Jerry Jones expects Dak Prescott to ‘be protective of the ball,’ Mike McCarthy challenges QB to ‘own offense’

In 2022, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott tied Houston Texans quarterback Davis Mills for the NFL lead in interceptions, 15, which made Prescott the first player in league history to do so despite missing at least five games. That type of history is not what team owner Jerry Jones expects out of his quarterback who set the Cowboys’ single-season passing touchdowns record, 37, in 2021, his last fully healthy campaign. 

“What I expect is not the unexpected. What last year represented relative to turnovers was unexpected,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Tuesday. “I expect to see what we expect from Dak, which is don’t turn the ball over, be protective of the ball. When I think of Dak, that’s the first thing that comes to my mind. That’s what he does good.”  

To be fair to Prescott, his career interception rate is two percent, which is tied for the ninth-lowest figure in NFL history. New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers has the lowest figure all-time, 1.4%, for reference. However, Prescott threw picks on 3.8% of his throws while battling through a right thumb injury on his throwing hand and a lack of receiving options outside of 2022 Second-Team All-Pro CeeDee Lamb. On the last day of Cowboys minicamp on June 8, new offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer went out of his way to share his belief that Prescott “doesn’t need to fixed.”

“He [Dak Prescott] certainly doesn’t need to be fixed,” Schottenheimer said. “There’s no question about that. The guy is a great player, and you guys have watched him more than I have. He’s a competitor. He’s going to compete and say ‘I can make that throw.’ He’s just got to understand situations in the game, down and distance, and all that stuff and clean up some of the decisions he knows last year that he kind of missed.”

Schottenheimer is entering his fourth stint as an NFL offensive coordinator in 2023 with the Cowboys with previous runs as the New York Jets OC (2006-2011), the St. Louis Rams OC (2012-2014), and the Seattle Seahawks OC (2018-2020). When working alongside Prescott after his 15 interceptions co-led the NFL last season, he draws from his early days helping run a team’s offense and his time coaching Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre back in 2008. 

“I love one of my early experiences as an offensive coordinator was with the Jets in 2008, and I was coaching Brett Favre,” Schottenheimer said. “You guys have seen Brett play. He would try and force a ball between like three guys. At least one of the three guys would be waiting there and would catch it. He would come over to me after they did, and I’d be like ‘Dude, what are you doing?’ He would say ‘my bad, my bad.’ We would be alright, and we were going to move. I would get up, and Brett would say ‘Hey Schotty, I can make that through. I can make that throw.’ I would then have to say ‘that’s not the point, but you can make that throw sometimes.’ “It’s a little bit of that competitive spirit. These guys, they all have that. Again, Dak loves some of the things that we’re doing from training the footwork and timing and some of the rhythm things and tying the routes to his feet. So, we’re expecting that all to be easier.”

Another area McCarthy and Schottenheimer are looking to tie even tighter around Prescott in addition to timing the routes to his footwork is the way they pass-protect him. Prescott was under pressure on 31.4% of his dropbacks in 2022, a number they would like to see decline in 2023. 

“When you look at interceptions, there’s so many factors that go into it,” Schottenheimer said. “The point is the protection part of it of us trying to tighten up some of the pocket and make it a little bit firmer and how we kind of fit our backs into being the sideboard for different whether you’re sliding protections, things like that. … That’s more of a philosophy for Mike [McCarthy] and I that we’ve been around. [Offensive line coach] Mike Solari and I’ve been together a couple different times. That is something that we’ve definitely worked towards doing. I feel like we’ve come away with not only just the right answers, and fits for blitzes, everyone talks about blitzes and how you block those up, but just even in a four-man rush. Whether you’re sliding or whether you’re in a pocket declaration, we block into how you fit the pieces together. If the backs are involved, or whether they’re blocking someone who just fit in through a gap, they’re always involved, and we definitely want to play in a physical mindset in all protections issued.”

While Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy doesn’t want Prescott to be under pressure when dropping back to pass, he has pushed Prescott above the shoulders in his return to offensive play-calling with the goal of expanding the quarterback’s football savvy. 

“I love the way we’ve challenged Dak mentally and, more importantly, I love the way he’s attacked it,” McCarthy said Tuesday. “I wouldn’t say I didn’t know it about him, but I think it’s just like all of us, you don’t really know until you really go out there and stress and push. He’s really handled these changes and adjustments and the input … I want smart, Hall of Fame-type quarterbacks, and the only way to get there is you got to make them own the offense — and you see it.”  

Between the offensive coaching changes and the addition of 1,000-yard receiver Brandin Cooks to go along with Lamb, Prescott’s 2023 season could look a lot more efficient than his 2022 season.