Dak Presott threw for over 400 yards in Thursday night’s season-opening contest between the Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This is actually becoming a regular occurrence for Dallas’ franchise quarterback, and in fact Prescott set a record in with his most recent performance.
Going back to Week 2 of the 2020 season, Dak has thrown for 400 yards or more in four of his last five games. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Prescott is the first NFL passer to achieve this.
As you likely remember, Dak was on a record-setting pace with his passing yardage in 2020. Totaling 1,690 yards in his first four games, Prescott was in line to smash the 5,477 single-season record by Peyton Manning and perhaps even reach 6,000 yards for the year.
Unfortunately, Dak’s well-known injury from Week 5 ended that campaign. But if Week 1 was any indication, Prescott’s returned and picked right back up where he started.
2021 presents an unprecedented opportunity for records to be broken. With a 17th regular-season game for the first time in NFL history, per-game production can go down a little but still allow for single-season records to be surpassed.
The Cowboys’ offense this year is clear designed for Prescott to succeed. We saw the “pick your poison” strategy on full display against Tampa; Dak got the ball to Amari Cooper, CeeDee Lamb, and Michael Gallup with ease depending on the Bucs’ coverage.
Plenty can happen in the NFL as we were painfully reminded of last year. But barring injuries, Dak Prescott’s potential to shatter the passing yards record in 2021 is impossible to deny. Hopefully, unlike on Thursday night, his individual success will lead to lots of wins for the Cowboys this year.
