Dak Prescott keeps getting treated like the easiest target in Dallas, but the numbers from 2025 tell a different story.
Mark Chichester of PFF dug into the league’s most clutch quarterbacks and put Prescott at the top, just ahead of Matthew Stafford. The evaluation backed up something that gets lost in the noise around the Cowboys quarterback: in high-leverage moments, Prescott has been doing the job more often than his reputation suggests.
“Prescott earned an 87.8 passing grade in clutch situations in 2025, the second-highest mark of his career and nearly 10 grading points better than his previous best (78.3 in 2021). The Cowboys quarterback recorded nine big-time throws against just four turnover-worthy plays while averaging 8.1 yards per attempt. More importantly, he consistently stacked positive plays, earning a positive grade on 31.2% of his snaps, the fifth-highest rate among 43 qualifiers,” Chichester wrote.
Chichester also pointed out that this wasn’t some one-year blip. “Prescott has now cleared a 70.0 grade in clutch situations in six of his 10 qualifying seasons, giving him a stronger long-term track record in these situations than his public reputation often suggests.”
That reputation has followed Prescott for years. He has spent a decade as the Cowboys’ starter, piling up an 83-55-1 record, yet the conversation around him still tends to drift toward what he hasn’t done rather than what he has.
That disconnect starts with how he entered the league. Prescott was a fourth-round pick in 2016 and was viewed as a developmental prospect, but he was thrown into the starting job as a rookie, led Dallas to a 13-3 record and took the job from Tony Romo.
Even with all that success, the national storyline has stubbornly remained that Prescott has somehow fallen short of expectations. The source of that criticism is hard to square with the reality that he was never projected to be a guaranteed NFL starter in the first place.
Of course, the one thing that would change the conversation for good is the one thing the Cowboys still haven’t done since the 1995 season: win the Super Bowl. Until that happens, Prescott is going to keep carrying the burden of a franchise whose problems go far beyond one quarterback.
And that’s the trap he’s in. Prescott can finish a season with numbers that stack up with Matthew Stafford, Lamar Jackson and even Patrick Mahomes, and still get treated like a player who can’t handle the spotlight.
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