Dallas Cowboys: Top 5 quarterback seasons in the 2000s

4. Dak Prescott, 2019

Like his predecessor, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott was a relatively unexpected candidate to take over the position as the teams’ starting signal-caller. The fourth-round draft pick out of Mississippi State had shown promise in the preseason, but everyone in Dallas knew it was still Romo’s team.

All of that changed when Romo suffered a serious back injury in a pre-season game against the Seattle Seahawks. The veteran quarterbacks’ injury forced Prescott into action in his rookie season. Prescott was excellent in his debut with the Cowboys (more on that later) and solidified his place as the teams’ starter in subsequent years.

However, despite leading the team to the playoffs in two of his first three seasons in the league the fourth-year passer continued to face questions from skeptical fans and analysts. For many fans of America’s Team, those questions were put to rest after his performance in 2019.

Heading into his fourth season with Dallas Prescott had never truly been the focal point of the teams’ offense. The young quarterback entered that season having never eclipsed 4,000 passing yards in a year and he often played second fiddle to the organizations’ other young star, running back Ezekiel Elliott.

Dak finished 2019 with career highs in both passing yards with 4902 and passing touchdowns with 30. Despite narrowly missing out on the playoffs, the team finished the year with an 8-8 record, the young signal-caller definitively proved he could be the focal point of a productive offense while keeping his team competitive against superior opponents.

While 2019 was not the best season in Prescott’s short career, it was a significant and statistically impressive one. The young quarterback proved many of his critics wrong and was genuinely excellent throughout much of the year.