Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Dak Prescott is getting a lot of heat from fans and sports analysts alike. The QB is in the last year of his deal and many analysts are questioning whether the Cowboys should re-sign him or let him become a free agent. Former NFL player and football analyst Louis Riddick gives his take on the issue.
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In a recent episode of First Take on ESPN, Stephen A Smith and Chris Russo were strongly against the Cowboys extending Prescott’s deal. In their opinion, the team should ‘sit tight’ and only extend his deal based on his performance in the playoffs.
Louis Riddick was not having any of it. He criticized Russo and Smith for solely blaming Dak Prescott for the team’s struggles, finding it absurd that their focus was limited to Prescott while ignoring the performance of the rest of the team. He said:
“Can I just ask this question like why do we keep attaching everything that happens with Dallas simply to Dak Prescott… ..After he (Dak) wins the Super Bowl, after he takes our football team. Like he’s 53 guys all wrapped up.”
Riddick made his point by bringing up the Cowboys’ failed defence against Green Bay in their 2023 playoffs campaign. He elaborated on how the team’s defence was clueless in front of Jordan Love who ‘tore it a new one right from the get-go’.
He agreed that Prescott needed to rise to the occasion and perform in the playoffs like other top QBs. In 2023, Prescott wasn’t able to figure out Green Bay’s defence and had a passer rating of 89.8 (his regular season average rating was 105.9) But still, it was the defense that let them down more that day.
Despite Riddick’s efforts to defend the Dallas QB, Stephen A Smith was not convinced. Smith went on to ridicule Reddick for his over-optimism and bias towards Dak Prescott.
Smith is unfazed by Reddick’s ‘Brilliant Football Mind’
Steven A Smith called out Reddick for his bias. He claimed that fans might get intimidated by his expertise in football but he can see right through it.
“Lewis Reddick, the brilliant football mind that you are. It tends to intimidate most people because they know you know what the hell you talking about. It ain’t phasing me. When it comes to Dak Prescott all of a sudden we going to engage in selective Amnesia.”
Smith backed his claims by pointing out that Reddick will only talk about Dak’s performance from his starting years when he had a better win ratio.
From 2016 to 2019, Prescott had a 62.5% win ratio with 2 Pro Bowl appearances and 1 Playoff win. However, in the last 4 years, he had just 1 Pro Bowl appearance and 1 Playoff win. The recent numbers are unflattering considering that Prescott made over $ 157.4 million (compared to the $4.9 million he made in his early years).
In the past 8 seasons, Prescott was a strong player during the regular season for the Cowboys. However, he failed to deliver in the playoffs even against lower-ranked teams (In 2023, a number 2 seed Dallas crashed out after losing to a number 7 seed Green Bay).
Notably, the Dallas Cowboys can see a major shakeup in 2025 with most of their coaching staff, three quarterbacks (including Dak) and 10+ other players in the last year of their deal with the team.
