The definitive guide why Dak Prescott is not a franchise quarterback
By Richard Ball
The Most Important Metric to Define a Franchise Quarterback
Winning is the most important metric. If you are running the Front Office of an NFL team, you need to know that your team can compete against any team and have a fair shot to win. This feeling starts with trust in your quarterback.
Since Prescott entered the league as a fourth-round draft pick in 2016, fourteen teams have winning percentages greater than 0.500 over the four seasons. The AFC teams are the Patriots, Chiefs, Steelers, Ravens, Titans, and Texans. The NFC teams are the Saints, Seahawks, Cowboys, Vikings, Eagles, Rams, Packers, and Falcons.
From those teams, Prescott has the second most starting quarterback regular-season wins with 40 tied with Russell Wilson. Only Tom Brady has more regular-season wins over the last four years with 47.
This is the argument that Prescott supporters tout as the defining metric for Prescott. There is no denying that Prescott has won more games than he has lost.
Over these four years, the Cowboys at 0.625 have the seventh-highest winning percentage. They trail four teams from the AFC and two teams in the NFC:
- Patriots – 0.781
- Chiefs – 0.719
- Saints – 0.688
- Steelers – 0.648
- Ravens – 0.641
- Seahawks – 0.633
How a quarterback wins might be just as important as how many wins the quarterback has. During the 2019 season, Prescott feasted on inferior teams and struggled against stronger competition.
Against teams with winning records, Prescott had two wins in eight games. Against teams with 0.500 or worse records, Prescott had six wins in eight games.
So you would hope your franchise quarterback has at least a 0.500 record against teams with winning records. For his career, Prescott has a 0.433 winning percentage.
Brady, Lamar Jackson, and Jimmy Garoppolo have winning percentages higher than 0.680 against teams with winning records since Prescott entered the NFL. Marcus Mariota, Ben Roethlisberger and Alex Smith are the only other quarterbacks from the fourteen franchises with records of 0.500 or better against winning teams.
Drew Brees, Russell Wilson, Jared Goff, and Patrick Mahomes, while under 0.500, have better records than Prescott. Prescott sits in the eleventh place for winning percentage against winning teams.
Prescott’s record against teams with 0.500 records or worse is relatively better. His 0.794 winning percentage places him ninth on the list, two slots higher than his record against winning teams.
His overall winning percentage is good for tenth in the past four years. This paints a much different picture when considering Prescott’s winning effectiveness. He has won a lot of games but he barely wins games at a rate to place in the top ten.