Dak Prescott is a better quarterback than Tony Romo.
I’m not saying the 23-year-old Prescott is going to be better than the 36-year-old Romo some day, and so the Cowboys should be thrilled to have Prescott take over for Romo down the road. I’m saying Prescott is better than Romo right now, and should remain the Cowboys’ starting quarterback even after Romo recovers from the broken bone he suffered in his back in the preseason.
Prescott completed 18 of 24 passes for 227 yards, with a touchdown and no interceptions, as the Cowboys whipped the Bengals on Sunday for their fourth straight win. For the season, Prescott has completed 107 of 155 passes for 1,239 yards, with four touchdowns and no interceptions. His passer rating of 101.5 is better than Romo’s career passer rating of 97.1, and much better than Romo’s passer rating last year, which was 79.4. (Even when he was healthy, Romo didn’t play particularly well last year.)
Rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott, who leads the NFL in rushing, obviously deserves plenty of the credit for the Cowboys’ four-game winning streak as well. But you can’t separate Elliott’s success from Prescott’s. On Elliott’s 60-yard touchdown run Sunday, Prescott faked a bootleg, and it was the threat of Prescott running that kept the Bengals from closing to the middle of the field, where Elliott ran free. Romo doesn’t have the same running threat as Prescott, and I would expect Elliott’s production to decline if Romo returns.
The Cowboys, from all indications, disagree with my assessment: Head coach Jason Garrett, owner/G.M. Jerry Jones and his son and right hand man Stephen Jones have all said that Romo remains the franchise quarterback and will start as soon as he’s healthy again.
I think that’s a mistake. Prescott is an outstanding young player who’s only going to get better. When you have a quarterback playing the way Prescott is playing, you don’t bench him.
After the Cowboys scored a touchdown to go up 28-0 in the third quarter, Romo could be seen celebrating on the sideline and saying, “It’s over.” He meant the Cowboys’ game against the Bengals. But he also could have been talking about his tenure as the Cowboys’ starting quarterback. Romo has had a fine career in Dallas, but there’s now a younger, better player ready to replace him.