The Dallas Cowboys, after going 1-13 over the last five seasons when quarterback Tony Romo has been sidelined, believe they've finally started to plan for life after the 36-year-old QB eventually hangs it up. The Cowboys selected Mississippi State's Dak Prescott in the fourth round of the NFL Draft this past weekend, just the third signal-caller the club has drafted since 2001 and the first in seven years.
However, it's far from a guarantee that Prescott is Romo's true blue heir apparent. Since 2000, only six of the 118 QBs taken in the fourth round or later have started at least 25 games. While Washington's Kirk Cousins and Buffalo's Tyrod Taylor should up that number this year, the trend is clear: Mid-to-late round passers rarely work out. But the Cowboys don't need Prescott to replace Romo, they really just need him to be able to fill in for him capably from time to time.
"A great leader, positively impacted everybody there, has played big in big games and has done a lot of really good things on the field," head coach Jason Garrett said of Prescott. "Physically, he is big. He is strong. He can throw it. He can run. He is a very experienced player.
"Again, he is developmental from the standpoint that he is young and he has to learn how we want to do things, but there are a lot of tools there and a lot of great character qualities that you love."
Given the dearth of QB talent behind Romo, it wasn't surprising to hear that owner Jerry Jones almost mortgaged Dallas' draft capital to move back into the first round for Memphis' Paxton Lynch. In the end, Denver won out in that race.
"When I look back on my life, I overpaid for my big successes every time," Jones said. "And when I tried to get a bargain, get it a little cheaper or get a better deal on it, I ended up usually either getting it and not happy I got it. Or missing it.
"And I probably should have overpaid here."
At least Prescott has some solid numbers to back up his claim for the backup job. In 2015, Prescott completed 66.2 percent of his passes while throwing for 3,793 yards with 29 touchdowns against five interceptions. He also ran for 588 yards and 10 additional scores. Of course, he'll have to adapt to the NFL game. But Jones thinks Romo may help with that.
"I'm not saying Romo is going to be having midnight sessions with [Presscott]," Jones said, "but I think [Aaron] Rodgers benefited from being around [Brett] Favre.
"He saw things in Favre's game that could complement his game, and this is what motivated me to go ahead and get somebody on campus. He can learn a lot from Romo through osmosis."
Only time will tell if that is the case.
