NFL Power Ranking: Sophomore Quarterbacks
By Zack Marji
1: Dak Prescott
Rayne Dakota Prescott won offensive rookie of the year in his first year with the Dallas Cowboys. Many point to the stout O-Line, superstar running back and fantastic coaching of his abilities in the Cowboys system but you don’t win OROY over your superstar rookie running back by just doing well in the system.
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Dak killed it: 23 touchdowns, four interceptions 3,667 yards and a season passer rating of 104.9. He may have thrown the ball 90 fewer times, but that’s a better passer rating than Aaron Rodgers put up. For a rookie!
His passer rating was only beat by Matt Ryan and Tom Brady himself. He may have only been 19th in total passing yards, but he supplemented that with 282 rushing yards and six TDs. That’s 29 touchdowns and a little under 4,000 total yards generated by that one man, that one rookie. As stellar as all this is, he did end up fumbling an ugly nine times losing four of them.
He excelled as a passer so that negative doesn’t hold him back too much since he isn’t reliant on running the ball. Some will call his season a fluke, unrepeatable; but that was the strongest rookie year for a quarterback since Robert Griffin III in 2012.