While most members of Cowboys Nation love the players who wear the Star more than anyone else, there’s a large number of people who have favorite players on other teams. Maybe it’s a star pass rusher, an incredible pass-catcher, or in the case of Dallas Cowboys Quarterback Dak Prescott… Saints Quarterback Drew Brees.
They play in the same conference but, @drewbrees = @dak's QB idol.
Where should the @Saints all time passing leader rank on #NFLTop100? pic.twitter.com/GsZC5BrGUq— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) April 20, 2017
Dak Prescott and his Dallas Cowboys teammates are busy planning for the upcoming season – the 2017 Dallas Cowboys Schedule has been released and can be seen right here – and the rest of us are sitting here rolling through the annual offseason checklist. You have to go through the dog days of it, the Draft talk, the aforementioned schedule release, and sooner rather than later we’ll arrive at the NFL Top 100.
What’s the NFL Top 100, you ask? Every year NFL Network, in partnership with the incredibly talented folks at NFL Films, puts together a list of what is supposedly the NFL’s Top 100 players. I use the supposedly caveat because the list really ends up being not only a popularity contest, but an exercise practiced in extreme recency bias.
The @Eagles #NFLTop100 ballots are in! Here's a peek at how one of the players voted!
What would your ballot look like? ???? pic.twitter.com/sdwanErhjh
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) December 8, 2016
Back in December NFL Films revealed a few ballots cast by some members of the Philadelphia Eagles. If what we saw is an indication of how the rest of the NFL players polled feel, both Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott are likely to land inside of the top 10, and potentially even top five.
While we’ll have to wait – this year’s NFL Top 100 debuts on May 1st, 2017 – to find out exactly where Dak, Zeke, and whatever other Cowboys end up… NFL Films tweeted out a video of Dak Prescott discussing another player – Saints QB Drew Brees.
.@dak's approach to shadowing @drewbrees this week at the Pro Bowl is just another reason he's so incredible. (h/t @nflnetwork Instagram) pic.twitter.com/d0fk6abkfv
— RJ Ochoa (@rjochoa) January 26, 2017
Dak Prescott has made his admiration for Drew Brees well-known before, specifically at last season’s Pro Bowl. Dak is quite the fan of Drew Brees, and that makes an enormous amount of sense. Prescott will turn 24 this July, meaning that he was 13 years old 11 years ago when he was growing up in Louisiana. What was 11 years ago? 2006, Drew Brees’ first season with the New Orleans Saints.
Drew Brees has been one of the more successful quarterbacks of this pass-happy generation that the NFL has been in the middle of for the last decade or so. Brees has re-written record books and then destroyed those very records time and time again. He’s the perfect pillar of consistent dominance for a young quarterback like Dak Prescott to look up to.
The Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints did not meet in 2016, nor will they square off in the 2017 season (unless they meet in the Playoffs). Dallas and New Orleans will indeed meet in 2018 per the NFL’s schedule rotation as the Cowboys are slated to play the NFC South. That game will take place in Dallas, and perhaps it’ll be the first time that Dak and Drew will get to go head-to-head. Whenever that day comes, Dak Prescott will enjoy Drew Brees, but we’ll all really enjoy Dak Prescott.
Reminds of when Romo thought he was Bret Favre… ;^)
Of course Dak is much more of a prototype physically than Brees – bigger, stronger arm, better run threat. But it is essential for him to also master the mental side of the game as Brees does.
We’ve seen Dak’s references and commitment to that already – and no rookie QB dissects pro defenses like he did, without a good grasp of the mental aspects of the game.
He’ll only get better as he becomes a seasoned veteran. I think the one concern may be the speed at which he rose to what can be called the best job in sports. If Dak is not even keel (he is) – if it’s another person in that spot – it could bring some ego problems into the equation.
That to me is what he needs to shut off as he completely takes the reins of the team now. Don’t turn the media on, just do the film work, take the coaching & run the next play.