Can Dak Prescott Save the Cowboys from Jerry Jones?

Those numbers are the biggest reasons why the Cowboys have a 3-4-1 record as they approach the halfway point of the regular season.

And the biggest reason why that record isn't worse wears No. 4, and leads the offensive huddle every week.

Dak Prescott has played MVP-level football for much of the 2025 season so far, including a four-game stretch during which he threw 13 touchdown passes with no interceptions. Making that run even more impressive: Star wide receiver CeeDee Lamb was out of the lineup for three of those games due to injury.

There have been other stellar performances from emerging players on the offense, too. Javonte Williams and George Pickens have both been revelations since joining the team, and those who favor a glass-half-full view of Jones' personnel moves will be quick to point them out.

But Prescott still deserves the lion's share of the credit for leading an offense that ranks second in the NFL in points per game (30.8) and total yards per game (404.6), despite missing key pieces like Lamb and multiple starters along the offensive line.

But the offense's success hasn't been enough to outweigh the defensive struggles, and those issues can be traced directly to Jones' gamble that subtracting Parsons would somehow make them a better team. The pass rush has taken the step back that everyone expected, and the rush defense is still as bad as its ever been (even with the addition of Clark).

Meanwhile in Green Bay, Parsons ranks sixth in the league with 6.5 sacks. His presence has helped his new teammates, too, as Rashan Gary is just ahead of him with seven sacks, while the Packers rank just outside the top 10 in the league with 22 as a team. Nobody in Dallas has more than James Houston's 3.5 sacks so far this season.

If the offensive line can stay healthy, the return of Lamb should allow Prescott and company to keep producing at an extremely high level. The impressive numbers they've put up so far haven't been enough, though, so they'll have to take things up a notch unless the defense can find some miracle cure down the stretch.

Will it be nice for the Cowboys when they've got multiple first-round picks to play with in each of the next two drafts? Sure.

Is it likely they'll find the kind of superstar pass rusher they willingly shipped elsewhere with any of those picks, especially considering the likelihood that Green Bay's picks will be late in the round? Not so much.

In the meantime, the team-building misses on defense threaten to cancel out the success that Prescott and the offense is having, holding the team back from being a serious championship contender anytime soon.

If the Cowboys have any hope in returning to national relevancy in more than just a ceremonial fashion, it rests on the shoulders of Prescott to play at such an otherworldly level so as to overcome what continues to be one of the worst defenses in the entire NFL.

And until Jones is willing to admit that he's a terrible general manager, it'll be up to Prescott to save the team's Super Bowl hopes for the foreseeable future.