Whether you're a fan of the Dallas Cowboys or not, there's no getting around the fact that Dak Prescott has been one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL through the first five weeks of this 2025 season. Heading into Sunday's matchup with the Carolina Panthers, the 10th-year veteran ranks sixth in the league in completion percentage (71.3), second in passing yards (1,356), and is tied for third in touchdown passes (10).
And he's only gotten better as the campaign has progressed. In the last two weeks alone in the Cowboys' wild 40-40 tie with the Green Bay Packers and their 37-22 victory over the New York Jets, Prescott has connected on 71.0 percent of his throws for 556 yards with seven touchdowns and zero interceptions, also adding his lone touchdown run of the season. And that was without the services of CeeDee Lamb, who's been sidelined with an ankle injury.
Sadly for Dak, he only has two wins to show for his efforts, as the Dallas defense has been absolutely dreadful, allowing the most yards (412.0) and the third-most points (30.8) per game. But that doesn't take away from how Prescott has performed thus far.
While some still refuse to acknowledge the elite level of football the three time Pro Bowler is playing, one who is giving Prescott his props is none other than former Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy, who made an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show earlier this week and named Dak as the third-best quarterback in the NFL through the first five weeks, putting him ahead of Daniel Jones and Matthew Stafford and behind only Baker Mayfield and reigning NFL MVP Josh Allen.
Mike McCarthy loves how Dak Prescott is managing the Cowboys' offense
"He's playing his ass off," McCarthy said of Prescott. "I don't know what his completion percentage is, but I know it's gonna be well over 70 percent. I just love the way he's distributing the football. And I really like the maturity of the perimeter group, and you've got an offensive line that's got a lot of depth there. So exciting on offense, and I just think he's managing that thing exactly the way it needs to be managed."
McCarthy, of course, was relieved of his duties as the Cowboys' head coach this past January despite leading America's Team to the playoffs in three of his five seasons.
It certainly needs to be noted that the two seasons in which Dallas failed to make the postseason with McCarthy on the sidelines were the two campaigns in which Dak went down with a season-ending injury. Prescott was lost for the year in Week 5 of the 2020 season with a fractured and dislocated right ankle and in Week 9 a season ago with a nasty hamstring injury.
In the three years McCarthy had a healthy Prescott from 2021 to 2023, the Cowboys went 12-5 each season. So, McCarthy is obviously well aware of just how important Dak is to Dallas' success.
And if the Cowboys manage to make it back to the playoffs this season, it'll undoubtedly be tied to how Prescott performs the rest of the way.