This fall, Dak Prescott will enter his ninth NFL season, seeking at last to cast aside all doubts centered on his ability to lead the Dallas Cowboys to a Super Bowl title. Heightening the drama is the fact that Prescott — assuming he does not sign a long-mooted contract extension — will take the field in 2024 on an expiring contract, and a big season would set him up for a handsome payday in free agency next spring.

All this means there is a lot at stake for Prescott in 2024, a season after he led the NFL in touchdown passes and finished behind Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson for league MVP honors. Prescott has divided Dallas fans for years, notably because of his poor record in the playoffs. That polarization is also apparent among Prescott’s colleagues under center.

An in-state QB rivalry?

Texans quarterback CJ Stroud enjoyed a sensational rookie season in 2023, leading a once-moribund Houston franchise to an AFC South division title. To that end, Stroud has ranked himself as the NFL’s third best quarterback entering the 2024 campaign — when expectations on him and on the Texans will be higher after the blockbuster trade for receiver Stefon Diggs.

What most might not have expected was for Stroud to release his list of the five best active quarterbacks twice. The second list kept the top three signal-callers the same — Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, and Stroud himself — but saw Philadelphia‘s Jalen Hurts fall out, replaced by Buffalo‘s Josh Allen.

Prescott moved from fourth in the initial list to fifth in the re-do. While this could be interpreted a slight toward Dak and will do little to quell the fierce debate around just how good he really is, Stroud is convinced that the criticism of the Cowboys star is overblown.

“Dak (is) that boy, y’all aren’t gonna say that because he ain’t won the (Super Bowl) yet,” Stroud said on “Million Dollaz Worth of Game.” “Dak is that dude, bro. Dak (is) tough, bro. Dak is one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the world.”

The rest of this room acts like CJ Stroud, an excellent quarterback who clearly knows football very well, is out of his mind for saying Dak Prescott, who finished 2nd in 2023 MVP voting and arguably had a better season than the MVP winner, was a top-five quarterback in 2023. https://t.co/tOtOyGdbtl

— Preston Moore, M.A. (@prestoncmoore)

June 2, 2024

Regardless of how highly his fellow pros view him, the conversation around Prescott remains firmly centered on if he can guide Dallas — or whichever team employs him next — to the Super Bowl. The 2024 season is the 30-year-old’s latest chance — and it could be his final good one, given the ascent of the Detroit Lions and the development of San Francisco‘s Brock Purdy in the NFC.