Cowboys' Dak Prescott isn't a system QB, he's elite: Meet me at the logo

It’s time for Dak Prescott to receive his flowers while he’s playing at such a high level. The reactions to Prescott’s successes and failures are always a bit overboard due to the position he’s in. He’s the face of one of the most famous sports franchises in the world and has largely been successful throughout his tenure as the Cowboys quarterback.

His entire career has been under a microscope since he started in place of an injured Tony Romo back in 2016 as a rookie. It’s just time that we as a football-watching community accept this fact about the latest great Cowboys signal-caller: Dak Prescott is simply one of the elite quarterbacks in the league. Take it in. It's the truth you need to read, medicine that needs to nourish your physical and spiritual entities.

The largest excuse for Prescott’s success as he was playing on his rookie deal was that he was a product of his surroundings — and his surroundings were undoubtedly great. The Cowboys’ offensive line was in its prime, Ezekiel Elliott was immediately one of the best backs in the league as a rookie and there was a decent group of veteran skill players to throw to. That’s a core that would help any quarterback and getting to play with that group in 2016 definitely helped accelerate his development.

Here’s the thing though: The Cowboys' offensive cast around Prescott hasn’t really gotten better over the past few years. Elliott, Tony Pollard and CeeDee Lamb are certainly good NFL players that would help any offense, but this isn’t the same amount of overwhelming talent. Former All-Pro center Travis Frederick has retired, star tackle La’el Collins is on a different team, All-Pro tackle Tyron Smith has played three games this year and Dallas has struggled to find other receiving options outside of Lamb. That hasn’t really been an impediment on Prescott’s production.

Since Prescott returned from a thumb injury in Week 7, he has been the catalyst for the Cowboys’ offensive success. According to Ben Baldwin of The Athletic, Prescott ranks third among all quarterbacks with at least 200 plays in expected points per play (0.266) and first in success rate (56.1%) since he was inserted back into the starting lineup. His production has been elite since he got healthy, but sure, numbers can be a bit misleading. The game tape shows a quarterback that is really dialed in right now.

Prescott is accurate, has total command of this offense and isn’t afraid to go chase big plays in the passing game. Sometimes that turns into turnovers for the defense, but Prescott has had a string of bad luck with interceptions over the past few weeks. Receivers dropping passes and watching the ball fall into the hands of defenders, miscommunication on the timing and depth of routes — it hasn’t always been easy for Prescott this year. Still, he's been able to make the Cowboys’ passing game lethal this season with a lot of moving and new pieces around him.

Don’t waste time saying that Prescott stinks. If you were one of those people who said Cooper Rush was better than Dak Prescott, shame on you. Get a grip on reality. A young, great quarterback is putting together an incredible season right in front of our eyes. It’s really that simple. Don’t let anything else cloud your judgment here.

Disagree with me that Prescott is an elite quarterback? That’s fine, you can meet me at the logo where I will bash you over the head with reason until you respect Prescott for the magnificent player he has become.