Dak Prescott is not, contrary to popular belief, a game manager. Game managers keep their teams in games. Game managers don't turn the ball over. Game managers are, in a world with fewer and fewer legitimately good quarterbacks in the league at a given time, a valuable commodity to have on your football team. The Dallas Cowboys would love to have a game manager right about now.

But Prescott is not a game-manager. He is something else entirely. He is a batting practice pitcher trying to win the World Series. He is someone who can, under absolutely perfect conditions, throw a football to the general area of the field that it needs to reach.

Give him the league's best offensive line and running back, a superstar wide receiver, a Hall of Fame tight end and more offensive depth than just about any other quarterback in the league and yes, he can throw a five-yard out to Cole Beasley. He can hit Jason Witten for a first down, or even throw the ball 30 yards down the field to a streaking Brice Butler. He can throw jump balls that Dez Bryant has to catch.

But these are not difficult throws. These are throws that anyone in the NFL, starter or otherwise, can make when they have five full seconds to scan the field. It's easy to find the open man when there always is one. How hard is it to turn around and give the ball to a better player 30 times a game?

These are the rudimentary qualifications of playing quarterback in the NFL. Prescott has passed them. He just hasn't gone any further.

It is extremely concerning that Prescott doesn't seem to be a better player today than he was when he took over for Tony Romo last fall. Rookies are allowed to need the help of their teammates. But once you've started 25 games, those Super Bowl caliber teammates expect you to meet them halfway. There were games last season, and this year, where Prescott simply didn't have it. Ezekiel Elliott bailed him out with a great performance on the ground. The offensive line gave him time to figure something out.

But the mark of a great quarterback, or even a good one, is the ability to lift your teammates when they need it most. Tom Brady won the Super Bowl without Rob Gronkowski last season, and is 8-2 without Julian Edelman this year. Carson Wentz lost his left tackle just as Prescott had for the past two weeks, but he hasn't missed a beat.

That was a class of player that Prescott was supposed to join this season. But he has simply regressed. Even coming into his terrible game against the Chargers, his interception percentage has more than doubled this year from 0.9 percent to 2.2. You would think that would come with more big plays... but Prescott's yards per attempt have fallen from 8.0 to 6.7. His completion percentage was down by five points and his quarterback rating by 15.

Elliott is out now. Smith was out for two games. They did not miss the entire season.

If Prescott were a game-manager, the Cowboys would have scored more than 22 points in their last game. Joe Flacco is a universally acknowledged game manager and he led the Ravens to 23 in their last game alone. What sounds better, throwing to Bryant and Witten, or Jeremy Maclin and Ben Watson?

If Prescott were a game-manager, the Cowboys would be above .500. Alex Smith, the league's favorite game manager, has the Chiefs at 6-4 and they have the league's 28th ranked total defense. Sean Lee will eventually come back from his injury. Eric Berry won't.

If Prescott were a game-manager, he wouldn't have gone three straight weeks without a touchdown pass. Blake Bortles has never even done that.

No, Prescott is something worse. He just isn't a very good quarterback. There's no justification beyond that. In an absolutely perfect situation, you can get by with a quarterback who isn't very good. The Ravens won a Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer. The Buccaneers did with Brad Johnson. When the Cowboys are at full strength, they have the talent to win a Super Bowl no matter who their quarterback is.

But when they aren't? Well... you just saw what happens firsthand. A great quarterback would never lose three consecutive games by 70 combined points. Neither would a game-manager.

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