Last Monday we discussed a meme making the rounds that compared Dak Prescott to Patrick Mahomes. The point of it was to say that Prescott’s numbers in the last 50 regular season games were similar. Thus Prescott is as good a quarterback as Mahomes.
Of course, no mention was made of their overall career numbers.
Nor was any attempt made to compare their postseason numbers either.
Spoiler alert: Mahomes cleans Prescott’s clock when you look beyond just the last 50 regular season games. Those three Lombardi’s are hard to argue with.
Having put that silliness to rest, one would think the Dak Defenders would have called it a day. They didn’t.
They are now saying that both Dak Prescott and Tony Romo are the best quarterbacks in Cowboys’ history.
Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman have entered the chat.
Don Meredith thinks it’s the dumbest thing he’s heard since his days standing next to Howard Cosell. Danny White just rolled his eyes so hard dams are breaking all over the Midwest.
(Okay, the weather probably has more to do with that but still…)
The Same Flawed Analysis
It’s the same problem as last week. You can’t cherry-pick the stats you want that will give you the result you want. At least not if you want your findings to be taken seriously.
Last week, it was the last 50 regular season games. This week it’s total passing yards.
As of right now, Tony Romo leads the Cowboys in all-time passing yards with 34,183. Aikman is second at 32,942.
Prescott is third – and could pass Aikman this season – at 29,459. Staubach is a distant fourth at 22,700, followed by White (21,959) and Meredith (17,199).
By that metric alone, yes, Romo and – eventually – Prescott would be the top two, but that isn’t the sole metric that should be used.
Aikman is the franchise’s all-time wins leader with 94 regular season wins. Staubach is second at 85.
Romo is third with 78. Prescott ranks fourth with 73 and would need another 12-win season to tie Staubach with the same amount of games played.
Staubach, by the way, won his 85 games in just 114 starts – the same amount of total games Prescott has played and started in already.
White is next with 62 and Meredith had 47.
The Game of Football Has Changed
The biggest factor the Dak Pack hasn’t taken into account is how much different professional football is in the 21st Century.
The NFL of the 1960s and 1970s was nothing like the game in the 1980s and 1990s. And the game as it is played in this century is nothing like it was in those decades either.
Especially at the quarterback position.
When Meredith, Staubach, White, and Aikman played, they were targets.
Defenses – especially against Roger Staubach – game-planned how they were going to take out the quarterback. Look at some of the brutal hits on the quarterbacks back in those days.
Now? You so much as give a quarterback a mean look and the yellow hankies fly. Defenses today are also more handcuffed when it comes to coverage.
Wide receivers running crossing routes in the 20th Century couldn’t get life insurance in those days. Now they roam the field with impunity.
In short, it was more of a run-oriented league in the 20th Century.
Now?
It’s a passing league.
So yes, quarterbacks today are going to have higher regular season numbers. And we haven’t even discussed how they play 17 games a season now compared to all the years of 12 and 14-game seasons before.
Yet even that isn’t the biggest factor the Dak Pack overlooks.
It’s The Playoffs, Baby
Like it or not – and the Dak Pack clearly doesn’t – it comes down to the playoffs, especially for the quarterbacks.
You can light up the league all year, but if you don’t get it done in the playoffs, who cares? And neither Romo nor Prescott have gotten it done when it matters.
Romo ended his career 2-4 in the postseason. He was 0-4 in the divisional round and never even sniffed a conference title game or a Super Bowl.
Prescott is 2-5 and is 0-3 in the Divisional round. He too hasn’t played for a championship of any kind.
At least Tony Romo can say he lost his last two playoff games to Aaron Rodgers. Prescott has been beaten by Brock Purdy and Jordan Love.
Aikman won three Super Bowls. At one point he was 11-1 in the playoffs before finishing 11-5.
Staubach won two Super Bowls – and likely would have also won Super Bowl V if Tom Landry had played him instead of Craig Morton.
Staubach was 11-6 in his playoff career. And remember, Staubach missed five seasons serving his military commitment. He also didn’t become the starter until his third season.
Just imagine Staubach’s numbers if he had started as early in his career as Dak Prescott did.
White finished 10-8 in the postseason but at least he got Dallas to three straight NFC Championship games. Like Staubach, he didn’t become the starter right away. White had to wait until his fifth season.
Don Meredith finished 1-3 in the playoffs, but at least he played in two NFL Championship games. And he lost to Bart Starr, Vince Lombardi, and the Green Bay Packers – arguably the best team of the 20th Century.
Time To Change The Narrative
The best quarterbacks play for championships.
Tony Romo never did.
Prescott hasn’t — yet, but he at least has one more year to change the narrative. If he at least gets Dallas to the NFC Championship game in 2024 he has a stronger case.
He’ll have additional years to surpass Aikman and Staubach in the postseason numbers if he does.
If he doesn’t, he’s playing elsewhere in 2025.
Dak Prescott will never be the greatest quarterback in Cowboys’ history.