Dak Prescott needs to temper his expectations

Dak Prescott claims he wants to be the best quarterback in Dallas Cowboys history. He should focus more on helping his team make a playoff run.

Every NFL player needs to dream big if they want to succeed in pro football. Dak Prescott is taking things a bit too far though. he needs to worry less about his place in Cowboys history and more about piloting his team to a deep playoff run.

To date, the third year quarterback has played exactly one playoff game in his career. He’s going to have his hands full trying to drag this offense into the postseason this year. Prescott’s lack of receiving talent is going to put a ton of pressure on him to carry the Cowboys passing game.

Jason Witten isn’t around to be Prescott’s safety blanket anymore. Dez Bryant won’t be there to make tough catches in traffic either. Instead, Prescott will be forced to rely on the likes of Deonte Thompson, Terrance Williams and Tavon Austin to make him look good. This offense isn’t exactly teeming with Pro Bowl talent at the wide receiver position.

That’s precisely why Prescott talking about how he wants to “become the best quarterback the Cowboys ever had” is so concerning. It shows that he’s entirely too caught up in the fame of quarterbacking “America’s team.” That could have disastrous effects for Jason Garrett’s team. More than anything, the Cowboys need Prescott to play within himself this season.

That’s exactly what powered him to such a terrific rookie season. He didn’t try to do too much. That resulted in an amazingly low interception rate in 2016. He couldn’t replicate that type of ball security in 2017. Prescott went from four interceptions as a rookie to 13 in his second year.

The best thing he can do for the Cowboys offense this season is to go back to protecting the ball at a historic rate. The lack of talent at receiver is going to prevent him from putting up big numbers. The best path Dallas has to succeed is to lean heavily on Ezekiel Elliott on offense. Prescott isn’t going to become a Hall of Fame quarterback handing the ball off to his physical running back.

Next: Cowboys need to be careful not to overpay Dak Prescott

There’s been a lot of talk from Prescott about his contract and his place in history this offseason. What there hasn’t been is a lot of talk about how he’s going to check his ego to help the Cowboys win games. There could be trouble brewing for Prescott in Big D if he doesn’t.