I’ve mentioned in the past that I am a frequent listener of the local hour on the Dan Lebatard Show with Stugotz on ESPN Radio. As a Miami- based show, I get more than my fair dose of Dolphins, Marlins, Heat, and Hurricanes talk on a daily basis from Dan and company.
On Monday’s show, they began with a discussion about the state of the Dolphins; whether or not Adam Gase’s job is in question, Ryan Tannehill’s effectiveness, playoff scenarios, and so on.
As a long-time listener, I have come to notice a familiar trend in these discussions around this time of year, and it always seems to involve the Dolphins being just good enough to be in the “playoff discussion,” but not quite good enough to get in and actually be effective in the postseason. The ultimate result of the conversation is usually a way-too-long debate about whether or not Tannehill needs to be replaced in order to stop the now six-year tradition of having this same discussion in December. Nobody on the free agent market this offseason is going to be the answer to the Dolphins’ QB woes- There will be at least one more year of Tannehill in Miami.
And the same goes for Dallas as well.
I discussed earlier this summer how this season was going to be a big tell for Cowboys’ fans about the future of Dak Prescott as a starting QB. 13-3 in 2016 was good enough to get Romo bumped out of the starting role, and then there was a drop-off to 9-7 the following season which wasn’t necessarily Dak’s solely to own- However, if you didn’t think that the roster overhaul that Dallas underwent this past offseason should have left us with any doubt about Dak’s ability and the level of confidence that the Jones family and Cowboys brass have in him at this point in the season, then that opinion certainly should have changed the moment Amari Cooper arrived on the scene.
The parallels here between the Dolphins and the Cowboys make a lot of sense to me, given Dak’s lack of improvement in his past two seasons. His TD-INT ratio has been off, hasn’t been able to complete drives, and it seems at moments as though his confidence has been shot. The Cowboys’ staff have not been giving Prescott much leeway in running the offense and have clearly not trusted him to make big plays downfield either.
Sounds familiar.
Dallas is now faced with a problem that- not just Miami- but most of the league has to deal with on a year-to-year basis, and in some cases teams- just like Miami- can’t seem to find their way out of. The Cowboys are on the verge of having a quarterback problem that there is no clear-cut answer to, and I can’t imagine that anybody available to Dallas, whether that be in free agency or the draft, is going to be the solution. Five years ago, the Cowboys were not particularly good, however had a top-tier quarterback to build around. Romo was the rock upon which the Super Bowl church would be built, and they came close. However, the 2018 Cowboys seem to now have the team to make it happen but no quarterback, which is a much more unstable position than what they were in the 8-8 years. Only a few teams in the NFL get to employ true, blue-blooded talent at quarterback- and those teams experience consistent, winning success in the NFL, to a fault, of course. But while the Patriots, Saints, Steelers, and Chargers of the NFL are experiencing a high level of consistent success and competing at the highest levels of the sport, the bulk of the league gets to revel in checkdowns, bubble screens on 3rd and 12, and a snoozefest on offense that is hardly acceptable at the professional level.
Despite opinions, everyone who roots for the Cowboys on Sunday roots for Prescott to play well and be the rightful successor to Romo. However, with each passing season, the chances of him having a Jared Goff-like revival dwindle, and we begin to get a clearer picture of the troubles which may lie ahead for the Cowboys if Dak doesn’t improve.
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