Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Brandin Cooks defended his quarterback, Dak Prescott, on Wednesday, calling criticism against the three-time Pro Bowler “blasphemy.”
Jon Machota of The Athletic relayed the comments.
“It’s blasphemy. It’s unbelievable. The guy shows up every year, year in and year out. Putting up numbers, leading his team. He can’t do it all by himself. A lot of those great quarterbacks that I’ve been with, Tom (Brady) and Drew (Brees), don’t get me wrong, they won a lot of games, won a lot of Super Bowls, but they had a lot of help around them as well, right?
“Us players around (Dak) also got to step up. So when we hear that disrespect, I take that personally and as his teammates we should take that personally, because at the end of the day, somebody has got to be able to help him get over that hump so we can go win one.”
Cooks isn’t the only NFL player to recognize the hate Prescott receives. Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najee Harris had this to say on Radio Row at last February’s Super Bowl.
“Who has the most hate? Dak Prescott,” Harris said (h/t Harrison Reno of Sports Illustrated). “That’s a no-brainer. I don’t think people understand how hard it is to play quarterback, first of all, in the NFL, but not only that, play for the Cowboys, and you [are] winning 11-12 games a year. And you are still saying that’s not enough, and he doesn’t play defense. There’s not many teams in the NFL that have a quarterback like that.”
It’s no surprise that the person playing the most important position on the NFL’s most popular (and most talked about) team receives a heavy dose of criticism, whether it be on national television shows, social media or elsewhere.
In Prescott’s case, the Cowboys’ playoff record under him (2-5) certainly gets attention. Three of those losses have come at home, including the ugliest one of them all last January, a 48-32 loss to the No. 7 seed Green Bay Packers.
Dallas simply hasn’t fared well in the postseason, and the team has now gone nearly three decades without reaching a Super Bowl.
But the fact of the matter is that Prescott is still a very good quarterback, one many teams would be happy to have on board. He’s a three-time Pro Bowler who just finished as the Associated Press NFL MVP runner-up. Prescott has also thrown for 202 touchdowns in his 114 career starts, including an NFL-high 36 last year.
The 2024 season brings another chance for Prescott to shut up the critics, though. Dallas gets the season going on Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET against the host Cleveland Browns.
