The Dallas Cowboys (3-9) have lost six of their last seven games without Dak Prescott, including five by at least 14 points.
The Cowboys weren’t exactly dominant with Prescott – they were 2-3 and allowed 36 points per game defensively – but the wheels have completely fallen off without their franchise QB.
And things might not automatically improve when Prescott returns, either.
“Is this a quick fix? Do the Dallas Cowboys have a long road in front of them?” JR SportBrief asked on CBS Sports Radio. “I’m not going to say it’s long, but Jerry Jones is going to need some help in fixing the defense. Whether it’s a matter of going out into free agency, whether it’s a matter of the draft, this, I don’t think, is going to be a quick fix.”
On the plus side, the Cowboys play in the NFC East, where the Giants (5-7) and Washington (5-7) are duking it out for first place. But both of those franchises are building a foundation. The Giants have won four straight games, while Washington has won three in a row, including a win over the previously unbeaten Pittsburgh Steelers (11-1).
“The New York Giants are starting to establish an identity,” JR said. “They’re going to get Saquon Barkley back next year, hopefully. The Washington Football Team still has to figure out their long-term solution at quarterback. If you go ahead and you think about the Eagles, they are currently a mess at quarterback. So if the Dallas Cowboys want to look at the bright side of anything, it’s that they still play in an NFC East where everything is up for grabs. That might be the beautiful thing in them being able to turn things around for next season.
“But realistically,” JR continued, “I don’t want to say the Dallas Cowboys are in for a rebuild, but to say that all of a sudden they’ll compete for a title or a championship, haven’t we been saying that since 1995? It’s 2020.”
The Cowboys will finish with a losing record for the first time since 2015, when they went 4-12. They have not advanced past the divisional round of the playoffs since 1995.
“I don’t think the rebuild will take a long time. Some of the core pieces are there, especially on offense,” JR said. “The Dallas Cowboys are actually going to have to work on the defensive side of the ball, not rely on Dak Prescott to just be healthy, to get the ball to CeeDee Lamb and to air it out to [Amari] Cooper. The offense can adjust and get things going faster than that defense. It needs a whole hell of a lot of work.
“So do I think the Cowboys can come back next year and be competitive? Yes,” JR said. “But if we want to talk about championships, if we want to talk about going back to 1995, realistically, I think that might take a couple of years.”