Todd Archer, ESPN Team of workers Editor
FRISCO, Texas — The profession arcs of Dak Prescott and Tony Romo have turn out to be so related they’ve necessarily turn out to be the similar Dallas Cowboys quarterback.
Every confirmed exceptional regular-season good fortune however left lingering questions within the playoffs.
They had been teammates for one season, 2016, when the rookie Prescott took over later Romo suffered a preseason again trauma. Prescott has held the activity ever since.
They proportion a cherished underdog narrative; Romo as an undrafted isolated agent, Prescott as a fourth-round select. They had been decided on for more than one Professional Bowls. They eager group information. They impaired the facility in their place with “America’s Team” to turn out to be family names.
However neither has executed what Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman did via profitable Tremendous Bowls, which ties Prescott and Romo in combination much more.
Romo had a 2-4 playoff report. Prescott’s stands at 2-5 later Sunday’s 48-32 demolition via the Green Bay Packers within the wild-card around.
Romo had 3 probabilities to exit to an NFC Championship Sport (2007, 2009, 2014) and not were given there. Prescott’s anticipation at a fourth aim was once burnt up via the Packers later overlooked probabilities in 2016, 2018 and 2022.
“It’s not fair to put it all on Dak or Tony,” one former teammate of each mentioned. “Everyone needed to get it done.”
Week true, the Cowboys’ quarterback bears the brunt of the duty.
SINCE 1980, KEN Anderson is the one quarterback to be his group’s starter for extra consecutive seasons than Prescott can have in 2024 (9) earlier than taking to a Tremendous Bowl for the primary future. He was once in his tenth season because the Cincinnati Bengals‘ starter in 1981.
Peyton Manning and Matt Ryan made their first Tremendous Bowl appearances of their 9th seasons with the Indianapolis Colts and Atlanta Falcons, respectively. Manning had received two NFL MVPs earlier than attending to his first Tremendous Bowl in 2006 and needed to cope with Tom Brady and the New England Patriots‘ dynasty.
“Some guys, like Troy, it does happen right away and you win championships,” mentioned govt vp Stephen Jones about Aikman’s first Tremendous Bowl coming in his fourth season. “[Patrick] Mahomes, guys like that, it occurs for them.
“However there’s alternative guys that occasionally it simply takes future to store finding out the sport, store getting higher. Surely I believe Dak suits in that section, and I believe Tony was once in that section earlier than the wounds.”
Age favors Prescott’s opportunity for at least another run.
Romo was 34 for his final chance in 2014, his last full season, with a body that was faltering mainly because of back issues that required multiple surgeries.
While the lasting memory from that 26-21 divisional round loss to the Packers is the overturned catch from Dez Bryant late in the fourth quarter, there was one of Romo that day too. About an hour after that stinging defeat in numbing temperatures outside Lambeau Field, he shared a long hug with his family before getting on the team bus, as if he knew he would not get a better chance.
Prescott turns 31 in July and played every game this season for the first time since 2019, while leading the NFL in touchdown passes (36). Like Romo, he has suffered serious injuries, like a dislocated and fractured right ankle in 2020, and a broken right thumb that forced him to miss five games in 2022, but he believes his off-field conduct have made him more potent and tougher.
“You’re at all times having a look at greats and what they’re doing, and you notice guys, like LeBron [James], Tom Brady, have those forms and spend tens of millions of greenbacks on their frame every yr, and also you surprise why,” Prescott said. “And it’s evident once they’re taking part in so long as they performed at one of these prime degree that that’s what they want to do to really feel comfy.”
THE BIG QUESTION for the Cowboys regarding Prescott this offseason is not health, but contract.
He is about to enter the final year of his deal and will count $59.4 million against the 2024 salary cap. Dallas’ options this offseason include:
Extending Prescott’s contract, which would make him among the highest-paid quarterbacks in the NFL but give them space to retain their own players or add free agents.
Simply playing out Prescott’s final year, knowing they cannot use the franchise tag on him in 2025, which would make him an unrestricted free agent.
Adding more voidable years to his contract to make his 2024 cap number more palatable, while also knowing they will add more dead money against the cap in future years.
In 2013, the Cowboys confronted a related contractual predicament with Romo. They might now not park the franchise tag on him because of contractual language, and he signed a six-year, $108 million extension via 2019 that integrated $40 million in assured cash. On the future of the signing, the $18 million annual moderate made Romo the sixth-highest paid quarterback.
