00:00All right, let's talk about this. Nick Shook over at NFL.com.
00:05Every week, he ranks the overall performances of every quarterback who has started at least one game in the NFL
00:10or who appeared in one game in the NFL last year.
00:14So he ranks the performance of every quarterback in a given season.
00:17If you played a snap and there were 63 quarterbacks who played a snap, then you were going to get
00:21run on this list.
00:23So he does this every year and he does a ranking at the end of the year of every quarterback
00:27after you get through the season.
00:31And Dak ranked pretty high on this list.
00:34Now, why is that a gut punch?
00:36Well, let's let's get through it.
00:38First off, right off the bat, Dak's best season of his career was what year would you say?
00:452016 was his rookie year.
00:47Really solid. Didn't turn the ball over, but it wasn't like a huge.
00:50It wasn't. Yeah.
00:522019, he was really good, but that was an eight and eight team.
00:55He started off really good in 2020 before he got hurt.
00:58And then, I mean, last year, 2023, he finished runner up and MVP.
01:03So what would you say has been his best runner up MVP year?
01:06That has been his highest ranking at the end of a season to this point was 2023 on Nick Shook's
01:11rankings.
01:11He finished sixth.
01:13Now, I remember in the NFL top 100 the year after his rookie year, he was like 14th or something
01:19like that.
01:19Yeah, he got pretty high on that list, if I recall.
01:22I mean, Zeke was higher, but I don't know if he got all the way up to 14.
01:26That would be that would be very high.
01:31But he's somebody who, given his seasons, I was a little surprised that they came up with five.
01:37Five different players that were there were five different quarterbacks that were better than him in 2023.
01:43That must have just been the end of the season.
01:46Wasn't very good.
01:47Ezekiel Ellie in 2016, by the way, was ranked seventh.
01:49Dak was 14th.
01:50So you're right.
01:51Good memory there, Chop.
01:51What a memory there, Peyton.
01:53Did you see that?
01:54What an upset.
01:54That was 10 years ago.
01:56Oh, Chop's memory.
01:57What an upset.
01:58What an upset.
01:59Hey, you know, that's that sign.
02:01What a dementia.
02:01Long term memory is good.
02:02Short term is bad.
02:03These are his previous rankings.
02:042016, he was seventh.
02:062017, he was 20th.
02:072018, he finished 18th.
02:092019, he finished 11th.
02:102020, he finished 16th.
02:12That was the year he got hurt.
02:132021, he was ninth.
02:142022, he was 11th.
02:152023, he was sixth.
02:17And then last year, 2024, he finished 19th in the rankings.
02:19Would you like to guess where he finished in the rankings this year?
02:26Ninth?
02:27Okay, ninth.
02:28Let's go with this list.
02:29This is the tier one quarterbacks ranked in order.
02:31For the very first time, finishing the season as number one and finishing ahead of his highest
02:39previous spot, which was fifth, Matthew Stafford came in as the number one ranked quarterback
02:44on Nick Shook's list this year after all the season was said and done.
02:48Number two on this list is a man who has finished number two in each of the previous two seasons
02:54and just got it again for a third year in a row.
02:56Josh Allen?
02:57Josh Allen.
02:59Number three.
03:00And this is just based off of last year's performance.
03:04Number three.
03:07Oh, God.
03:09Are they going to say, surely not Drake May.
03:17Rain.
03:18Dakota.
03:20Prescott comes in ranked number three.
03:22The rest of the quarterbacks that are on tier one for overall, Drake May.
03:27Number five, Justin Herbert.
03:29Number six, Trevor Lawrence.
03:31This is he finished sixth in 2022 as well.
03:34This is the write up on Dak Prescott, though.
03:36That's the end of the tier one guys.
03:37Tier two starts with Sam Darnold at seven.
03:39But this was the write up on Dak Prescott.
03:42He says Dak Prescott was the reason the Cowboys finished anywhere near 500 this season.
03:46He proved himself as one of the NFL's best passers, completing the league high 404 passes on his
03:52attempts for 452 or 4552 yards and 30 touchdowns.
03:56He powered George Pickens career best season and reminded us of his value throughout Dallas's
04:01up and down campaign.
04:03The hope is that the Cowboys can maximize his talents better in 2026.
04:08So he's the third best quarterback in the NFL last year, according to Nick Shooks.
04:13Why is that a bad thing?
04:15Why is that a sad thing?
04:16Why would that ever be a sad thing, Chop?
04:18I can't imagine it would.
04:20What would you think would potentially be depressing about that?
04:24That they wasted the number three season?
04:27You maybe just wasted the best year of his career.
04:31Not only just the best year of his career, the best year relative to the rest of the NFL.
04:37There was no like Patrick Mahomes ridiculous standout season this year.
04:40There was no Lamar Jackson 40 touchdown four interception year.
04:44You had objectively, I think the performance he put up there this year.
04:50What you would say most people said he was definitely a top five quarterback this year.
04:54Right?
04:57Yeah, I would think so.
04:58Like, I mean, you can nitpick about who was he better than?
05:01Who was better here or there?
