year, coming in at 301.
While it is quite obvious that Prescott’s arsenal of pass-catchers is not rivaled by many teams in the league, it will be interesting to see if the fact that the team has neglected other more important areas (like their defense) will force Prescott into more passing situations and how he reacts if that happens.
Rank at Position
Dak Prescott is a safe bet to be a top-five quarterback this year, and he enters the league situated for sure behind Jackson, Mahomes, and Wilson, with Deshaun Watson and Kyler Murray biting at his heels.
Watson is the most established option between he and Murray, but Murray having DeAndre Hopkins to throw to now, as well as Larry Fitzgerald, Christian Kirk, Andy Isabella, and Kenyan Drake out of the backfield, makes him a very enticing option to break out as well.
For the Cowboys, their first season under McCarthy will be a very interesting one, as the offense will predictably look quite different. But Prescott’s abilities translate smoothly into practically any offensive scheme that could be thrown at him, so his acclimation process to the new scheme should be able to play to more of his strengths than what Garrett was able to orchestrate.
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