In the wide world of sports, there are certain positions or roles accompanied by a brighter spotlight.
Some historically have been the New York Yankees centerfielder, the Los Angeles Lakers' franchise player, and the Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback.
For the last eight years, Dak Prescott has worn the helmet of the last of those. He's coming off an MVP-caliber 2023 campaign, but the naysayers and scrutiny still abound. In the mind of one of Prescott's top targets, wide receiver Brandin Cooks, the criticism -- of which there's really no true measurement of -- directed at Prescott is absurd.
"It's blasphemy," Cooks said Wednesday, via The Athletic's Jon Machota, of the criticism cast on Prescott. "It's unbelievable. The guy shows up every year, year in and year out. Putting up numbers, leading his team."
Being an NFL quarterback will always come with criticism. Being the signal-caller for America's Team is more often than not going to come with even more.
Prescott's resume is bullet-pointed with three Pro Bowl selections, six seasons with 3,000-plus yards passing, three years with 4,000-plus yards passing and another trio of seasons with 30 or more touchdowns. The Cowboys' QB1 also owns a 73-41 record as a starter … in the regular season.
It is Prescott and the Cowboys' failures in the postseason that are often the glaring negative used to besmirch him. Having led the Cowboys to the postseason in five instances, Prescott is 2-5 in the playoffs with both victories coming in the wild-card round.
Postseason success has eluded the Cowboys throughout the century.
Since claiming the franchise's last Super Bowl in the 1995 season, Dallas hasn't advanced past the Divisional Round, where it is 0-7 -- the worst in the NFL during that span, per NFL Research.
Prescott, 31, was a toddler when the Cowboys won Super Bowl XXX.
Thus, the majority of Dallas' travails this century aren't on him, but nonetheless, he's been the face of the franchise (at least among players) during continued playoff tumult.
The Cowboys have won nine division titles since their last title game appearance in the '95 season, the most between conference championship game appearances in NFL history, according to NFL Research. Prescott has been under center for four.
During the Super Bowl era (since 1967), there have been just five quarterbacks who have played in at least three Divisional Round games without winning at least one, per NFL Research. Two are Cowboys quarterbacks: Tony Rome (0-3 in the Divisional Round) and Prescott (0-3).
Beyond all the normal critiques and social media buffoonery piled on NFL QBs, Prescott finds the harshest of criticism levied at the end of each season when the Cowboys come up short and the aforementioned historic trends are added to.
In the eyes of Cooks, though, that's simply not reasonable.
"He can't do it all by himself," said Cooks, who previously played for the New Orleans Saints, New England Patriots, Los Angeles Rams and Houston Texans. "A lot of those great quarterbacks that I've been with, Tom (Brady) and Drew (Brees), don't get me wrong, they won a lot of games, won a lot of Super Bowls, but they had a lot of help around them as well, right?"
No matter how great the quarterback, he can't win it all himself, as Cooks points out.
"Us players around (Dak) also got to step up," Cooks said. "So, when we hear that disrespect, I take that personally and as his teammates we should take that personally, because at the end of the day, somebody has got to be able to help him get over that hump so we can go win one."
Nevertheless, the Cowboys' inability to move past the Divisional Round during Prescott's time has resulted in plenty of scorn. That's unlikely to change without a lengthy postseason run.
For now, though, Prescott will move forward into a massive 2024 season, the last on his current contract.
Regardless of the chatter surrounding Prescott, no matter how blasphemous it might be perceived, the longtime Cowboys QB will find plenty of free-agency love if he goes that route.
Until then, Prescott, Cooks and the Cowboys are aiming to silence the doubters in 2024, beginning Sunday when they kick off against the Cleveland Browns.
