Dak Prescott was fully healthy in 2025 and turned in one of his best seasons as the signal caller for the Dallas Cowboys. He tossed 30 touchdowns against just 10 interceptions while racking up 4,552 yards passing, good for third-best in the NFL.
But as good as Prescott was, he will enter 2026 as a 33-year-old quarterback with a history of injuries and very little postseason success. It's time to start thinking about who will take the reins once he decides to hang 'em up or suffers another serious injury.
With Joe Milton III and Sam Howell currently on the depth chart behind Prescott, there is no one on the roster right now who is being viewed as the answer.
There are several QBs in the 2026 draft class who could be had with a mid-round pick that would make sense for Jerry Jones and Brian Schottenheimer to snatch up and solidify the most important position on the field moving forward.
QB prospects that could be available for the Dallas Cowboys in the 2026 NFL Draft
Fernando Mendoza is probably already looking at houses in the Las Vegas area, as he is expected to go to the Raiders with the number one overall pick, but there are still some talented QBs who will be waiting by the phone on Days 2 and 3.
The Cowboys will have two first-round picks at 12 and 20. Those picks will almost certainly be used to bolster a horrible defense from 2025. Barring a trade, they won't pick again until the third round with the 92nd overall selection.
QBs who are projected to go in that range include some talented guys, including Miami's Carson Beck, LSU's Garrett Nussmeier, and Drew Allar out of Penn State. All three players could be on the table in Round 3.
Beck, who won two National Championships as a backup with the Georgia Bulldogs and got Miami to the Championship game last season, has all the measurables at 6-foot4, 220 pounds and a dynamic arm. The knock on him has always been his sometimes laconic style of leadership and lack of touch on deep balls. But he reads defenses extremely well on short-to-intermediate routes and is accurate from the pocket.
Nussmeier has elite arm talent and strength, but saw his draft stock drop because of a porous LSU offensive line that had him running for his life for the Tigers in 2025. He still finished with 51 TDs and 5,979 yards over his final two seasons playing an unrelenting SEC schedule. The numbers would have been far more impressive if he hadn't been sacked 32 times in the process, and had periods of poor decision-making because of the pressure up front.
Like Beck, Allar has prototypical NFL size, standing 6'5" and weighing 235 pounds. He burst onto the scene for the Nittany Lions in 2023, throwing for 25 touchdowns against just two picks. He turned in similar numbers the following season before a 2025 injury shortened his college career.
Allar has a cannon for an arm, but played in a very vanilla offense under James Franklin, leaving some questions about how he will handle much more complex NFL playbooks.
Jerry Jones, Schottenheimer, Stephen Jones, and company may decide to wait until the later rounds and look at guys like Cole Payton out of North Dakota State, Taylen Green from Arkansas, or Cade Klubnik of Clemson, but none of those players move the needle much and would certainly not be viewed as heir apparents to Prescott moving forward.
Of course, the Cowboys' braintrust, who has made it quite clear that defensive reinforcements will be a priority on draft day, may decide to forego the QB position altogether and wait for a class that is much deeper at the position in 2027, with a trio of first-round talents, including Arch Manning, Dante Moore, and Julian Sayin, likely turning pro.