FRISCO, Texas — Mike McCarthy wanted Dak Prescott. Prescott wanted McCarthy.
Their first yr collectively as Dallas Cowboys playcaller and quarterback has been an unqualified success. Prescott led the NFL with 36 landing passes. The Cowboys led the NFL in scoring with 29.9 factors per recreation. Prescott accomplished a career-high 69.9% of his passes. The Cowboys have been fifth in yards per recreation (371.6).
Because the Cowboys enter the playoffs Sunday towards the Inexperienced Bay Packers (4:25, p.m. ET, Fox), McCarthy and Prescott are tasked with being their finest when the stakes are the very best or else the regular-season numbers will appear hole.
“With the ability to work with him hand-in-hand each day — in regards to the recreation plan, in regards to the playcall, the playcaller goal — I do know what he is considering. He is aware of my strengths, what I am making an attempt to get to,” Prescott mentioned. “We all know the strengths of this offense and the gamers round me. It has been enjoyable.”
When McCarthy determined to make himself the playcaller and transfer on from Kellen Moore, who over a seven-year span was Prescott’s teammate, place coach and coordinator, there have been questions on how it will make the offense higher.
Whereas the majority of his time because the playcaller when he was the Packers’ head coach was a statistical success, the ending for McCarthy was troublesome. Earlier than he was fired in 2018, his offense was deemed stale and predictable.
In 2023, Prescott was coming off a season through which he tied for the league lead in interceptions with 15 regardless of lacking 5 video games with a damaged thumb. Prescott wasn’t damaged, however he wanted assist.
McCarthy believed in himself.
In a means, he was betting on himself.
“I’ve by no means considered betting on myself. Is there a line on there?” McCarthy quipped. “It is authorized now, proper?
“No, I feel it is like each season you undergo an analysis course of and there is issues that you are looking at in the course of the yr and simply felt that that was the only option for the workforce. And I am having fun with it.”
Not all the interceptions final season have been Prescott’s fault, however they have been a problem, despite the fact that he hadn’t had a turnover drawback his first six seasons. Whereas he has confronted fixed questions on the place he ranks within the quarterback hierarchy throughout the NFL, there was a special depth this time past his skill to take the Cowboys to a Tremendous Bowl.
Prescott believed in himself.
“For me, nearly staying true to myself, preserve working and never permitting different folks’s opinions — critics, actually — have an effect on my recreation and the best way that I strategy this,” Prescott mentioned.
With McCarthy as his playcaller, Prescott had the perfect season of his profession. He lower his interceptions from 15 to 9. His interception proportion (1.5%) tied for the second better of his profession. He accomplished a career-best 69.9% of his passes.
“For those who’ve requested any offensive playcaller, that relationship’s crucial to success,” McCarthy mentioned. “I feel that is being Captain Apparent. All people does it in a different way. I am calling it and he is hauling it — that is what Dak likes to say, and that is the best way it has to go. That connection takes additional time, we put the time in early by camp. It is labored out properly and I feel the proof is within the numbers.”
Earlier than McCarthy turned Prescott’s playcaller this season, they already had a powerful relationship. When Prescott suffered a fractured and dislocated proper ankle in 2020, McCarthy’s first season in Dallas, the coach drove the quarterback house after a rehab session. They spent hours speaking about soccer and life.
They’ve grown tighter this yr with their new partnership. Brandin Cooks noticed it with Drew Brees and Sean Payton with the New Orleans Saints, Tom Brady and Invoice Belichick with the New England Patriots and Matthew Stafford and Sean McVay with the Los Angeles Rams.
“I wish to say all through the offseason, the period of time they spent collectively, clearly that is the quarterback, but it surely was on a complete different degree,” Cooks mentioned. “Simply the respect they’ve for one different, you possibly can clearly see it from the best way he coaches him and the best way Dak responds to the teaching. … Any nice quarterback/head coach duo, it needs to be like that.”
On Thursday nights, a few hours after conferences finish, Prescott and McCarthy meet within the coach’s workplace. They go over the sport plan as soon as once more and focus in on what the quarterback needs and doesn’t need referred to as on recreation day. They cowl the drive-starting performs and the situational moments, but it surely’s greater than that.
“You bought a two-hour assembly, half-an-hour to 40 minutes is partly soccer, the opposite is about life,” McCarthy mentioned. “That is crucial, it is a huge a part of it.”
To Prescott, it is probably the greatest elements of his weekly preparation.
“Simply any individual that clearly I can be taught from, [he’s] seen so much in life, seen so much on this recreation,” Prescott mentioned. “Generally it is the historical past within the recreation. Generally it is me waiting for fatherhood. So he is simply been a terrific buddy, clearly a terrific coach, and I feel that is what these Thursdays are about. This may not be no totally different. … I often depart that, and often I am late for the O-line dinner, relying on how lengthy we go.”
