Cowboys' Dak Prescott 'humbled' to near passing Tony Romo as Dallas' all-time pass yards leader

FRISCO, Texas -- Some records in sports carry more weight than others. Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has taken hold of some of predecessor Tony Romo's all-time franchise records before, but the one available to him in Week 12 against the Philadelphia Eagles is a big one: the all-time Cowboys passing yards record.

Romo currently sits atop Dallas' all-time passing yards leaderboard with 34,183 yards with Prescott just 160 yards behind him at 34,024. Prescott's longtime go-to-guy in All-Pro wide receiver CeeDee Lamb thinks the record will fall in the first quarter on Sunday at AT&T Stadium. 

"Dak deserves it. He's done a lot of things for this franchise, this organization," Lamb said Thursday. "He's the epitome of a leader and a dynasty, essentially. As for Dak, he's going to get that. I have no doubt about it. He's going to get it probably in the first quarter."

Prescott himself, funny enough, could have seen this day coming because he felt he was a little arrogant after going from being a fourth-round pick in 2016 to the league's Offensive Rookie of the Year in a 13-win season. 

"I'm humbled. