Dallas Cowboys: The three biggest ongoing concerns in Cowboys Camp
By Reid Hanson
No. 2: Dak Prescott
I’m not suggesting Dak Prescott is a bad quarterback. Or even that he’s just an average quarterback. I think he’s an excellent fourth-year QB. While he certainly has deficiencies, Dak Prescott is a franchise QB capable of leading a team to a Super Bowl. But it’s going to be a heck of a lot easier for this team to do that if Dak takes that next step as a passer…
Mechanics (particularly the upper body and lower body working in harmony during the process of a pass) must improve in Year 4. Continuity with his receivers will be nice as well. Consider this: Between the 2017 to 2018 season, Dak lost both his starting outside receivers (Dez Bryant and Terrance Williams) plus his Pro Bowl tight end (Jason Witten on temporary retirement). And we wonder why the timing appeared to be off?
This season Dak gets to build on his chemistry with Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup. Plus he gets Witten back. Knowing how his receivers run their routes and where they’ll be and when is important. Together with his mechanical improvement, we should see many of his accuracy issues fade away. And frankly, those accuracy issues are over blown anyway.
Whenever someone says Dak's completion percentage is high because he throws short passes, this is the only graph you need. It's his completion percentage by distance (green line) compared with the NFL average at the same distances (orange line). pic.twitter.com/esmYI3TIGk
— AdamJT13 (@AdamJT13) May 14, 2019
Dak Prescott was tremendously successful running the ball last season as well. If Kellen Moore can incorporate some safe runs into the game plan (because a called run doesn’t have to be dangerous) the Dallas Cowboys could have a nice triple option attack.
Highest percentage of "checkdowns" over last two seasons (screens are play calls, not checkdowns):
— Steve Palazzolo (@PFF_Steve) July 23, 2019
1. Bortles 11.2%
2. Kizer 10.4
3. Eli Manning 10.2
4. Osweiler 9.7
5. Brissett 9.3
6. Alex Smith 9.1
6. Flacco 9.1
8. Tyrod Taylor 8.7
8. Rivers 8.7
10. Carr 8.4
11. Prescott 8.2
Avoiding checkdowns is another thing the Dallas Cowboys and Dak must avoid. What if I told you the Dallas Cowboys top pass-catcher last season was also their most ineffective? That’s exactly what happened with Ezekiel Elliott last season. At an average depth of zero yards, Zeke contributed a negative EPA for Dallas last year.
Dak must push the ball down the field and not be so willing to dump off to Zeke. He showed us in the Week 17 win over New York, if Zeke isn’t there Dak will look downfield longer and ultimately succeed.