There is no more important position in the NFL, maybe all of professional sports, than the quarterback position. You can overcome a lot of things in the NFL, but if you don't have a quarterback, you don't have a shot.
Thankfully, the Dallas Cowboys not only have a solution at quarterback, but truly one of the best in the NFL at his position.
And that's also part of the reason for a lot of the tension with this team underachieving in recent years. Everybody knows that Dak Prescott is great, and any failure to put the right team around him causes that tension to grow. But, where does Prescott stack up against his own peers in the NFC East entering the 2026 season?
We're going to do our best to rank every quarterback in what could be the most stacked division in the NFL if everyone plays up to their full potential.
Every starting QB in the NFC East ranked for the 2026 season
4. Jaxson Dart, New York Giants
Still, an argument could be made, at least based on the 2025 season and the What Have You Done For Me Lately? grading scale.
Dart's playing style -- as a runner -- is still too reckless for my liking, but he has elite arm talent and is dynamic as they come. Without Malik Nabers for almost the entire year, Dart completed 63.7 percent of his throws with 15 touchdowns compared to just 5 interceptions. He added 487 yards and 9 touchdowns as a runner, and in 14 games, he proved he could be the franchise quarterback for a Giants team that's been starved for one for quite some time.
Racking up 24 total touchdowns in your first 14 NFL games is pretty impressive. The Giants might have a guy, but getting evaluated for a concussion five separate times last season remains a major concern going forward.
3. Jayden Daniels, Washington Commanders
The 2024 season is doing a lot of heavy lifting for Jayden Daniels here. The Commanders are obviously optimistic that he's going to be able to bounce back in 2026, and that's really all they can be.
Last season was somewhat of a disaster between the Commanders not having their young franchise QB for most of the year, as well as their defense somehow giving up more total yards than the Cowboys.
When he's healthy, Jayden Daniels is unquestionably one of the most dynamic dual-threats at the quarterback position in the NFL. But now he's carrying the "durability concerns" asterisk after suffering:
- Rib injury
- Knee sprain
- Hamstring pull
- Dislocated left elbow
- Elbow sprain
Those are the injuries that have piled up since Daniels got into the NFL, and all but the rib injury took place in 2025. Thankfully, the elbow injury that caused him to miss significant time in 2025 was not on his throwing arm.
Those injuries unfortunately place a dark cloud over Daniels's 2026 projection. He was the 2024 Rookie of the Year in an absolutely elite class, and earned some MVP votes as well. We know what he can do when healthy, but how many games are the Commanders getting out of him going forward?
2. Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles
Since he came into the league in 2020, Jalen Hurts has thrown 110 touchdown passes, he has 63 rushing touchdowns, and unlike any other quarterback in the division, he's led the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl win.
He had an absolutely insane playoff run in the 2024 season with five touchdown passes and five rushing touchdowns, en route to Super Bowl MVP honors. That playoff run definitely has caused some significant confusion about the way the general NFL population views Jalen Hurts.
While he has undeniably struggled with every-down consistency, especially last season, he's also had stretches of dominance and clutch play.
There are a handful of reasons why Hurts almost has to enter the 2026 season as the 2nd-best quarterback in the division. He's got the hardware, he's got a strong overall body of work, and he's one of the league's best dual threats at the position.
We'll see how he does in his first year without AJ Brown, who has now been shipped off to the Patriots in a trade. Some might view that as addition by subtraction given how much of a distraction Brown had become, but it will also force Hurts to do more with less as players like rookie Makai Lemon and Dontayvion Wicks adapt in the offense.
1. Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys
There isn't a better quarterback in the NFC East than Dak Prescott.
He's thrown for at least 4,400 yards four separate times in his NFL career. He's earned All-Pro votes as well as MVP votes. Prescott -- when healthy -- is simply one of the most well-rounded quarterbacks and best passers in the game.
And that's really where he stands out among his peers in the NFC East right now. While the rest of the division features elite talent at the position, Prescott is the best passer by a wide margin, and that gives the Cowboys a significant edge.
Even though the Eagles ultimately have the bragging rights as a team in recent years, Dallas and Prescott have done exceptionally well against them over the course of his career. Prescott has a 10-5 record against the Eagles with 26 touchdown passes compared to 9 interceptions in those games.
Prescott is the primary reason why the Cowboys have any shot at a Super Bowl right now. He's exactly the type of quarterback you covet in today's NFL, and Dallas simply has to find a way to capitalize before it's too late.
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