Andrew Buller-Russ
For much of the 2023 season, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott appeared to be a top NFL MVP candidate. At one point, he was even considered the frontrunner.
While the votes have yet to be revealed, odds point to Lamar Jackson winning the 2024 MVP award. As for Prescott? He’ll still likely get some votes, thanks to an incredible regular season that saw him lead the league in touchdown passes while being recognized as a second-team All-Pro quarterback.
Yet, once the playoffs began, the NFL’s highest-scoring offense largely disappeared, at least in the first half of their Wild Card loss to the Green Bay Packers. After scoring just seven points on the board in the first half, the Cowboys scored 25 points in the second half while watching Green Bay muster 27 in the same timeframe. Obviously, that’s not what anyone wanted to see from Prescott in the biggest game of the Cowboys’ season.
Now, team owner Jerry Jones has chimed in on the state of the Cowboys’ QB.
Related: See where Dak Prescott lands in Sportsnaut’s NFL QB rankings
Dak Prescott: Room for improvement?
For much of the season, Dak Prescott showed he could be one of the very best quarterbacks in the NFL. Yet, other times, he seemingly disappeared during the toughest tests of Dallas’ schedule. First, we saw Prescott throw three interceptions while watching his Cowboys get blown out by the 49ers 42-10 in Week 5. Later on, he’d produce just 134 yards in a 21-point loss to Buffalo.
So when it came to their lone playoff matchup, let’s just say there were signs that Prescott may struggle again, even after the other dominant performances we saw earlier in the season. This is fairly common in the NFL, but the best of the best remain more consistent, such as Patrick Mahomes, who has never failed to reach the Conference Championship stage as a starter across six NFL seasons.
So when Jerry Jones was recently asked about his quarterback, the Cowboys team owner had no trouble admitting there was more room for growth.
“The big thing is, we all know there is room for improvement. The thing that I would emphasize more than anything is that Dak has room for improvement. And not just the scheme around him, but Dak can improve. That’s a big plus, when you’ve been playing the game seven years and you, by assessment, have some room to get better in. He did this year, I expect him to do it next year and the next year.”
Dallas Cowboys team owner Jerry Jones on Dak Prescott
On the surface, Jones making these comments may rile up some strong supporters of Prescott. Yet, at the same time, Jones is just trying to maximize the potential of his franchise quarterback, by pushing him to be even greater than he already is. Not to mention, playing QB in the NFL is all about getting Super Bowl rings, and so far Prescott has always come up short.
