Dallas Cowboys Dak Prescott is getting quick hype built up as MVP, but has he really earned it this soon in the season?
Let’s settle down a bit on the Dak Prescott for NFL MVP noise. Yes, the guy looks like a lock for Rookie of the Year. And yes it seems like Tony Romo is destined to be traded if his ego won’t allow him to hold a clipboard for Dallas for a while.
But League MVP? For a QB who has thrown all of 7 TDs (22nd in NFL). And only thrown 182 passes (26th) in his entire professional life.
Tom Brady has attempted 7,893 passes and been “worthy” of MVP just twice.
The 24-hour sports news hype gets talk like this going and the next thing you know, your idiot co-worker is talking Dak up around the water cooler. And the moron in first place in your fantasy league is willing to trade Julio Jones for Prescott, straight up.
It’s easy for stories like this to get momentum. It’s fun to talk about a rookie winning one of the most prestigious awards in all of football. Remember how glad everyone was when a freshman was finally awarded the Heisman Trophy? Way to go Johnny Football. Then it happened again when Jameis Winston was the darling of the college game.
How are those two guys doing, who seemed unstoppable?
One needs rehab, and the other is struggling in his second NFL season.
You can’t just hand over awards to players because it makes for a great story. The NFL MVP award has to be earned over a few seasons. It may have been mundane seeing Peyton Manning win the thing year in and year out, but we knew what he could do long term.
For all we know, Dak Prescott could fall apart in the second half of the season. He could turn into a turnover factory if something were to happen to Ezekiel Elliott. Things wouldn’t be so easy if defenses were able to focus on the Dallas passing game instead of fearing the run on each play.
A Prescott collapse would be a big story as well. Something the talking heads could really sink their teeth into, and the Cowboys’ QB would have the bite marks to show for it. A feel good story is even better for consumption when it turns ugly.
ESPN got a lot of mileage out of a sobbing Terrell Owens after a game-winning TD in the playoffs versus Green Bay back in the day. But got a lot more out of the disaster he became in the locker room. Negative stories move the needle much more than good news. It’s the nature of the beast.
For now, Prescott is saying all the right things, being a team guy. But at some point he will feel like the masses and publicly state that he does deserve to start for his team.
And he does.
Without him or Romo in the lineup, we saw what the Cowboys were last year. Pathetic.
Still, Dak Prescott has not gone through much adversity in the NFL. It’s coming though. It’s just not that easy in the League. Every QB goes through some real lows. Even Manning, as he couldn’t avoid Bill Belichick in the playoffs. And yes Tom Brady hasn’t been on top of the world every single season. He’s been out for an entire year due to injury and lost Super Bowls to a clearly inferior QB, the other Manning, twice.
So far, the Cowboys can say Prescott has been their MVP. To put him in the conversation with guys like Montana and Brady is jumping the gun, though. We just don’t know if this rookie is the most valuable player in the entire NFL.
It’s OK to let a couple years play out to see if he can be that guy. For now, take a look at some legends who only won the MVP award once. Then judge if you think a rookie should get the award his first time out.
A few one-time only NFL MVPs:
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Adrian Peterson
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Marshall Faulk
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Barry Sanders
If you’re thinking, “those are running backs, so apples and oranges.”
First off those are three of the greatest running backs in history.
Second, John Elway only won a single NFL MVP award. Elway is either the best or second best quarterback to ever grace the NFL with his presence.
Consider this Dak Prescott MVP discussion officially closed until at least 2021.