Fantasy Football: Will 2020 be a big year in Big D for Prescott?

The 2019 season for the Dallas Cowboys was an utter disappointment. They were heading into the year as the favorites not only to win the NFC East but the Super Bowl as well. Unfortunately, the wheels never got into motion and the team finished the year at a modest 8-8 record. Yet, despite all the inconsistencies throughout the season, there remained one constant. That, of course, was the play of quarterback Dak Prescott.

In 2019, he had the best year statistically of his career for the Cowboys. Through 16 starts, Prescott completed 65.1% of his passes while throwing for 4,902 yards, 30 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions.

He finished the year as the second-best quarterback in all of fantasy football while averaging an impressive 21.8 points per week. Only Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens had amassed more points in fantasy for the entire 2019 season.

Almost every year Prescott has taken a step forward in his maturity process at the NFL level. The only exception occurred back in 2017 when his numbers were his lowest in his four-year career. The reason for the down year was the fact that star running back Ezekiel Elliott was suspended for six games. The absence of Elliott’s elite talent took a tole on Prescott’s production that season. Other than that though, he has been solid.

The Cowboys have even strengthened their receiving artillery this offseason as wideout CeeDee Lamb from Oklahoma fell into their laps with the 17th overall pick in the 2020 Draft. Dallas has an embarrassment of riches in pass-catchers as they also possess Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup who both had 1,000-yard seasons in 2019.

Prescott’s outlook to have a monster season in 2020 looks very good. Not many quarterbacks in the league are fortunate enough to have three highly talented receivers flanking them. To make matters even better for the fourth-year signal-caller, he also has Zeke wreaking havoc in the Dallas backfield as well with both his pure running and receiving capabilities.

If that isn’t enough for Prescott, he will once again be playing behind one of the best offensive lines in all of football as well. With Tyron Smith and Zack Martin leading the way for line protection, Prescott should have little pressure from opposing defensive linemen and linebackers coming after him.

In 2019, he had a protection rate of 85.8% which was the fifth-best in the NFL. He also was only sacked 23 times which turned out to be one of the fewest totals among all starting quarterbacks last year. Finally, Prescott is a pretty mobile quarterback and the presence of a sturdy wall of o-linemen in front him will help make it manageable to be successful with his legs. Last year, he racked up 277 rushing yards (eighth-most) and three scores while on the ground for Dallas.

So many other star quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers, Deshaun Watson, or even Russell Wilson would kill to have the type of talent surrounding them as Prescott does.

Furthermore, he is currently entrenched in a contract dispute with the Cowboys as his rookie deal will be expiring at the end of this season. Despite having an incredible season and the leading the number one offense in the league that produced 27.1 points per contest, the Cowboys declined to extend their quarterback to a long-term, lucrative deal and slap the dreaded franchise tag on him instead.

This in turn, will likely give him a chip on his shoulder heading into 2020 which is never a good sign for opposing defenses. He will have extra motivation to go and ball out for his squad in 2020 to prove he is worthy of such a mega deal to NFL owners.

Jerry Jones and the Cowboys have given him everything imaginable and then some for Prescott to thrive in their system. He has the weapons and the motivation to get it done and I’m very hopeful he will have another extremely successful season in 2020. The numbers he will produce will fulfill every fantasy manager’s dream for this upcoming season.

It’s time for Dak to go out and prove to the Cowboys’ organization and the nation that he is a legitimate signal-caller in this league.