3. Dak Prescott emerges for Cowboys

When Tony Romo suffered a broken bone in his back during a preseason game in late August, the outlook for the Cowboys’ 2016 season was as murky as ever. And then Dak Prescott emerged alongside fellow rookie Ezekiel Elliott and cleared it all up, leading Dallas to an 11-game win streak and a top seed in the NFC. This was now Prescott’s team, and Romo admitted as much in an emotional press conference in November, when he said Dak “earned the right to be our quarterback … as hard as that is for me to say, he’s earned that right.” — Amy Parlapiano