ARLINGTON -- Even Hall of Famer Roger Staubach, who has long been among the most vocal supporters for Tony Romo, can understand why the Cowboys would choose to stick with rookie Dak Prescott as their starting quarterback.

Staubach said Prescott has been "exceptional" in leading the Cowboys to a 4-1 start while Romo recovers from a fractured back he suffered in the preseason against Seattle.

Staubach knows all about quarterback controversies. For a few seasons, he competed against Craig Morton for the starting job. At one point in the 1971 season, Staubach and Morton actually alternated plays in games.

Coach Tom Landry eventually settled on Staubach as the starter in 1971. Staubach led the Cowboys to a Super Bowl VI win over Miami.

Staubach said the following season, however, an injury led to him losing his starting job and he didn't get it back right away when he was healthy because the Cowboys were winning with Morton under center.

"Tony is a fantastic football player," said Staubach, who was at AT&T Stadium early Friday morning to speak to about 600 Air Force cadets who spent the night on the field ahead of the New Mexico-Air Force football game Saturday at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. "We won the Super Bowl in 1971 and I separated my shoulder in the exhibition season of '72, and Craig Morton was the quarterback and took over and when I came back healthy probably eight or nine games later -- that was a 14-game schedule -- Craig was winning. We were winning as a team. I understood it. The momentum was there and you don't want to mess around with the quarterback position and Craig was playing very well. I didn't really play very much until the playoff game against the 49ers that year and I understood it. 'I'm still a good player and they're hopefully still going to need me sometime.'

"Tony is going to heal. He's going to be ready to play if they need him if something happens to Dak. I think Tony wants to win and he'll do what it takes to win and if they keep Dak in there to keep the momentum going I think he'll understand that. But he hasn't told me that, by the way."

But how will the quarterback decision affect the Cowboys' locker room? Staubach said the Cowboys coaches know best and must make the right call.

"The second-guessing now if Tony should be back in or not, it really is the coaches, they've got a feel for the team, what the attitude is and what's going on in that locker room," Staubach said. "They don't want to change that if it's really good and I'm sure it's really good now because they're 4-1. You just don't mess around with that. You try to keep it really good and keep the momentum going. So the decisions are going to be made based on that, that momentum and that feeling in the locker room how much is that, besides the quarterback, can help us win the next game. Right now the momentum is great, evidently the attitude is good and we have a great quarterback in this young rookie in Dak Prescott. Not knowing him, but everything you hear about him and watching him on the field, he's a very exceptional football player."

Staubach said he has yet to meet Prescott but has been impressed by what he's seen when watching him play.

"What I have seen and what others have said about him, his work habits they say are phenomenal. That's great," Staubach said. "What I see on the field is exceptional. He has great poise. He can sense what's going on out there and that's what's hard. Going from the college to the professional level, you really don't know for sure what a quarterback can do in those few seconds has to make a decision. Dak is very good at that and he's obviously a great athlete. You can be a great athlete but if you can't sense things that are happening over there as a quarterback it's not going to work. He's got both. He's got that sense of understanding of what's going on with defense and also he's very talented. He has a good arm and can run. Everything else I hear about him is great.

"I have some friends at Mississippi State that said, 'You guys hit a home run.' They said, 'You got Dak in the fourth round and he should have been in the first round.' I said, 'I don't know him,' and they said, 'Well, you wait and see.' And man, that was before the exhibition season, so they were right."