Should there be a Quarterback controversy in Dallas?
Hardly and we have seen this story before.
Think back to the New England Patriots in 2001, with Drew Bledsoe at the helm after signing a unprecedented 10 year extension to his contract after having been in the league for 9 years already. The Patriots lose the first game to poor run defense and a lack of a completion in the final two minutes of the game by Bledsoe, which made a comeback impossible against the Bengals. Then week 2 against the Jets, Bledsoe takes a big shot to the chest by linebacker Mo Lewis and is rushed to the hospital. In comes a kid out of Michigan, who was a 6th round draft pick the previous year, by the name of Tom Brady. The Patriots would go on to lose to the Jets 10-3. However, Tom Brady would lead them to a 11-3 record the rest of the year, through the playoffs to a Superbowl XXXVI berth and victory over Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk and the Greatest Show on Turf.
On Sunday afternoon in Green Bay we saw Dak Prescott break the record for most completions to start a career without an interception (176) in a win over the Packers as he out-dueled Aaron Rodgers. The previous mark of 162 was set by none other than Tom Brady. The similarities in the situation continue in that Tony Romo signed a giant contract recently (6 year extension, $108 million with $55 million in guarantees and a $25 million signing bonus) and that although Romo is statistically a good quarterback he has a tendency to throw an interception in crucial moments of games. That’s not to say he can’t lead a comeback, 25 career comebacks across 10 seasons shows he is mentally tough, but he is very prone to making terrible decisions with the football. He has been labeled by many of this generation as a choker because he simply cannot win the big game when his team needs him to.
Now I know it’s a lot to just label Dak Prescott as the next Tom Brady, especially with such a small sample size, so I’m going to refrain from doing so. However I will say that Dak is not afraid of the spotlight as he played college football at Mississippi State in the SEC where he went into Death Valley and beat LSU (ranked 8th) as well as beating Auburn (ranked 2nd) at Home his junior year. In college he was a similar player to Tim Tebow in his athletic ability, tenacity and calm under pressure. The differences being that Dak has the ability to throw the ball and had a far worse team around him, yet he was still in the Heisman conversation all year (2014). Now that he is in the NFL Dak Prescott is continuing to show this ability and more now that he has better weapons around him in 1st round running back Ezekiel Elliot (the rookie tandem has been historic), Jason Witten, the top Offensive Line in the NFL and Dez Bryant (when he returns to full health).
One thing that is hard to quantify in the NFL and in sports in general is momentum; and with Dak Prescott at the helm the Dallas Cowboys have it. Momentum is a fickle thing and can disappear in an instant. The saying goes “don’t fix it if it ain’t broke” so the Dallas Cowboys should do nothing with regards to personnel changes at Quarterback. Troy Aikman talked about just that on Sunday afternoon in Green Bay, the former Dallas Cowboys Quarterback and Hall of Famer attested to how difficult it can be to find momentum during the season, and explained that there is no reason to change and risk losing it. He went on to mention that he believes that Tony Romo will indeed be needed later on this year or in the playoffs if things start to go poorly for the rookie Prescott.
Last year the Denver Broncos went with Brock Osweiler when Peyton Manning went down and then even after he was cleared healthy to play again. In that stretch where the Broncos stuck with Osweiler, they went 5-2 as they had momentum. The Denver Broncos eventually went back to Peyton Manning when Osweiler started to struggle but getting those 5 wins and keeping the continuity was important for that teams success and playoff appearance. Brock Osweiler may not have been a rookie at the time but he had also never started a regular season game previous to that, which makes the situation to Dallas similar.
The Dallas Cowboys should not make a change after their bye week as Dak Prescott so far has proven to be a winner at the highest level in football and has done (so far) the one thing that Tony Romo struggles with, looked after the football. If they make the change and Tony Romo starts after the bye week they could be in danger of losing a good thing, however anything is possible in Jerry’s World.
