Dallas Cowboys tap quarterback Dak Prescott to call offensive plays in team’s final preseason game

ARLINGTON, Texas — Most of the time, an NFL team’s final preseason game tends to center around giving one final look at the players vying for the last remaining spots on the upcoming regular season’s roster. 

But Dallas Cowboys fans are getting a little more than that on Saturday night: They’re getting a glimpse into quarterback Dak Prescott’s play-calling abilities.

In the hours leading up to the Cowboys’ preseason finale against the Las Vegas Raiders at AT&T Stadium, reports began leaking out of Arlington that the team would be having Prescott call the team’s offensive plays during the contest. 

Those rumors were later confirmed as team owner Jerry Jones addressed the media and took questions on the team’s recent acquisition of backup quarterback — and former No. 3 overall draft pick — Trey Lance from the San Francisco 49ers.

In addition to revealing that Jones never consulted Prescott before pulling the trigger on that deal — a move he sees as an investment in the potential that his own scouts once saw in Lance as a draft prospect — the owner laughed when asked about head coach Mike McCarthy tapping Prescott for offensive play-calling duties in Saturday’s game.

“We may find that he’s found his calling,” Jones said, smiling.

That reply elicited laughs, but Jones has a history of hiring past Cowboys quarterbacks — Jason Garrett and Kellen Moore, most notably — as the team’s offensive coordinators.

After parting ways with Moore this past offseason, however, its McCarthy himself who’ll be helming what’s being hailed as the team’s new-look “Texas Coast” offense this year.

So, how’s Prescott doing as a play-caller? Pretty darn good! 

After a pair of fairly anemic offensive efforts from the team’s offense in its first two preseason games, Prescott’s calls in this matchup have yielded three touchdown drives, 15 first downs, a successful fourth-down conversion and a six-for-eight third-down conversation rate in the first half alone. 

With Prescott in his ear, likely outgoing Cowboys backup QB Will Grier — an expected roster casualty in the wake of the Lance trade — has completed 18 for 23 passes for 182 yards and two touchdowns in the first half. In what’s ostensibly his audition for making a roster somewhere else in the league, Grier has also peeled off another 49 yards as a rusher through the first two quarters.

Impressive stuff. 

And best of all? The team is up 21-13 at halftime.

Maybe Jones is onto something about Prescott’s play-calling future after all…