Dallas Cowboys: The Curious Case of Dak Prescott Hate

For some reason a certain segment of Dallas Cowboys fans are obsessed with getting rid of their team MVP, Dak Prescott, and no matter what he proves, it will never be enough.

From the moment he started winning in place of Tony Romo, we knew there were going to be problems. Only a few weeks into Dak Prescott’s professional career with the Dallas Cowboys, a full-fledged quarterback controversy arose. And with only half-a-dozen games to reference, Cowboys Nation confidently took to their respective corners, never to leave, and destined to endlessly argue for the foreseeable future.

Fast-forward three seasons and Cowboys QB tribalism is still reining supreme. Sure, the anti-Dak crowd has diminished (or faded back into the hedge), but the hate is real and no amount of proof to the contrary will change their minds. It’s safe to say Dak Prescott could lead the Dallas Cowboys to a Super Bowl victory and it still wouldn’t change his critics’ minds. They’d come up with excuses why he was actually bad. Why he was a product of the system. Why he’s not worth paying like a franchise QB.

“They” will never accept him

First they said his win percentage didn’t matter because he wasn’t piling up big yardage and TD totals. Then when he started putting up elite yardage and TDs, they said these were empty stats in garbage time. Then when his elite numbers were qualified through QBR and EPA, they said stats that only mathematicians understood weren’t real stats.Then when these advanced stats were explained, they said they were only possible because Dak had an All-Star supporting cast.

The Dak Prescott haters in Cowboys Nation will forever move the goalposts because they don’t want to like Dak Prescott.

Then when presented the running game’s poor EPA per play (compared to passing), the receiving corps high drop rate, and the coaching staff’s poor early down play-calling, “they” said the running issues were because opponents loaded the box, drops were from inaccurate balls, and play-calling was because the Cowboys abandoned the run too early.

Then when shown teams were NOT stacking the box, that Dak was one of the most accurate passers, and that Dallas stuck with the run far longer than the average NFL team, they said winning was all that matters. The same thing they discredited at the start. Rinse. Repeat.

The Dak Prescott haters in Cowboys Nation will forever move the goalposts because they don’t want to like Dak Prescott. He could win the next two Super Bowls and they’d find a way to discredit the man they’ve decided to hate.

As Dak Prescott’s contract situation endlessly drags on, the haters are happy to set arbitrary limits on what the maximum offer should be. All while completely ignoring the reality of the NFL QB market and its ever-inflating cost of doing business.

As if that isn’t bad enough, this gem dropped over the weekend, further driving an already ridiculous situation deep into ludicrous territory.

It’s truly amazing after seeing the best QB on the planet, Patrick Mahomes, struggle mightily through most of the Super Bowl, that Dallas Cowboys fans still have such a warped perspective of what constitutes franchise QB play. If even the best QB in the NFL can look bad (unforced errors, I might add), then why do we expect our QB to be perfect 100 percent of the time, just to warrant market level money?

The unrealistic expectations are almost as maddening as the moving goalposts. And to think that a 42-year-old Tom Brady is somehow an upgrade to Prescott is beyond words. Even if Brady played for free and Dallas could spend that $30+ million elsewhere on the roster, it’s hard to believe the Cowboys would be better off without Dak.

For those that hate Dak, I’m sorry for you. Not just because you no longer listen to reason but because one way or another, you’re stuck with him. History tells us he’s not going to hit the market. Even if his play fell off a cliff this coming season, he’s going to be the Dallas Cowboys QB1 for the next 5-8 years, because QBs are too hard to find.

We’ve reached a point where those in the anti-Dak crowd will always be in the anti-Dak crowd. All the reasonably minded holdouts have conceded. All that remain will always remain no matter what Dak Prescott accomplishes.

• Published on 02/10/2020 at 12:04 PM
• Last updated at 02/10/2020 at 13:45 PM