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Cowboys QB Dak Prescott ranked 6th in 2021 passing plus/minus

Cowboys QB Dak Prescott ranked 6th in 2021 passing plus/minus

The Dallas Cowboys’ season did not go according to plan. Well, at least the plan from the first half of the season. Entering 2021, not many knew what to expect out of the organization that finished with just six wins the prior year. There was a third defensive coordinator in three seasons to go along with a head coach who had eroded the confidence of many of his supporters. Most importantly, there was a question about the health of starting quarterback Dak Prescott.

Prescott missed the final 11 games of 2021 after a gruesome leg injury, and then had a shoulder injury that held him out of the preseason. But he came out guns blazing, leading the Cowboys to the No. 1-ranked volume offense for the second time in three years. And though the offense struggled in too many contests in the second half of the year after Prescott suffered a calf injury, they did so in large part because Prescott is very good at his job.

In fact, he ranked sixth in passing plus/minus, a Football Outsiders metric that measures how many passes a QB completes that the average quarterback wouldn’t have based on the level of difficulty of every throw attempted.

Ranking sixth placed him above several guys who are considered to have better arm talent than him. Names such as Matthew Stafford, Justin Herbert, Russell Wilson, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes.

Passing plus/minus is a stat we annually track to help provide context to completion percentage. Given the location of a quarterback’s passes, it compares his completion percentage in each area to historical baselines. This stat does not consider passes listed as “Thrown Away,” “Tipped at Line,” “Miscommunication,” or “Quarterback Hit in Motion” by Sports Info Solutions charting. Metrics are based on how often a pass is completed based on the pass distance, the distance required for a first down, and whether the ball was thrown to the left, middle, or right side of the field.

Rounding out the QBs in the division, Jalen Hurts was 22nd, Daniel Jones 27th and new Washington Commanders QB Carson Wentz ranked 29th out of 34 qualifying QBs.

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