Dak Prescott Evaluates Cowboys Coach Mike McCarthy: 'I've Never Seen It Before'

“Coach McCarthy has done a great job with the culture of this team,” Dak said during this Super Bowl Week. “Just our messaging, our brotherhood and our locker room.''

FRISCO - The hot seat is real.

It's part of being on The Big Stage that is the Dallas Cowboys. It's "hot'' for a head coach of whom much is expected ... and it's hot for a quarterback making $40 million a year.

Maybe that is one of the reasons that Dallas QB Dak Prescott "gets'' coach Mike McCarthy.

“Coach McCarthy has done a great job with the culture of this team,” Dak said during this Super Bowl Week. “Just our messaging, our brotherhood and our locker room. I’ve never been a part of a team where on offense and defense, it was the same. You would have thought a defensive end was in the same position group as a receiver, just from how close and the camaraderie of the group.''

Prescott, the Cowboys franchise QB, was on The Rich Eisen Show on Thursday, taking a moment to downplay the significance of the strained calf he sustained at the end of Dallas’ thrilling Week 6 win at New England - even though it was clear that his competency was reduced following that game, and following Dallas' impressive 5-1 start.

“I wouldn’t say it lingered,'' Dak insisted. “I went through a period of time during the season where I just didn’t play my best ball.”

He also discussed the season-ending wild card playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers, an upset failure that he says pops into his head frequently throughout the day.

“We were expecting to go so much further,” he said. “This team was one that, we had everything. We thought we were headed in the right direction and doing everything we needed to do.''

"We had everything'' might be the epitaph on the tombstone of the 2021 Dallas Cowboys. But Prescott is excited about digging out of that hole for 2022, and about doing it alongside the beleaguered McCarthy, who has spent much of this short offseason as the butt of gossip and jokes regarding his job security.

“Coach McCarthy has done a great job with the culture of this team,” Prescott said. “Just our messaging, our brotherhood and our locker room. I’ve never been a part of a team where on offense and defense, it was the same. You would have thought a defensive end was in the same position group as a receiver, just from how close and the camaraderie of the group.

“I credit coach for just investing so much into that, just the timing and the planning and everything we do and our scheduling to make sure we’re as close-knit of a team as we need to be.”

"Close-knit''? Yes. "Close to title contention''? Maybe the 2022 can really "have everything'' then.