Never mind just the Comeback Player of the Year Award... if you're Cowboys great and Hall of Famer Drew Pearson, Dak Prescott is deserving of more.
Though he's not quite producing at the same outlandish level he was in the beginning of 2020 — 1,856 yards and nine touchdowns in fewer than five games — Prescott has erased a lot of the questions, skepticism and doubt that he faced heading into the 2021 campaign with a nice start out of the gate. He currently ranks tops in the NFL with a 77.5 percent completion rate and has led the Cowboys offense to becoming the NFC East favorite in a much shorter time than expected. His team's demolition of the Eagles in Week 3 certainly helped with that, and it was that trouncing that led to Pearson's proclamation about Prescott's status among the league's passers.
"You know, I've always had Dak rated pretty highly. I always thought, while everybody's criticizing, saying this and that, he can't do this and he can't do that, I'm saying all the opposite things," Pearson told TMZ Sports. "Look at the real picture. Look at the whole picture. Look what he brings to the team as far as his leadership qualities.
"He led the league last season, before he got hurt, in passing accuracy. Downfield, long passes, short passes. So he brings all that to the position. And what I have for him right now is more respect in the world than anything. For him to come back from that grueling injury and play the way he has been playing, and not have any hesitation about whether that's going to hurt him again or he's going to get hurt again or anything.
"And he's bringing it and doing it in a way that he's probably... Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, Dak Prescott. Top three quarterbacks in the league, I would say, right now."
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You'd be hard pressed to find too many lists of the top three quarterbacks in the NFL that doesn't include Patrick Mahomes, but here's one of them. But seeing as Prescott has led the Cowboys to victories over the Eagles and a competitive Chargers team — in addition to staying competitive and posting over 400 yards and three touchdowns against the reigning Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Bucs — it's not as if Pearson's argument is too much of a hot take.
For what it's worth, Panthers head coach Matt Rhule might also include Prescott in his top three, at least based on his comments about the Cowboys QB ahead of their Week 4 clash.
"When you talk about their offense, I think you have to start with Dak Prescott," Rhule said (via Anthony Rizzuti of Panthers Wire). "He’s superb. He calls the game at the line of scrimmage. He’s getting the ball out of his hand. He’s the second-fastest guy in the NFL right now from snap to throw, which is emblematic or symptomatic, I don’t know the right word, of a quarterback who knows exactly where the ball’s gonna go versus the defense.
"It’s like watching Peyton Manning. It’s like watching Drew Brees call the game at the line of scrimmage... I think what Dak’s doing right now is incredibly impressive."
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