05:03Was Drake May actually a better performer than him?
05:06His team clearly was.
05:07But was Drake May a better performer?
05:09Whatever else.
05:10You can have those sort of debates.
05:12But when you finish the year as a definitive top five quarterback and you went seven, nine and one.
05:24I don't know.
05:25I think this is the thing right here that is 100 percent driving the bust the budget talk is this
05:31reality.
05:33They'll never they'll never say it.
05:34They'll never talk about it in those terms.
05:36This was I think they know that this was just a devastating shot to know you got him back healthy.
05:47You don't know when he if he's going to have another full year of health like that again.
05:50You got the level of play you did and your defense couldn't even be just slightly below average.
05:59They were awful, awful, terrible.
06:03It was an awful defense.
06:05That's not an NFL defense that you put out there anymore.
06:08No, it was not.
06:09I mean, the fact that the points per drive, they allowed three points per drive almost on defense.
06:16They are giving up a score every single time a team touched the ball.
06:19That's unheard of.
06:21It's it's the worst rate in NFL history.
06:24The the almost three points per drive.
06:26It is a historically bad number.
06:29You were all you needed was you just needed to be just OK.
06:35I think the Patriots averaged one point per drive in the playoffs.
06:39And the Cowboys averaged three allowing three.
06:42They're right in their season.
06:43You finished this season ranked 32nd in third down conversion rate on defense.
06:49By the way, there was a point during the season where you had the worst third down conversion rate ever
06:52allowed.
06:53And they rallied it a little bit at the end of the year.
06:56But it was the worst in NFL history.
06:58You were 32nd in points per game allowed.
07:01You were 32nd in passing yards allowed.
07:04You were 32nd in net yards per pass attempt.
07:06You were 31st in rush rush touchdowns.
07:09You were the worst in the NFL at score percentage right there allowed 51.4 percent of drives to end
07:20in touchdowns.
07:21And that includes kneel down drives.
07:23That includes drives at the end of the half where you're just running things out.
07:29This includes being up big and just running out clock and punting it on you.
07:33Three points per drive.
07:36Your average starting field position was 28.6.
07:41The 28.6 yard line.
07:42It was the worst in the NFL.
07:44And we're going to address it.
07:48And yet you were number one in yards per drive.
07:52You were number two in plays per drive.
07:55You were number two in the NFL in first downs.
07:57Number two in the NFL in yards.
07:59Number seven in points scored.
08:01And you know what?
08:02You did that with an offensive line that was not like super stellar.
08:08That offensive line was solid this year.
08:11But this was Dak playing at a really high level that you have now wasted.
08:17Yeah.
08:17And you have to come to grips with the fact that you absolutely wasted.
08:20And that's where this whole bust the budget thing comes from.
08:23Is I think internally they recognize we might have effed up the best shot with him.
08:27Not with the rest of the team.
08:29This is not a contender by any means.
08:30But that may have been the best shot with him.
08:32Yeah.
08:33And you went seven, nine and one.
08:35I'm looking at it's all behind a paywall now.
08:38So I don't have the number.
08:39But it looks like he was third in DVOA.
08:43I mean he was last year.
08:45So this is Stafford was one.
08:46Goff was two.
08:47Dak, Drake, and Sam Darnold.
08:49Does that sound like it could be right?
08:51Yeah.
08:52That sounds about right.
08:53Stafford, Goff, Dak.
08:54Man, Darnold higher than I thought.
08:57Trevor, Caleb, and Bo.
09:00Here's what's wild too about Dak's consistency.
09:03How many times including injury shortened season.
09:06So we would include last year.
09:07We would include 2020.
09:09How many times do you think Dak has had a top five QBR in the NFL?
09:14Boy, he's got a really high floor.
09:16Ten years he's played.
09:17He's got a really high floor.
09:19I guess he would say he's had a top five QBR.
09:26I would say five times.
09:27Six.
09:29Six times.
09:30He's got a very high floor.
09:31He has, and the problem now is you're talking about somebody who is going to consistently, just because of age,
09:37not anything else, consistently get more hurt.
09:40He's going to be unavailable to you more often.
09:43The level of play is probably going to slip a little bit.
09:46Now, to be fair, quarterbacks in the modern era where the game is so cerebral and the game is so
09:53much about how fast you're processing things and what you've seen.
09:55You can play into your mid-30s pretty well, typically.
09:59So that's why you've got like three more years, probably.
10:02Especially if your arm, obviously your arm has to stay there.
10:06You know, you get guys that are like, you know, Brady didn't use his legs, so it didn't matter.
10:10This might be the peak, though.
10:12Yeah, Dak doesn't have to use his legs.
10:14Even if he plays well for the next couple of years, which I think he probably will, this was probably,
10:21there's a very good argument to be made.
10:22This was the best, though.
10:24He's not going, and relative to the rest of the league, you didn't have the dominant Mahomes or Allen or
10:31those kind of seasons.
10:33And you lost it because your secondary didn't know where they were supposed to stand on every other snap.
10:39That's ridiculous.
10:40V-Lo.
10:41V-Belt.
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