Dallas Cowboys rookie quarterback Dak Prescott — a Mississippi State graduate — was forced into action when starter Tony Romo suffered a compression fracture to the L1 vertebra in his back prior to the season and is making the case to be the full-time starter.
Romo was expected to miss 6 to 10 weeks when he suffered the injury and is projected to be ready to play in Week 7.
Frankly, if things continue as they are going for the Cowboys, I believe they should continue to play Prescott even after Romo is healthy.
Dallas, now 4-1 on the season, is on a four-game winning streak and in first place in the NFC East after winning 28-14 at home against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
Prescott was 18 of 24 passing for 227 yards and one touchdown. He also had a rushing touchdown. The game was not as close as the score indicated, as the Cowboys led 28-0 at the end of the third quarter.
Prescott is 107 of 155 passing for 1,239 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions on the season.
An article, “There’s ‘zero chance’ the Cowboys start Dak Prescott over a healthy Tony Romo” by Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports makes the case that Prescott has managed a constricted version of the offense, done a good job of avoiding mistakes and not thrown many passes more than 20 yards.
There is some truth to those points, but Prescott is also a very big part of the success and playing well beyond his years. We know what Romo can do, but the sky is the limit for Prescott. He will likely get better and better each game.
The Cowboys are winning and competing for a championship right now. I see no reason to disrupt the rhythm. The question should not be who is the quarterback with a better individual skill set? The key question is who is better for the team?
Prescott appears to be the answer at this point.
We saw how important the quarterback position was for the Cowboys when Romo went down with a collarbone injury last season. Romo was 3-1 as the starter, but the Cowboys were 1-11 in his absence and 4-12 for the season.
You cannot just plug anyone into the quarterback position in Dallas. Prescott is more than a game manager. He is a key ingredient in the team’s success.
Rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott from Ohio State, a first-round draft pick, has 109 carries for 546 yards and five touchdowns. Prescott, a fourth-round draft pick, and Elliott are working well together.
The 2016 NFL draft class for the Cowboys is the future, and the time to get things going is now. This is the best job Dallas has done in the draft since the ”Great Trade Robbery” in 1989 when the Cowboys traded running back Herschel Walker and used the draft picks they received to build a dynasty.
Prescott can build another dynasty and should be the starter.