Like Romo upcoming, Prescott now holds leverage within the negotiations — even if, in contrast to 2013, the Cowboys have a tender quarterback who intrigues them in 2021 Deny. 3 total select Trey Lance, whom they bought from the San Francisco 49ers early this season for a fourth-round draft pick. Lance, 23, didn’t shoot a snap this season and has 102 profession go makes an attempt.
3 years in the past, Prescott outlasted the Cowboys in promise talks, turning one yr of taking part in at the franchise tag right into a four-year, $160 million trade in that integrated $126 million assured regardless of coming off the intense ankle trauma. His $40 million annual moderate recently has him connect for tenth some of the highest-paid quarterbacks.
Proprietor and normal supervisor Jerry Jones, in addition to Stephen Jones, have mentioned they envision Prescott being the Cowboys’ starter neatly into the past.
However will that past come with a Tremendous Bowl look?
JERRY JONES SAID his largest be apologetic about as proprietor and normal supervisor isn’t profitable a Tremendous Bowl with Romo as quarterback. Next beating the Philadelphia Eagles in December, Jones mentioned he can be “equally” upset if Prescott doesn’t get to a Tremendous Bowl.
“Dak is a player who is qualified in every way to have a Super Bowl in his career,” Jones mentioned upcoming.
Romo’s perfect anticipation for a Tremendous Bowl run was once in 2007 when the Cowboys completed 13-3 and had home-field merit in Wade Phillips’ first season as educator. The Cowboys misplaced within the divisional around to the New York Giants, whom that they had crushed two times within the steady season and went directly to win the Tremendous Bowl.
In 2014, when Romo had his perfect season, he was once in his 9th yr because the Cowboys’ starter (8th complete season). The Cowboys went 12-4 and received the NFC East. He threw 34 landing passes and was once intercepted simply 9 instances in 15 begins. He led the NFL in final touch proportion (69.9%), QBR (79.2), quarterback ranking (113.2) and yards in keeping with struggle (8.5).
In 2015, Romo needful his left collarbone two times and began 4 video games. In 2016, he suffered a again trauma in a preseason tournament towards the Seattle Seahawks and performed one regular-season pressure — a landing pressure — as a result of Prescott performed so neatly. By means of 2017, Romo joined the CBS broadcast sales space.
“I know deep down he felt he was at his best mentally when it came to the game, that if he was healthy, he could play the game as well as he ever could,” Stephen Jones mentioned. “But health got him.”
Prescott simply concluded his 8th complete season because the Cowboys’ starter. Dallas went 12-5 and received the NFC East. He led the NFL in landing passes with 36 and was once intercepted 9 instances. Amongst full-time settingup quarterbacks, he led the NFL in final touch proportion (69.5%) and was once Deny. 2 in QBR (72.9), quarterback ranking (105.9) and passing yards (4,516).
The Cowboys had been arrange for a run to the NFC Championship Sport with two accommodation video games at AT&T Stadium because the Deny. 2 seed, best to flail away Sunday. Prescott was once intercepted two times within the first part, together with person who was once returned for a landing and upped Inexperienced Bay’s govern to 27-0 past due in the second one quarter.
FOR ALL OF his regular-season good fortune, Prescott has now not been in a position to check that degree within the postseason. It’s one thing Romo didn’t do both.
That leaves the lingering query: “Why?”
“It’s tough to give you that answer when I just went out there and we just did that,” Prescott mentioned. “Unfortunately, that’s what the offseason is for — and it’s a long one. Yeah, I wish I could give you that answer.”
Prescott’s efficiency towards the Packers was once in contrast to any beneath the big-picture view of a 17-game steady season.
“Dak’s arrow is still straight up,” Stephen Jones mentioned a couple of days earlier than the Packers loss. “I think the best football is in front of him. He keeps getting better, and then he has all the other intangibles that go with his skill set, which is plenty strong to being special.”
However Prescott is aware of what Romo knew earlier than him: Not anything issues in the event you don’t win a Tremendous Bowl in Dallas.
“It’s about winning and winning the playoffs,” Prescott mentioned later the Packers loss, “and getting to the last game and winning that as well.”
