Is Dak Prescott a Top 10 Fantasy Quarterback?

Sports Illustrated

Fantasy analysts Michael Fabiano and Jen Piacenti are taking a look at Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott and whether team managers should rank him as a top-ten player at the position.

Transcript

00:00 Okay, Michael Fabiano, is Dak Prescott a top 10 fantasy quarterback?

00:04 Are we going with full names, Jen Piacenti? I think he can be. And I get it, last year was bad

00:10 with the 15 interceptions in 12 games. But I really feel like, Jen, that was kind of the outlier

00:17 in his career. Look at his numbers. Only 50 interceptions over his first 85 regular season

00:23 games, which is about 0.6 interceptions per game. Last year, he was at 1.3. I think he missed the

00:29 Murray Cooper. I think he missed a healthy Michael Gallup. And this is a quarterback who really

00:36 thrived when he had Cooper and CeeDee Lamb in the offense. Guess what? Now he's got Brandon Cooks.

00:41 And Brandon Cooks is a guy who's had multiple thousand yard seasons. They're already gaining

00:45 a really good rapport in camp. And people just like to poo-poo Dak because he's the quarterback

00:51 of America's team, our beloved Dallas Cowboys. But if you're getting Dak in the double-digit rounds,

00:56 I really do think for several reasons, you're going to end up getting a pretty good bargain.

01:01 Well, I definitely don't disagree that if you get him in double-digit rounds, it's a pretty

01:05 good bargain. But if I'm really drafting him as top 10, that means that I'm drafting him ahead of

01:10 Tua. I'm drafting him ahead of Daniel Jones. I'm drafting him ahead of Geno Smith. I'm drafting

01:15 him ahead of Kirk Cousins. I'm drafting him ahead of players that finished as top 10 quarterbacks,

01:22 at least on a per-game basis last season, which Dak didn't. He finishes like the QB16,

01:26 even on a per-game basis. So that's my main concern here. My other concern is, yeah, he had

01:32 a massive ceiling in 2019. We saw him really firing on all centers, but it was a very vertical

01:39 offense with Kellen Moore, which of course is part of why I've got Justin Herbert ranked so high this

01:43 year. I think that's going to be great for Justin Herbert. I'm concerned about this change. And do I

01:48 really trust Mike McCarthy? I do hope you're right. And I hear all your reasons, but top 10 quarterback

01:53 feels a little aggressive, especially since we haven't seen Dak play a full healthy season in at

01:59 least two seasons. So you do realize, Jen, that he has been a top 10 quarterback for most of his

02:04 career. He was the QB11 as a rookie. So that's top 12. He was QB10, QB2, QB7 in his full seasons.

02:13 And that year that he suffered that gruesome injury, he was averaging over 27 points a game.

02:19 And also another thing to look at last year, Dak Prescott averaged just 32.8 pass attempts per game.

02:26 In the previous three years, he averaged almost 40 a game. And if you look back at Mike McCarthy,

02:31 when he was calling the players with the Green Bay Packers, with those two stud quarterbacks

02:35 that he had in Favre and Aaron Rodgers, they averaged about 38 pass attempts per game.

02:40 And when you lose Zeke Elliott, who accounted for about 250 touches last year, you think those are

02:48 going to Tony Pollard? No, he can't handle all that work. You think it's going to 5'5" Deuce

02:52 Fawn or Malik Davis or Reef? No, those are going to leak into the passing game because now you have

02:58 Brandon Cooks. You've got CeeDee Lamb. You've got Michael Gallup, who should be healthier.

03:02 Jalen Tolbricht looked good in the preseason. I think Jake Ferguson becomes the new Dalton Schultz.

03:07 I think good things are going to happen in that Cowboys offense. The interceptions,

03:11 that was an outlier. And the good thing about Dak is that you don't have to draft him as a top 10

03:16 quarterback for him to finish as a top 10 quarterback. I knew we were going to get Jalen

03:21 Tolbricht and a Jake Ferguson mention. I knew we couldn't get past that. But back to your point,

03:26 like he only had 34 pass attempts per game. Yeah, that's because he's been nervous ever since he's

03:30 been injured. He has been. He's been playing poorly. I mean, 15 interceptions tied for the

03:37 league lead, except he did it in 12 games. Davis Mills took a full 17 games to do it.

03:41 And the other concern is, where's my mobility here for Dak? Is he going to get some of that back too?

03:47 And if you ask Mike McCarthy, he says the run game is going to be really featured. I know we

03:51 doubt it right now, but can we totally count out like a Leonard Fournette signing down the stretch

03:55 or whatever? I mean, listen, I hope that you're right, Michael Fabiano. And I agree that if you

04:00 can get him in double digit rounds, yes, he has the potential to be a top 10 quarterback. But,

04:07 you know, as you said, he's been a top quarterback throughout his career.

04:10 There is such a glut of talent at quarterback right now. Young talent. When you start talking

04:17 about Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Jalen Hurts, we got Justin Fields. We got a potential Anthony

04:22 Richardson. We got Aaron Rodgers, who sorry, maybe I'm buying too much into the Hard Rocks hype,

04:26 but Aaron Rodgers is a serious chance to finish as a top 10 quarterback as well. So I don't know

04:32 if that's from your list to God's ears. All those quarterbacks that you mentioned, Jen,

04:36 they're all ranked ahead of Dak. You didn't mention 10. And I think Dak can be a top 10

04:41 quarterback. So you'd rather have Gino Smith, who did it for one year in his career over Dak,

04:47 who's got a resume of being a top 10 and 12 quarterback? I'm not saying that he will. I'm

04:52 just saying that there's an argument. There's a lot of people that could finish ahead of Dak.

04:57 When I go through my list of all the people that could be top 10, Deshaun Watson, Trevor Lawrence.

05:03 I mean, there's a lot of people that could be top 10. I think, look, again, I hope you're right.

05:09 Based on where he's being drafted right now, I think he's well worth taking a shot on.

05:14 There's little risk and the reward is big. And the Cowboys are going to score points

05:18 this upcoming season. So I am all in on drafting Dak Prescott. Heck, if I could get him as a QB2,

05:24 a high QB2, and pair him with an Anthony Richardson or a Kurt Cousins or a Daniel Jones,

05:29 giddy up. I'm in. Well, I will agree with you there. If you can get him in double digit

05:33 rounds, go for it. But unfortunately, because of your promo video, you probably just, you know,

05:38 raised his ADP too much. So now I can't get him in double rounds anymore. So thanks a lot,

05:41 Michael Fabiano. This backfired. If you want more great fantasy football advice,

05:46 be sure to check out our fantasy football draft kit at si.com/fantasy.

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