Dak Prescott is now the highest-paid QB in the NFL in terms of average annual salary ($60 million a season) and guaranteed money ($231 million) after signing his new four-year, $240 million contract with the Cowboys on Sunday.
Prescott is coming off a 2023 season in which he set career highs and also led the league with 410 completions and 36 touchdown passes. He had his most efficient season with a 105.9 passer rating, rebounding from throwing a league-high 15 interceptions in 2022.
Prescott's play was so good in '23 that he also finished second to Lamar Jackson in MVP voting and was the second-team All-Pro QB. By every metric, his eighth regular season was his best.
Unfortunately, the questions about Prescott as a potential elite QB are tied more to his playoff performances and his team's disappointing postseason results. To live up to his big second deal at age 31, Prescott needs to lift his team better when it counts the most.
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Dak Prescott playoff record
Prescott has played in seven playoff games for the Cowboys. Dallas, however, has failed to advance to the NFC championship game in any of those trips. Last year marked the second loss in the wild card, while Prescott was the losing QB in five divisional playoff games.
Prescott has a winning percentage of .640 in the regular season (73-41), but that plummets to a dismal .286 (2-5) in the playoffs.
How many playoff wins does Dak Prescott have?
Prescott and the Cowboys lost his first playoff game as a rookie after the 2016 season, getting upset by Aaron Rodgers and the Packers at home 34-31 as the No. 1 NFC seed. The following year, Prescott got his first of two wins with a 24-22 wild-card escape vs. the Seahawks.
Prescott however, has gone a combined 0-3 in playoffs against two other NFC West teams, the Rams and 49ers. Prescott's second win came over Tom Brady and the Buccaneers 31-14 in the 2022 playoffs, in what would be the latter's last NFL game.
Last season, Prescott the Cowboys, as the NFC No. 2, were upset again by the Packers at home, this time losing 48-32 with Jordan Love as his QB counterpart. Given Dallas has won NFC East titles with Prescott, only two wins is an underachievement.
Dak Prescott playoff stats
On top of Prescott winning at a 64-percent clip in the regular season, he also has rated a superb 99.0 over 114 career games. He's completed 67 percent of his career passes at a solid 7.6 yards per attempt and 258.4 yards per game.
In the playoffs, Prescott has a career rating of 91.8 in his seven games with only a 7.1 YPA while throwing for 280 yards per game. He also has thrown half as many interceptions (7) as TD passes (14) and has yet to have an INT-free playoff game. He also has been sacked 15 total times to contribute to his 2-5 record.
Quarterback wins and losses are an extension of team stats, and there are many other Cowboys factors that added up to that continued playoff disappointment. In the end, Prescott has not played consistently well enough to lift the team through other struggles, especially in postseason games the Cowboys are expected to win.
Prescott has had a fine run as the Cowboys' quarterback, improving on Tony Romo, but based on how much he's getting paid, more than any other QB now, he has to lead his team to the NFC championship game — a maybe a Super Bowl, too — to validate his often stellar play in the regular season.
