Cowboys QB Dak Prescott: Guaranteed Fantasy Bust?
NFL training camps have begun. Can the same be said about the decline of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott as a reliable starting quarterback in fantasy football?
Last season, the signal-caller for "America’s Team'' finished as the No. 18 overall quarterback, the second-worst finish of his career and the worst since 2020 when he was No. 33 after playing in just five games due to injury.
Dak has usually been a reliable fantasy starter, finishing as a top-10 quarterback for most of his career. However, this year fantasy managers must decide whether last season was a fluke or an indication that Dak’s no longer a reliable starter for their fantasy leagues.
From a pure NFL perspective, "fluke'' seems the right bet. When Prescott talks of reducing his interception numbers this year? He's mastering the obvious.
"I am going to lessen my interception numbers," Prescott told us from Cowboys training camp in Oxnard. “That is a guarantee."
Currently, Dak is being drafted No. 10 among quarterbacks, but in 2019 he was the second-highest scorer behind only Baltimore Ravens MVP Lamar Jackson. As great as that may sound, the No. 3 quarterback that season was Jameis Winston, a fellow fantasy darling whose turnovers cost him a starting job in the league.
So, what would it take for Dak to return to his 2019 form? Well, in 2019, he had 30 passing touchdowns, 11 interceptions, 277 rushing yards, and three rushing touchdowns. None of those are career-highs. What made Dak’s 2019 season his best for fantasy was simple, he averaged 306.4 passing yards per game (the most of any season where he played more than five games), finishing with a career-high 4,902 passing yards.
For Dak to return to form and become the fantasy star he once was, his stat line should be around 5,000 passing yards, 250 rushing yards, and 35 total touchdowns. Luckily for fantasy managers this season, with Brandin Cooks and CeeDee Lamb stretching the field as receivers and Tony Pollard (a talented pass-catcher) promoted to being Dallas’ new lead running back, Dak should have more opportunities to rack up passing yards than ever.
If Dak can make good on his promise to throw fewer interceptions with the Cowboys this year and limit his interceptions to 10 (his 17-game career average when you exclude last season’s unprecedented 15), he could go from being a bust in 2022 to a steal in 2023.
Now that he's healthy and surrounded by more playmakers, expect Dak to re-assert himself as a top-seven fantasy quarterback in the league this season, in the same range right below the Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen, and outperform his current No. 10 fantasy quarterback average draft position.
You can follow Isaiah DeAnda Delgado on Instagram, Twitter, and Threads @IsaiahDDelgado.
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