​LANDOVER, MARYLAND – DECEMBER 25: Dak Prescott #4 of the Dallas Cowboys warms up prior to a game against the Washington Commanders at Northwest Stadium on December 25, 2025 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Predicting the upcoming NFL season is always entertaining. You put out what you believe will happen, and if you’re feeling bold, you throw in a few riskier scenarios that could unfold if the chips fall a certain way.
On Wednesday, ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports, offered several bold predictions for the league, spanning both players and teams. All of them carry that bold, speculative edge, with one specifically involving the Dallas Cowboys.
ESPN is projecting Dak Prescott to throw for 5,000 yards in the season. Achieving 5,000 passing yards typically requires the quarterback to be in the right environment, usually when the team is positioned to lean on the passing game because the defense is difficult to solve. Prescott came close to 5,000 yards in 2019, as noted by ESPN, due in part to the Cowboys’ fast-paced offense that year. That same style has since resurfaced; the prediction points to a similar setup in 2026, a scenario that has been achieved 14 times by nine different quarterbacks, including legends such as Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Ben Roethlisberger, Dan Marino, Matthew Stafford, Justin Herbert, and Jameis Winston. The most recent 5,000-yard season was Mahomes in 2022.
To reach 5,000 passing yards in a 17-game season, a quarterback would need to average about 294.1 passing yards per game. Prescott’s best season came in 2019, when he averaged 306.4 yards per game but fell 100 yards short of 5,000 over 16 games. Interestingly, that year the Cowboys weren’t especially pass-heavy, with a 60.7% dropback rate below the league average. However, they also ran a high number of plays because of their tempo. In their first year under offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, the Cowboys led the league in plays per game and had minimal time on the play clock between snaps. Last season, under head coach Brian Schottenheimer and offensive coordinator Klayton Adams, the Cowboys again boasted a fast tempo, leading the league in play-clock-stay and in plays per game. Prescott attempted a career-high 600 passes.
If the volume is there, Prescott could not only lead the league in passing again but also push toward a 5,000-yard season. The other piece of the puzzle will be explosiveness and keeping the offense aligned for stronger SEO, so to speak, by stretching the field and gaining big-play opportunities.