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Dak Prescott will be chasing team records in 2025

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When the 2025 season kicks off in September, Dak Prescott will be chasing three Dallas Cowboys’ franchise regular-season passing records.

Assuming no injuries, he should easily surpass all three marks and fairly early in the campaign at that. Especially now that he has a legitimate WR2 in George Pickens to throw to.

If he starts the full year, he’ll draw considerably closer to two other categories as well.

To get one of the two, he’ll merely need to start at quarterback.

Two football players in Dallas Cowboys uniforms, with Dak Prescott leading the animated conversation, are on the field.

The other? That will depend a lot on how the entire team fares.

Let’s take a look at the records Prescott has in his sights in the next three years:

Most Wins As A Starting QB

Right now, Troy Aikman is the franchise leader with 94 wins against 71 losses. For Aikman, his first two years were simply him trying to survive as the team rebuilt from scratch.

His final two years weren’t much better as the full effect of a team without Jimmy Johnson really hit home.

Troy Aikman warms up prior to the Dallas Cowboys playing the Phoenix Cardinals on Nov. 22, 1992 in Tempe. Arizona. Photo by Richard Paolinelli.

Most of his damage came during those five golden years between 1991-1995.

Roger Staubach is second with 85 wins and he only lost 29 games.

Staubach’s numbers would have been considerably higher if not for the five years he spent honoring his commitment to the U.S. Navy.

At age 27, he became an NFL rookie. He only started in four of the 14 games he played in over his first two seasons, in 1969 and 1970.

Just imagine his numbers if he had those seven early years back as a full-time starter.

Tony Romo is currently third with 78 wins and 49 losses. He did not miss as many years as Staubach did, but he never played a down in his first 22 games of 2004 and 2005.

Prescott will begin the 2025 season with a 76-46 record. With a strong season, he could pass Romo (3 wins) and Staubach (10 wins) and set himself up to pass Aikman in 2026.

Games Started And Played

Technically, Danny White holds the record of games played at 166. But most of his early career was as a punter and as a back-up quarterback.

He rarely saw the field at quarterback until after Staubach retired at the end of the 1979 season.

IRVING, TX - DECEMBER 11: Quarterback Danny White #11 of the Dallas Cowboys passing in a game against the Washington Redskins on December 11, l983 in Irving, Texas. (Photo by Ronald C. Modra/Getty Images)

If you go by starts, White tumbles all the way down to sixth at 92.

Aikman again leads the way, starting in all 165 games that he played in. Romo is a distant third at 127 in 146 games.

Prescott currently stands at fourth with 122 starts, having also started in every game he’s appeared in.

Staubach is fifth at 114 starts in 131 games.

The Cowboys’ sixth game of this year would move Prescott ahead of Romo. The earliest he could pass Aikman for the all-time starts would be midway into the 2027 campaign.

Completions And Attempts

This has been a three-man race for some time, owing to the different eras the top five have played in.

Today’s NFL is a passing game league. The NFL that Staubach and White played in wasn’t.

White is fourth in completions (1,761) and tied for fifth in attempts (2,950) with Don Meredith.

Cowboys Headlines - Cowboys Beyond the Clock: Undrafted Wonder Don Meredith

Staubach is fourth in attempts (2,958) but fifth in completions (1,685).

Aikman is currently at the top of both categories with 2,898 completions on 4,715 attempts. Romo is a close second with 2,829 completions on 4,335 attempts.

Prescott currently has 2,780 completions in 4,159 attempts.

Even with a renewed focus on the running game, Prescott probably catches Romo for completions by no later than the third game.

His 177th attempt this season will push him past Romo for second in that category too. Likely by no later than the fifth game.

He will need 119 completions and 557 attempts to pass Aikman.

Prescott should get the completions easily this fall. He might have to wait until 2026 to have the most passing attempts.

Passing Yards

As with the previous category, this has been a three-man race for quite some time and for the same reasons. Staubach is fourth at 22,700 yards and White is fifth at 21,959.

Romo is currently the franchise leader at 34,183 yards with Aikman second at 32,942.

Prescott sits in third here as well, but only needs 1,506 yards to slip past Aikman. If he surpasses 2,447 yards this fall, he will have the most career passing yards in franchise history.

That mark could fall sometime around the eighth game of this year.

Touchdown Passes

Romo currently holds the mark at 248, but Prescott certainly could run him down late in the season as he starts the year with 213.

Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo releases a pass against the Washington Redskins on December 22, 2013

Needing 36 touchdowns would mean matching his total from 2023. Prescott’s career high for a single season is 37, set in 2021.

If he holds to his pattern of 36 or more every odd year in this decade, the record is his.

Aikman is third with 165, White had 155 for fourth with Staubach fifth with 153.

If you’re morbidly curious, if you combine Prescott, Romo, and Aikman’s total touchdowns, they would still not match Tom Brady’s NFL all-time leading number of 649.

Interceptions

The dubious distinction of being the leader in this category goes to Aikman and his 141 picks. White finishes a close second at 132.

For all of his gunslinger mentality, Romo is only third with 117, just six more than Meredith’s 109 for fourth-highest.

Staubach is in fifth with 109. Prescott is sixth, but at a distant 82. It will take him at least two or more seasons to catch Staubach.

It seems unlikely he would ever get near Aikman’s numbers.

Super Bowl Wins And Appearances

That’s the ultimate measuring stick of any NFL quarterback.

Brady appeared in 10 Super Bowls, winning seven.

While Meredith made it to a pair of NFL Championship games, he could never capture the ring for Dallas, nor make a Super Bowl. Neither could Romo.

Prescott still hasn’t either, but he still has some time left to try to change that.

Craig Morton got the Cowboys to Super Bowl V but lost the game in a turnover fest.

Roger Staubach

So far, Aikman’s perfect three-for-three in the Super Bowl puts him on top in Dallas in this category. Staubach’s two wins, and two losses, a close second.

By The Numbers

Here’s how the top six Cowboys’ quarterbacks rank and how they compare with the current NFL all-time leader in each category:

Wins/Losses

  • Troy Aikman 94-71
  • Roger Staubach 85-29
  • Tony Romo 78-49
  • Dak Prescott 76-46
  • Danny White 62-30
  • Don Meredith 47-32-4
  • NFL – Tom Brady 251-82

Games Played/Starts

  • Danny White 166/92
  • Troy Aikman 165/165
  • Tony Romo 127/146
  • Dak Prescott 122/122
  • Roger Staubach 114/131
  • Don Meredith 83/104
  • NFL – Tom Brady 333/335

Pass Completions/Attempts

  • Troy Aikman 2898/4715
  • Tony Romo 2829/4335
  • Dak Prescott 2780/4159
  • Danny White 1761/2950
  • Roger Staubach 1685/2958
  • Don Meredith 1170/2950
  • NFL – Tom Brady 7753/12050

Cowboys DT Osa Odighizuwa sacks Tampa Bay QB Tom Brady

Passing Yards

  • Tony Romo 34183
  • Troy Aikman 32942
  • Dak Prescott 31437
  • Roger Staubach 22700
  • Danny White 21959
  • Don Meredith 17199
  • NFL – Tom Brady 89,214

Touchdown Passes

  • Tony Romo 248
  • Dak Prescott 213
  • Troy Aikman 165
  • Danny White 155
  • Roger Staubach 153
  • Don Meredith 135
  • NFL – Tom Brady 649

Interceptions

  • Troy Aikman 141
  • Danny White 132
  • Tony Romo 117
  • Don Meredith 111
  • Roger Staubach 109
  • Dak Prescott 82
  • NFL – Brett Favre 336 (Brady had 212 in 23 seasons)

Super Bowl Wins/Appearances

  • Troy Aikman 3/3
  • Roger Staubach 2/4 (DNP Super Bowl V)
  • Don Meredith 0/0 (0-2 in NFL Championship games)
  • Danny White 0/0 (Won a Super Bowl as a punter and back-up QB)
  • Tony Romo 0/0
  • Dak Prescott 0/0
  • NFL – Tom Brady 7/10
Richard Paolinelli

Staff Writer

Richard Paolinelli is a sports journalist and author. In addition to his work at InsideTheStar.com, he has a Substack -- Dispatches From A SciFi Scribe – where he discusses numerous topics, including sports in general. He started his newspaper career in 1991 with the Gallup (NM) Independent before going to the Modesto (CA) Bee, Gustine (CA) Press-Standard, and Turlock (CA) Journal -- where he won the 2001 Best Sports Story, in the annual California Newspaper Publishers Association’s Better Newspapers Contest. He then moved to the Merced (CA) Sun-Star, Tracy (CA) Press, Patch and finished his career in 2011 with the San Francisco (CA) Examiner. He has written two Non-Fiction sports books, 11 novels, and has over 30 published short stories.

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