I have long been a believer in tiering players, such as quarterbacks, rather than flat-out ranking them. One of my favorite pieces every off-season comes from Mike Sando of The Athletic, where he asks participants to rank quarterbacks from Tier 1 — the best — down to Tier 5. I think this process best encapsulates where quarterbacks are with respect to each other much better than a flat ranking.
In this year’s edition, Dallas Cowboys passer Dak Prescott finished in the ninth spot in the “rankings,” but slid into the second tier of quarterbacks.
Through six games this season, Prescott is making an emphatic case to be bumped up into the first tier.
Prescott entered play on Sunday as one of the league leaders in a number of statistical categories. His Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt of 8.34 placed him third in the league, his 13 touchdown passes also put him in the third spot, and his success rate of 55.7% per dropback trailed only Patrick Mahomes.
Then, he went on the road to stare down a Bill Belichick defense in Foxborough, and turned in perhaps his best performance of the season, leading the Cowboys to a thrilling win in Gillette Stadium.
Before diving into that outing, however, we’ll take a look at two areas of playing the position that Prescott has elevated the past two seasons, traits that can push him into that top tier of passers: Anticipation and Manipulation.