The Dallas Cowboys have a lot of big expectations heading into the 2017 NFL season. Part of the reason for all the optimism is the return of second-year starting quarterback Dak Prescott and second-year starting running back Ezekiel Elliott. There are some fans who have looked at the rookie campaign of Dak and started calling him one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL. While his rookie numbers back up that statement, former Cowboys safety Darren Woodson tells fans to slow down and wait and see what the future holds for Prescott.
The top NFL quarterbacks
Darren Woodson said that the reason fans need to slow down with the Dak Prescott hype is that there are very few elite quarterbacks in the NFL that perform at that level year in and year out. Woodson named Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees, Matt Ryan, and Aaron Rodgers as top five quarterbacks. However, after that Woodson says there is a drop off in talent where the next five quarterbacks on the list will change every year based on how they play in any given season.
Examples of this include guys like Eli Manning, Cam Newton, Andrew Luck, and more. It was former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski who labeled Dak Prescott as a top 10 quarterback, which of course makes sense due to his play in 2016.
If Prescott repeats those stats in 2017, he is solidly entrenched in the top 10 based on numbers and wins alone for the Dallas Cowboys. However, as Darren Woodson pointed out, Dak has a lot left to prove – mostly that he can repeat at the same level in 2017.
Darren Woodson on the future of Dak Prescott
When explaining his reason for waiting to see on Dak Prescott, Darren Woodson said that NFL teams had no idea who he was in 2016.
When the Dallas Cowboys drafted Dak with their fourth round draft pick, they expected him to be their third string quarterback or maybe even just play on their scout team. Tony Romo was the starter and Kellen Moore was his backup. However, Moore was lost for the season when training camp started and Romo was injured in preseason.
Dak Prescott came in and tore it up but there were zero expectations for what he could do for the Dallas Cowboys. In 2017, Darren Woodson points out that teams have a lot of tape of Dak now and can study that tape to find ways to contain him, stop him, and confuse him in 2017. Prescott went from no expectations to people calling him a top 10 quarterback and he has to prove he can handle that load. While Woodson says that he believes Dak will be a star in the NFL, he isn’t one yet.
