Is Dak Prescott The Kirk Cousins Of Jimmy Garoppolos?

With other quarterbacks, it’s clear where they stand in the League. Lamar Jackson? Any analyst worth their salt will tell you he’s the Michael Vick of Steve Youngs. Aaron Rodgers? Clearly the Kyrie Irving of Brett Favres. But when it comes to Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, every body part on every down seems to belong to a different quarterback of a different quarterback. So the question has to be asked: Is Dak Prescott the Kirk Cousins of Jimmy Garoppolos?

The problem boils down to consistency. Prescott’s week 7 win against the Lions in 2017 had everyone believing he was the Patrick Mahomes of Boomer Esiasons. But compare that to his embarrassing week 18 loss to the Commanders in 2021, and he ends up looking more like the Ryan Leaf of Trent Dilfers. With this wild variance, you might think that puts him square in the “Philip Rivers of Cam Newtons” territory. But can we really be satisfied with such a one-dimensional answer?

“Dak’s like this mysterious turducken of other players: You think you know what meat he is, but cut inside further and suddenly you’re guessing at about thirty different flavors,” mused Prescott’s former teammate Ezekiel Elliot (the Todd Gurley of Jerome Bettises). “All we know is that all of those meats checkdown on fourth and long.”

At the end of the day, no, Dak doesn’t have the dashing good looks or pretty-boy lack of arm strength of Jimmy G. Nor does he possess the shoddy footwork or the intense, nearly sexual devotion to Jesus of Kirk Cousins. But when you look deeper inside the man, be it his consistent ability to deliver a turnover, his confusing decision-making under pressure, or maybe just the fact that we may not be talking about him next year, it becomes crystal clear: We all know who this guy is the guy of. He is who we thought he is.