When Dak Prescott is healthy, the Cowboys are a playoff team more often than not, and heading into 2026, Dallas is in a good spot at quarterback.
Teams often search for years to find their franchise quarterback, and for the Dallas Cowboys, Dak Prescott fell into their lap in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft.
Since then, Dak has been one of the best regular-season quarterbacks in football (yes, I know about the playoff failures), and in 2025, Prescott took his game to another level.
Under the watchful eye of head coach Brian Schottenheimer, who also served as the play-caller, Dak was elite pre-snap, and post-snap, he was just as good.
A fourth Pro Bowl came Prescott's way, and he was in the MVP conversation early in the season, but the losses piled up, and so did the talk.
But heading into the offseason, it is easy to see why many are bullish on the Cowboys' offense and what it can become with Dak at the helm.
And for PFF's John Kosko, he's ranked all 32 NFL teams in terms of their quarterback needs, and when it comes to Dallas, who he has at No. 21, with Dak, he's in a tier called "Things To Like."
"Dak Prescott is capable of dropping back 50 times in a game and still putting up gaudy numbers," Kosko wrote. "Across his past two fully healthy seasons, his 90.9 PFF passing grade ranks second-best in the NFL. Of course, 2024 was a down year for him, as he played only half the season before suffering an injury.
"When the offensive line holds up, and Prescott has weapons around him, the Cowboys’ offense is as potent as any in the league."
With Christian Parker as the new defensive coordinator, the 2026 Cowboys will still go as Dak and the offense go.
We spoke at length about that last season. If the defense under Matt Eberflus was just league average, the Cowboys would be a playoff team.
That is what Parker has to do this upcoming season.
With Prescott playing some of the best football of his career, with CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens as his main weapons, there's no reason why the Cowboys can't again have a top offense.
Keep the offensive line healthy, and retain Pickens and Javonte Williams, and Dallas is cooking in 2026, with Prescott the head chef for Schottenheimer.