If you’ve been paying attention in the 20 years since Dave Smith awarded me this gig, you’d know the first rule is never quit on a quarterback or a job until you have another in hand. Which should tell you whether Dak Prescott deserves another contract. Nothing against Cooper Rush but, well, no.

Chances are Dak is a better quarterback than you may think. Top five in Cowboys history, which is saying something.

A panel convened Thursday by your intrepid reporter thinks so anyway. Captained by the Pro Football Hall of Famer and longtime Cowboys personnel man, Gil Brandt, it’s rounded out by Brad Sham and Babe Laufenberg, the voices in your heads during Cowboys games, as well as yours truly, who typed this up.

Before revealing the results of the survey, understand the mission: Try not to see dollar signs when you think of Dak. No matter who it is or how much he’s asking, it’s always too much now and not so bad in hindsight. Remember when Tony Romo signed a $108 million deal in 2013, then a franchise record? Seems almost quaint now, doesn’t it? And, unlike Romo, who was 33 at the time, at least Dak is approaching his prime.

The question isn’t if athletes deserve the obscene money they’re getting. They simply reap what the market will bear. The market for starting quarterbacks, like box office stars, is always high.

What you should ask yourself is not if Dak’s worth $35 million a year, but if he can take the Cowboys places some of his predecessors did.

With that in mind, it wasn’t hard coming up with the top quarterbacks in franchise history. Roger Staubach was our panel’s unanimous first-team pick, followed by Troy Aikman, who also went 4 for 4. Their qualifications speak for themselves. They own all five of the Cowboys’ Lombardi Trophies. Staubach just made the NFL’s Top 100 list. Both he and Aikman are Hall of Famers. No other Cowboys quarterback comes close to those two, which is hardly a criticism.

The radio boys gave third place to Don Meredith, basing their evaluation on qualities you can’t feed into a computer.

“Essentially played for an expansion team,” Laufenberg said. “And two attributes at the top of my QB intangibles — tough as nails and beloved by his teammates.”

Most old-school Cowboys, Sham noted, consider Dandy Don the toughest man to play the position in Dallas. Took a beating every week and never complained. Which is one of the reasons his teammates loved him so much. Also because he was funny, and he drove Tom Landry to distraction.

Laufenberg and Sham were also in near-agreement for fourth place. Sham gave it to Danny White, based on three NFC championship games. Laufenberg split his vote between White and Romo. Didn’t consider Dak, he said, because it’s too early, noting that John Elway won his Super Bowls at 37 and 38.

Meredith would rate right behind Staubach and Aikman on his list, Brandt said, if he’d played longer. He was just hitting his prime when he called it quits after the ’68 season at 30. Beaten down by boos and blows that did more damage to his psyche than his body, Dandy got out just as the Cowboys were getting good.

So who’s third on Brandt’s ballot? No. 4 in your program.

“I don’t know if Dak will ever reach that same plateau as Troy or Roger,” Brandt said, “because it’s harder to win now with so much parity.

“But I think the guy has everything you want in a quarterback.”

Brandt has been a fan since Dak lifted Mississippi State to a brief, glorious run as the nation’s No. 1 team in 2014. You don’t know hard it was to do that from Starkville, Miss. The feat let Brandt know Dak was a winner and a leader. The old Cowboy long ago made a habit of studying such qualities.

Back in the day, kids, the Cowboys hoarded quarterbacks like the Hunt brothers cornered the silver market. The OG Cowboys — Tex Schramm, Landry, Brandt — never went more than two years without drafting a quarterback. Four times they took two in the same year.

Get this: Going into the ’69 draft, the Cowboys already had Meredith, Craig Morton, Jerry Rhome and a 27-year-old quarterback coming off his Navy commitment. And they still drafted Notre Dame’s third-string quarterback in the 12th round.

“We could never get too many quarterbacks,” Brandt said.

The thinking was twofold: Maybe the new guy could beat out someone playing the most important position on the field. And if he couldn’t, maybe they could trade him for more than what they gave up for him.

Sometimes it worked; sometimes not so much. In 1977, the Cowboys took Glenn Carano in the second round and Steve DeBerg in the 10th before ultimately deciding Carano was the better bet. So they tried to trade DeBerg to San Francisco. Negotiations progressed from a sixth-rounder to a first before talks fell apart. The Cowboys ended up cutting DeBerg, and the 49ers claimed him. He started for four teams over the next 14 seasons.

Just the same, Brandt’s eye for quarterbacks served the Cowboys well over three decades of service. If he says Dak rates higher than White, Meredith and Romo — my picks to round out the top five — who am I to argue? A bust in Canton tips the scale.

The top five

The five best quarterbacks in Cowboys history, based on voting by Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Cowboys personnel man Gil Brandt; Brad Sham, long-time radio voice of the Cowboys; former NFL quarterback and Cowboys radio analyst Babe Laufenberg; and Kevin Sherrington, SportsDay columnist:

1. Roger Staubach

2. Troy Aikman

3. Don Meredith

4. Danny White

5. Dak Prescott