DALLAS — Dak Prescott ranked seventh in Sports Illustrated’s annual poll of NFL coaches, general managers, and evaluators, the highest he has ever finished in the exercise. Albert Breer published the results Tuesday morning.
Prescott drew 49 points and one first-place vote and appeared on 26 of the 104 ballots.
Breer sent out close to 200 requests after the cutdown to 53 last week. Voters included general managers, head coaches, personnel executives, pro scouting directors, offensive and pass-game coordinators, and quarterbacks coaches, and he asked each to rank the top five quarterbacks in the league as they will be at the end of the season rather than as they are now. Ballots came back from 20 head coaches and 21 general managers. All 32 teams had a voter, and 30 of them had more than one.
Justin Herbert finished sixth with 50 points on 24 ballots. Prescott appeared on two more ballots and finished one point behind. Each drew one first-place vote.
One quarterbacks coach described Prescott to Breer as a field general. An AFC executive expects a big year and said the cast around him now makes Dallas “scary every time they get off the bus.”
Josh Allen finished first with 427 points and 49 first-place votes on 101 ballots. Patrick Mahomes had won the poll every year since 2020.
Where Dak Prescott Has Finished In Albert Breer’s Poll
Prescott did not appear on the list at all last year. He was 11th in 2024. Before Tuesday his only top-10 finish was ninth, in 2020.
Breer credited the jump to how Prescott played in 2025 and to what he got out of George Pickens while CeeDee Lamb missed three games.
Pickens finished with 1,429 receiving yards. Lamb had 1,077.
What Dak Prescott Did In 2025
Prescott threw for 4,552 yards, 30 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions on 404-of-600 passing. He started all 17 games and completed 67.3% of his passes. He ran for 177 yards and 2 touchdowns.
The Dallas Cowboys finished second in the NFL in passing yards and fifth in passing touchdowns. Prescott ranked third in passing yards, fourth in touchdown passes, and fifth in QBR.
Operating out of play-action, he threw 14 touchdown passes without an interception. Matthew Stafford, who finished second in Breer’s poll, had 21.
Dallas went 7-9-1 and missed the playoffs for a second straight year.
What Prescott wanted this offseason was a rebuilt defense, executive vice president Stephen Jones said last week on DLLS Sports, and keeping Quinnen Williams was part of the ask.
“We hadn’t thought a lot about that,” Jones said. “I think Dak wanted to be a, if you’re going to listen to Dak, what he wanted was us to improve this defense and improve the guys on the defensive side of the ball, keep a guy like Quinnen Williams, guys like that. So certainly hadn’t been on our radar right now, but we always keep things like that. Obviously, Dak, the heart and soul of this team. He’s the Pied Piper. He’s the leader. He’s the ultimate leader on this team.”
“The great thing he loves is the leadership that we’ve acquired on the defensive side of the ball because you do need others to help lead,” Jones continued. “And you can’t, when you got 53 guys and a 17-man practice squad, it’s a lot of men. And you need more than one leader. And certainly he feels like we’ve made some huge jumps on the defensive side of the ball to not only have really good football players, but to have leaders as well.”
Prescott agreed to a four-year, $240 million extension on Sept. 8, 2024, the morning Dallas opened the season at Cleveland. Two years later to the day, Breer’s poll had him seventh. The contract runs through 2028.
Dallas drafted Prescott in the fourth round in 2016, 135th overall. He is 83-55-1 as the starter in the regular season and 2-5 in the playoffs, and he is entering his 11th season.
Dallas opens the season Sunday, Sept. 13, at the New York Giants. Kickoff at MetLife Stadium is set for 7:20 p.m. CT on NBC.
