Dak Prescott Ranked Top Five in Passing Statistics

Dak Prescott's passing statistics tell a story.

Former Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott is coming off of a split season for the Cowboys. 

On one side, Prescott finished the 2022 season ranking third in success rate, top-10 in EPA and CPOE composite score (expected points added and composite points over expected). On the other side, he led the NFL in interceptions (15), even after missing five games due to an injury.

Looking at Prescott's 2022 season may tell one story, whereas a much more focused stat will tell another story.

Narrowing in on failed completion rates, Prescott was ranked No. 14 in the NFL. Both Jalen Hurts and Daniel Jones finished ahead of Prescott last season. but when overall quality and effectiveness are taken into account, Prescott found himself in the top five, which placed him higher than Hurts and Jones.

With a failed completion rate of 19.5% Prescott ranked fourth in the NFL while Geno Smith the leader in NFL's completion passes dropped to sixteenth in the NFL. Hurts and Jones finished fourteenth and twenty-fourth in the NFL. 

Looking deeper into the completion percentage, it seems these players propped up on completions that were unsuccessful plays. Prescott's completion percentage failed because he was pressing down the field more. He was trying and succeeding in making successful plays to increase the Cowboy's scoring odds. 

Prescott is an aggressive passer who takes risks, and as a result, tends to turn the ball over more. This caused his negative stat in interceptions, beating Josh Allen the NFL leader in 2022 who had fourteen interceptions this season. 

Back in 2021, Prescott only threw 10 interceptions, which was 18th in the NFL and he still ranked in the top 10 in low failed completion percentage. A pattern of performance is found in the Cowboys' signal-caller. In 2020, he ranked fourth in the NFL and in 2019 he was the league leader in having the lowest failed completion percentage (17.3%). The interceptions from the '22 season are an anomaly completely unrelated to his low failed completion percentage. 

Consistently, Prescott is finishing in the top tier of the NFL passer's failed completion percentage which shows his completions aren't empty calories and are efforts to score the ball. 

It will be interesting to see what the next season has in store for Prescott.