Colin Cowherd: Sam Darnold "is a playmaker" and better than Dak Prescott
There is a very good chance that Dak Prescott is heading to become the highest paid quarterback in the NFL. At least one national media pundit thinks that New York Jets quarterback Sam Darnold is better than Prescott. High praise, indeed.
Prescott, twice a Pro Bowl selection in his four years with the Dallas Cowboys, is at a contract impasse as he is seeking major money. The former fourth round pick wants to be among the top paid quarterbacks in the league if not the highest paid and the question of if he is worth that type of bankroll from the Cowboys is certainly warranted.
All of which led Fox Sports personality Colin Cowherd last week to sound off on which quarterbacks he would rather have over Prescott. Darnold, set to enter his third year in the NFL, made the good column.
In fact, Cowherd didn’t have one negative thing to say about Prescott.
“Sam Darnold. He’s a playmaker. He’s a first round quarterback,” Cowherd said when co-host Joy Taylor asked him about the Jets quarterback.
“Dak has had a great O-Line. Sam has had an atrocious O-Line. Dak has had a great running back. Sam has Le’Veon Bell, who Adam Gase I don’t think loves. Sam hasn’t had any help so far. If you give Sam Dak’s people and Dak Sam’s people surrounding him… Sam Darnold today is favored to win that division because Sam Darnold is a playmaker.”
It has been an up and down two years in the NFL for Darnold, but at the end of last season he was clearly trending up. In the final eight games of the season, when the Jets went 6-2, Darnold looked like a vastly improved quarterback.
He cut back on interceptions, threw the ball away and seemed more comfortable in the offense installed by Gase that past offseason.
All told, Darnold saw an improvement in passing yards, completion percentage and his touchdown to interception ratio over the year before. He also showed himself adapt and cool under pressure, backing up Cowherd’s assessment of the young quarterback as a “playmaker.”
As for the comparisons with Prescott, Cowherd picked other starting quarterbacks a number of times over the Cowboys star. Included in this list are two young quarterbacks. The first one Taylor posited to Cowherd was Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens, who won the Bert Bell Award from the Maxwell Football Club as professional football’s best player.
“Lamar is exceptional at something,” Cowherd said.
“My thing about Dak is, what is he great at? Lamar, is one of the best quarterbacks ever and is becoming a very accurate thrower.”
Cowherd chose very few quarterbacks over Prescott. Among those he didn’t go with included Ryan Tannehill (Tennessee Titans) and Derek Carr (Las Vegas Raiders) among a couple others.
One prominent name that lost to Prescott in the comparisons was Baker Mayfield, who was taken No. 1 overall in the 2018 NFL Draft. The Jets took Darnold two picks later.
“Dak, because there are maturity issues over and over and over again with Baker and this is a franchise quarterback position,” Cowherd said.
Cowherd also went with Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills over Prescott. Allen was the third quarterback taken in 2018 behind Mayfield and Darnold.
“First of all, Josh Allen’s arm is a cannon. Josh Allen is bigger, more athletic,” Cowherd said.
“Now Josh Allen, his judgment – he can make bad, bad throws. That’s why I like Dak. But if you’re stacking up talent, I think almost every GM will take Josh Allen.”
The full clip involving Cowherd discussing a number of quarterbacks in comparison to Prescott:
