• Five reasons why Dak Prescott is having an elite 2025 campaign: Among them are his improved sack avoidance, his success on play action and his production on intermediate-level throws.

• While Prescott’s MVP case is all but extinguished, he has a real chance to lead the Cowboys into the postseason: Prescott’s Week 8 performance against the Broncos likely ended his MVP chances, but he has improved in several areas as one of the NFL’s top signal-callers this year.

• Get PFF+ for 40% off: Use promo code BLACKFRIDAY to unlock the PFF Player Prop Tool, Premium Stats, fantasy dashboards, the PFF Mock Draft Simulator, industry-leading fantasy rankings and much more — everything you need to win your season.

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If you wanted to bet on Dak Prescott to take home his first MVP at the end of this season, you’d be looking at odds of +50000 or longer. Despite throwing three or more touchdowns without an interception in five of his past seven games, Prescott saw his MVP chances essentially go up in flames after a messy display on the road in Denver in Week 8, with two picks and a 51.5 passer rating.

While Prescott may not be considered one of the top candidates for the league’s most prestigious individual award, he is playing some of the best football of his NFL career and is engaged in a two-horse race with Christian McCaffrey to win the Comeback Player of the Year award after missing the entire second half of last season.

Prescott’s 85.8 PFF passing grade places him fourth in the NFL, behind Matthew Stafford, Sam Darnold and Jordan Love. It’s the second-highest PFF passing grade of his 10-year career — behind his outstanding 2023 season when he led the league in big-time throws (38) while also having the fifth-lowest turnover-worthy play rate (2.0%).

It may not look like Prescott is an elite quarterback on the surface, but when taking a deeper dive into his performances in the areas outlined below, it’s difficult to dismiss his case as one of the very best signal-callers in the sport.

Open Prescott’s Profile

Superb Sack Avoidance

Prescott has been sacked just 16 times across 134 total pressures through Week 11, which comes out to an 11.9% sack conversion rate — the fifth-best clip in the NFL.

For context, Prescott was sacked 21 times in his injury-shortened 2024 season on just 98 pressures. Even during his aforementioned elite 2023 campaign, he ranked right around the league average in pressure-to-sack conversion rate. This is the first time Prescott has been among the league’s top sack avoiders since 2019, when he was a sprightly 26-year-old.

Prescott has never possessed top-tier mobility, and while it can be easy for older quarterbacks to forge their pressure-to-sack numbers by simply throwing the ball away, he has done anything but. Prescott is throwing the ball away on just 1.5% of dropbacks, the lowest rate of any quarterback in the league.

His ability to avoid sacks when under pressure is simply down to his elite pocket presence and confidence to get the ball out under heavy duress. Prescott’s 10 big-time throws and 849 passing yards while under pressure are both league-leading figures.

A Master of Play Action

Play action accounts for a healthy 28% of the Cowboys’ total dropbacks this season. Prescott doesn’t force the issue on those throws, as his 5.8-yard average depth of target on play action is one of the shallowest in the league and pales in comparison to the likes of Sam Darnold (13.1).

This more conservative approach has been working for the Cowboys. Tight end Jake Ferguson is eating defenses alive on underneath routes with opportunities for yards after the catch. The official figures for Prescott on play action are 12 touchdowns, zero interceptions and a 147.1 passer rating, bettered by only Lamar Jackson.

The Cowboys’ next two games are against the Eagles and Chiefs, who are allowing the fifth- and second-most yards per play-action attempt this season. This will definitely be an area they’ll look to attack as they push for a wild-card berth.

Conservative Against Blitzes

In a similar vein to the Cowboys’ underneath play-action approach, Prescott has become much more risk-averse when blitzed. Last season, his average depth of target when blitzed was a lofty 11.1 yards — the highest of any quarterback with more than 300 dropbacks.

Despite his aggressive approach, Prescott managed just 7.0 yards per attempt against the blitz, which was well below league average. This season, his average depth of target versus the blitz has dropped to 7.5 yards — 25th among the top 32 quarterbacks — while his yards per attempt has grown by 0.5 yards.

Prescott is now taking fewer risks versus the blitz while also increasing his efficiency. In the Cowboys’ victory over the Raiders in Week 11, Las Vegas blitzed on 10 dropbacks. Prescott responded with seven completions for 104 yards and a touchdown.

Slant Success

We don’t often discuss which quarterbacks are best at throwing certain routes. While a slant may ostensibly be one of the easier throws for a quarterback, it’s the most “bang-bang” route in football and requires precise timing and placement. It’s one of the rare instances where a quarterback is throwing toward an actively accelerating target.

Prescott has racked up 19 first downs when targeting slant routes so far this season. That’s the most of any quarterback. His 285 yards on slant throws is the second most in the league, while his 130.6 passer rating on such plays ranks third.

He is, of course, helped in large part by George Pickens, who is enjoying a career year in his first season with Prescott. Pickens’ large frame and physicality are a nightmare for cornerbacks to contend with on quick in-breaking routes like slants.

Improvements in Intermediate Areas

One of the few areas where Prescott greatly struggled last season was the intermediate areas of the field (10-19 yards beyond the line of scrimmage).

Among the top 45 quarterbacks in pass attempts last season, his 45.7 PFF passing grade on intermediate throws ranked dead last. On 52 pass attempts, he was deemed to have 10 turnover-worthy plays — by far the worst rate in the league — with six resulting in interceptions.

It has been a completely different story in 2025. Prescott’s 91.6 PFF passing grade on those intermediate throws is the second best in the league, behind Jordan Love. He has five touchdowns and zero interceptions when throwing in that range, good for a 128.4 passer rating — a far cry from his 72.0 passer rating in the same category last season.

The justification for this improvement is simple. Prescott is playing with more poise and seeing the field better than ever before. While he may not be posting the same jaw-dropping numbers from his 2023 campaign, he is playing quarterback at an undeniably elite level. The MVP ship has perhaps sailed for the Cowboys’ signal-caller as we enter the latter stages of the season, but if he is able to lead Dallas to a playoff berth, nobody in the NFC wants to see him walking into their building in January.