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Is Dak Prescott Shattering the Myth About the Need for Veteran Backup QBs?
- Updated: August 18, 2016
In these contentious times, when political rhetoric can turn brother against brother and total strangers can get into shouting matches about anything from global warming to Suicide Squad, at least there is one topic we can all agree upon: Dak Prescott looked amazing in his preseason debut for the Cowboys.
Well, amazing may be too strong of a word. He looked capable. Competent. Acceptable. Prescott was a Cowboys backup quarterback Superman—faster than a speeding Brandon Weeden, more powerful than a Kellen Moore throw into a stiff breeze (watch out; it’s coming back), and able to leap over the low bar that Matt Cassel set in a single bound.
Prescott completed 10 of 12 passes for 139 yards and two touchdowns against the Rams, and Cowboys fans responded as if they just discovered a pair of talented pass-rushers who can go six months without getting suspended. Jerry Jones himself called off the nationwide dragnet for a backup quarterback—no more Michael Vick speculation, no more late-night cold calls to Cleveland or New Orleans about various McCown brothers.
“I wouldn’t consider a backup quarterback situation at all,” Jones told Clarence E. Hill Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram two days after Prescott’s debut. “I wouldn’t want to, by any way, deter the progress and the excitement that [Prescott] can bring to the building of the team and the future.”
Did you hear that? Jones just mentioned the future, the Post-Romo Salary-Cap Apocalypse that he has been putting off forever, in a positive way. Jones has a clear case Dak-Man Fever.
Soon, Jones will be spinning a revisionist history of Prescott, just like the yarn about how building the Cowboys offensive line was a grand long-range plan, not the result of ignoring their own draft board or a last-second family intervention to pick Zack Martin over Johnny Manziel. Jones will explain that he personally targeted Prescott as Tony Romo’s heir apparent while watching a Mississippi State-Arkansas game. It might even be the cornerstone of Jones’ Hall of Fame induction speech next year. Just try to forget that Moore would have been out there instead of Prescott if he hadn’t broken his ankle two weeks ago.
Zakmania feels a little premature, and not just because any mania after an NFL preseason opener is premature. Prescott only threw 12 passes, after all, several of which were screens. The Cowboys were facing the Rams, who will need three or four years to settle in to their new Los Angeles home before anyone can expect them to be competitive. (The previous sentence was inserted at the insistence of Jeff Fisher’s agent). Romo is 36 and coming off the kind of medical procedures we associate with the restoration of a 1964 Mustang. Wouldn’t the Cowboys be better off with a safe, veteran journeyman between Romo and the Dak Attack?
Let’s take a look at how the journeymen and designated backups did while Prescott was earning the key to Dallas last week:
Josh McCown, having already been officially declared a non-threat to Robert Griffin’s starting job in Cleveland, …
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