No quarterback in the NFL is scrutinized with the level of intensity Dak Prescott is year after year. Much of that has to do with the inordinate amount of attention his team, the Cowboys, gets. Much of it has to do with the talent Prescott has around him.
All of those things raise the expectation level for him.
No top-level quarterback in the league has the chance to change the narrative to his career in a more dramatic way this postseason than Prescott, whose reputation is seemingly always on flux, like the weather.
A big playoff run this January and possibly into February could change the way Prescott is perceived forever.
A Cowboys win over the Commanders in Sunday’s regular-season finale would be a good start, because it will guarantee Dallas the No. 2 NFC playoff seed and at least one postseason game at home — where the Cowboys have gone 8-0.
Prescott this season has done a marvelous job bouncing back from a subpar season in 2022, when he threw an NFL and career-high 15 interceptions (despite missing five games with a thumb injury), sounding alarms from everywhere about what was wrong.
Prescott did his best to tell the world that nothing was wrong, that the 15 picks were an anomaly and that he would be better in 2023, which he has been. But Prescott and the Cowboys are going to be judged more for how they do in the playoffs than for anything they’ve done in the regular season.
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Because, with what’s expected to be a win over Washington on Sunday would give the Cowboys their third consecutive 12-5 regular-season record and second NFC East title in the past three years, and yet they’ve done little to back that up in the postseason.
Prescott has a 72-41 career won-loss record in the regular season, but he’s just 2-4 in the playoffs and has yet to lead the Cowboys any further than the divisional round.
His regular-season numbers — a 66.8 completion percentage with 198 touchdowns and 73 interceptions (a 1.9 INT percentage rate) — are better than his postseason numbers — 63.4 percent, 11 TDs five INTs (a 2.3 INT percentage).
Prescott enters Sunday having thrown just eight picks in 16 games to 32 TDs, which leads the league. If he finishes the season leading the NFL in TD passes, Prescott will join Hall of Famer Roger Staubach (1973) as the only Cowboys quarterback to do so.
“At that time last year, I knew this is who I am, just as I talked about then,” Prescott told reporters this week. “Some things were tough, balls weren’t going exactly the way I wanted to, some crazy bounces here and there, and some tight throws that weren’t working in my favor. And then your occasional bad interception, which is still happening this year.
“For me, it’s just about staying true to myself, keep working and not allowing other people’s opinions — critics really — affect my game or the way that I approach this.”
Prescott was adamant in training camp about showing his critics he’s not prone to the interception when he vowed to reporters: “I am going to lessen my interception numbers. That is a guarantee.” Having thrown seven fewer picks despite playing four more games, he’s backed up those words.
Prescott’s 1.4 interception percentage is the second lowest of his career. He was 0.9 percent as a rookie in 2016 when he had 23 touchdown passes and four INTs. Last season, his interception rate was 3.8 percent.
“It’s numbers, it’s stats, it’s part of it,’’ Prescott said. “That’s why I don’t get caught up in that stuff. A lot of great quarterbacks were injured this year, unfortunately. I just worked to be my best each and every day, and make sure the guys around me are [working too]. Numbers are numbers, I don’t get caught up in them.”
What everyone will be caught up in after the regular-season finale, though, is how far Prescott can take the Cowboys into the postseason.
A deep run — at least to the NFC Championship Game, where Dallas hasn’t been since 1995 when Troy Aikman was the quarterback — will elevate the reputation of Prescott to a level where it never has been.
