Despite career year, NFL coaches and execs are still skeptical of Dak Prescott

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is having the best season of his career, but he still has his share of skeptics.

Following Week 14’s slate of games, The Athletic’s Mike Sando revisited his quarterback tier rankings, in which he polled 50 NFL coaches and executives to evaluate the league’s current QB landscape.

Among the responses Sando received, a few were cynical of the MVP-caliber year Prescott is having despite ranking in the top five of the league in nearly every major passing category.

“I feel Dak needs to finish a season to show what he really is,” an anonymous NFL executive told Sando. “When you play the Arizona Cardinals and their game plan is to make Dak beat them, and he can’t beat them, you are not (a) Tier 1 (QB). Now, everyone has bad games, but I feel like that is Dallas in general — blowing people out, getting killed by San Francisco.”

Another exec added: “They do good stuff on offense, they have enough weapons and Dak can execute. When they play the really good teams and the pressure gets on him, it can get hit or miss. I want to see Dak do it when it matters.”

The point about Prescott needing to prove himself beyond just the 17-game regular season is well taken.

His problem has never been performing well from September through early January. Prescott has completed 65% of his passes in eight of nine seasons, thrown 22 or more touchdowns seven times, had a passer rating of 99 or better five times and thrown for 3,500 yards or more five times.