OXNARD, Calif. — Entering his seventh season as the Dallas Cowboys‘ quarterback, Dak Prescott turns 29 on Friday.
“It will be the golden birthday,” Prescott said Thursday after practice. “I plan for this to be the golden year.”
Mike McCarthy coached two Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks with the Green Bay Packers in Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, who won the title with McCarthy after the 2010 season, and he believes Prescott has Super Bowl traits.
“This is Dak Prescott’s offense and I think you see him taking ownership of that because at the end of the day, defense wins championships, but the Super Bowl is won by the quarterback. If you look at it statistically, that’s my opinion,” McCarthy said. “That’s how I view the journey and the vision of how you prepare your team and what your team needs to look like. And I think he’s a guy that emulates exactly what you’re looking for, because he’s always looking to improve in all the areas.”
Prescott, who has one playoff victory in his first six seasons as the starter, said he thinks about winning a Super Bowl “a lot,” especially playing for a franchise that won titles with Hall of Famers Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman.
“I mean obviously knowing the quarterbacks that played specifically for this team and knowing their legacy and the ones that we hold at the highest standard are the ones that have Super Bowl rings,” Prescott said. “It starts there for me, trying to fill the shoes of those guys that have come before me and do something for this organization that hasn’t been done in a long time.”
The Cowboys have not won a Super Bowl since 1995, and they have won just four playoff games since. Prescott has a 1-3 playoff record, including last season’s disappointing wild-card round loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
By his seventh season as the full-time starter, Staubach had two Super Bowl wins and two other appearances. Aikman won three Super Bowls in his first seven seasons in Dallas. Danny White and Tony Romo dealt with the pressures of not delivering a Super Bowl in following Staubach and Aikman while putting up Pro Bowl numbers.
Prescott, who set the Cowboys’ record for touchdown passes in a season last year, understands.
“I think when you sign up for this position, depending on how early you get in this position, you understand that comes with it,” Prescott said. “When you win games, sometimes credit — you give us too much credit — so it’s reciprocated the same way. When you don’t win games, it goes on our shoulders sometimes and that’s OK. I’m a guy that will take it whenever. Take the good with the bad and just continue to help my team, help all 53 who will participate in the game, but as Coach says it takes more than that. It takes the whole unit, the whole organization. I don’t really worry about where the criticism or blame or any of that goes.”
