Jerry Jones offers some high praise for Andy Dalton

As Andy Dalton steps in for Dak Prescott, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has offered some high praise.

The Dallas Cowboys will be without Dak Prescott (right leg) for the rest of the season, and Andy Dalton will step in. Internal hyperbole aside, the Cowboys can absolutely win the NFC East with Dalton under center.

Dalton led the Cincinnati Bengals to five straight playoff berths early in his career, before things went downhill as the talent level of the roster eroded. The Cowboys’ move to add his experience behind Prescott was smart at the time, and looks good now.

The Cowboys won three Super Bowls in the 1990’s, and haven’t been back to the NFC Championship Game since the last of the three in the 1995 season. This year’s team doesn’t look poised to end that conference title game drought in a deep NFC, but owner Jerry Jones turned back the clock in offering a comparison to Dalton.

Is Andy Dalton the next Bernie Kosar for the Cowboys?

Bernie Kosar had a successful run with the Cleveland Browns, peaking with back-to-back heartbreaking losses to the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship Games after the 1986 and 1987 seasons. He was controversially benched for Vinny Testaverde and then released in the middle of the 1993 season, by some coach named Bill Belichick, and landed with the Cowboys.

Kosar made four regular season appearances for Dallas in 1993, starting one in place of Troy Aikman. He appeared in two playoff games, completing five of nine passes in the NFC Championship Game in place of an injured Aikman, and won a Super Bowl ring.

The similarities between Kosar and Dalton are there-over 100 career starts with one team, being late in their career-before landing with the Cowboys. Dalton will be counted on a lot more this year than Kosar was in 1993 though, with 11 regular season starts ahead of him and hopefully a playoff game or two. But the high praise in the comparison from Jones should not be discounted.