Photo Credits: Inside the Star
Regardless if you love him or hate him, there aren’t 10 QBs, talent wise, better than Dak Prescott. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, ranked him as the 9th best QB in the NFL, behind names like Mahomes, Burrow and others. Dak in my opinion has always been great, and has every ability to silence haters, but what stops him from getting the recognition is decision making, offensive play calling, and trying to make something out of nothing.
While he did tie with Josh Allen, for league leader in interceptions at 17, the amount of plays he has made shouldn’t go unnoticed. There’s a reason as to why the Cowboys have had one of the highest scoring offenses in the last 2 seasons, and a lot of that goes back to QB1. The Dallas Cowboys were top 15 in dropped passes last year with 4 drops leading to interceptions. Looking into what led to Dak becoming tied for league leader in interceptions, I will break them down below….
Offensive play calling - Since Kellen Moore became the Cowboys play caller in 2019, it took about 2 years for fans to start calling for his job. I can give all the credit to Moore for giving us the Cowboys a top offense the last 2 years in the row, but at the same time you have to give him a lot of blame as well. As someone who watches every Cowboys game, you could tell when Mike McCarthy was calling plays vs when Kellen Moore was calling plays. For someone to have an offense that can score 40 points on a good day, Moore’s offense lacked any type of creativity in it. A majority of Moore’s plays would be verticals, seam, slant or comebacks routes on passing plays. It made the Cowboys 1 dimensional for the last 2 years.
Decision Making - While as a fan you can blame play calling all you want, you have to question Dak’s decision making as well. With the offense at times being stagnant or being repetitive, Dak can’t come up with plays on the fly, so he has to deal with what is being called but at the same time, when’s the last time you’ve seen Dak throw a ball out of bounds? Instead of throwing the ball out of bounds and living to play another down, Dak will force a pass into a window he will regret every time. Prescott has to give the Cowboys offense a chance to stay on the field and play more downs in certain possessions.
Dak Prescott really has to have a major season this year, and while it feels like as Cowboys fans we say this every year, the 2023-2024 season is where the Cowboys as a whole organization have to take a look in the mirror and make a decision on where they want to go in the near future. Linked down below will be a video analysis on some of Dak’s interceptions. Really look with open eyes and try to understand why he ended up being tied for the most interceptions this season. For Dak to be successful this season, Mike McCarthy has to develop an offense that allows him to have crossing routes, check downs, and RPO’s. With McCarthy and new offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer, they have to add some type of creativity to this Cowboys offense or by the end of the season, we will see a new head coach take over.