Before Dak Prescott made his regular season debut with the Cowboys last year, his Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen appeared on PFT Live and said he was “shocked” Prescott lasted until the fourth round because Prescott “was a winner” in college.
Mullen looked prescient come the end of Prescott’s rookie season as he led Dallas’ offense during a 13-3 season that ended with a division title. Mullen was in position to gloat about his assessment of Prescott at a session with reporters during SEC media day on Tuesday when he was asked about teams missing in their evaluation, but took a different path.
“Why did they miss on him in the draft? I have no idea. ... I think when you get to the NFL, everybody is looking for something different and you might not be looking for a quarterback, or someone of his style,” Mullen said, via Chase Goodbread of NFL Media. “That’s very unique, where you might slot a quarterback in [the] draft or what they’re looking to get out of that quarterback position. It’s hard to say teams missed on him because you don’t know what their strategy going into that draft was.”
Many a barroom and living room debate can be had about whether Prescott would have had the same kind of success without Ezekiel Elliott and the Cowboys offensive line on his side, but it’s harder to argue that the Cowboys got exactly what they needed when they brought the quarterback to Dallas last year.