The question posed by the headline above is not so simple because it depends on which part of the season we’re in when the question is asked. If you are talking during the regular season then it is Dak Prescott hands down.
But the water gets murky when the focus of the discussion turns to the playoffs.
While neither quarterback has a winning record in the postseason overall, Hurts has an NFC Championship and a trip to a Super Bowl on his resume. Those are two items lacking on Prescott’s career achievement list.
And this might just be the last year Dak Prescott will have a chance to add those Dallas Cowboys.
For now, we’ll look at ranking the NFC East’s signal callers based solely on their regular season numbers.
Then we’ll look at their backups and see which team has the better chance to survive losing their QB1 in 2024.
Current QBs on NFC East Rosters
Dallas Cowboys
- Dak Prescott
- Cooper Rush
- Trey Lance
New York Giants
- Daniel Jones
- Drew Lock
- Tommy DeVito
- Nathan Rourke
Philadelphia Eagles
- Jalen Hurts
- Kenny Pickett
- Tanner McKee
- Will Grier
Washington Commanders
- Jayden Daniels
- Marcus Mariota
- Jeff Driskel
- Sam Hartman
The Starting Four
Prescott is the elder statesman in the group in years and games played. Since being drafted and becoming the starter in 2016, Prescott has started all 114 games he’s played in.
He’s compiled a 73-41 regular season record with 29,459 yards passing. Prescott has 202 touchdown passes against just 74 interceptions.
He had a dismal 2022 season, which saw him miss five games due to a thumb injury. Dak Prescott still led the league in interceptions and pick-sixes thrown in 2022.
But he rebounded in 2023 with 4,516 passing yards, 36 touchdowns, and just nine interceptions.
Take away the two injury seasons (2020, 2022) that cost him 17 games, and Prescott is averaging over 4,000 yards a season.
Clearly, in the regular season, Dak Prescott is a machine.
He’s also a better quarterback than the Eagles’ running back pretending to be a quarterback. Jalen Hurts’ numbers are trailing behind Prescott. Hurts has only played in 62 games and has a 34-17 record.
He’d have to go 39-24 and stay healthy to match Prescott’s record. He’d also have to throw for 17,695 yards over his next 63 games (280.8 yards a game).
And a running quarterback like Hurts usually starts breaking down by his sixth year from the pounding they take.
The only metric where Hurts is better than Prescott is in the postseason.
Hurts in 2-3 while Prescott is 2-5. But Hurts has that NFC title and he’s played in a Super Bowl. Prescott has yet to win a Divisional round game in three tries.
Daniel Jones is the third-best starter in the NFC East coming into 2024.
That’s more by default than any sort of praise for his talent.
Jones is just 22-36-1 as a starter with a 1-1 playoff mark. He’ll get pushed this year by Tommy DeVito and Drew Lock for the job in training camp.
Rookie Jayden Daniels will likely be the starter in Washington. He’ll go through plenty of growing pains.
The Backups
So which team is in better shape when it comes to their backups?
Which team might be able to survive the loss of their QB1 for part of, or even most of the season in 2024? None of them is the only answer I can come up with, to be honest.
Let me explain.
The Cowboys have Cooper Rush. Rush does have a 5-1 record as a starter but his one loss came when they put the game solely on his throwing arm.
He threw three picks in the game. He’s much better as a game manager, letting his defense keep the game close. And Rush is getting pushed this year by Trey Lance.
The Dallas Cowboys are going to want to know if he was worth that fourth-round pick they gave up for him. That was a pick they could have used to draft a better running back this past April.
Lance was 2-2 with five touchdowns and three picks with the 49ers before injuries – and Brock Purdy — ended his time there.
The Eagles went out and grabbed Kenny Pickett in a trade with the Steelers this year. Pickett was 14-10 as a starter. He also threw 13 picks against 13 touchdowns.
Philadelphia’s QB3 will be a battle between Tanner McKee – a 2023 6th-round pick – and former Cowboys QB Will Grier who has an 0-2 record as a starter.
The Giants quarterback room is a hot mess. Jones might not even be the starter on opening week. Drew Lock – 9-14 as a starter – and Tommy DeVito (3-3) could easily surpass Daniel Jones in training camp.
As for the Commanders, if Jayden Daniels falters or gets hurt, they will turn to Marcus Mariota.
No worries, I had to pause for a minute while I laughed too.
After Mariota it’s Jeff Driskel or Sam Hartman – a 2024 undrafted free-agent signing. We should give Washington fans a few minutes while they cry this out.
Hey, we’ve been there as a franchise too.
In short, none of the backups on any of the four NFC East teams scare me. So all four need to pray their team’s QB1 stays healthy.
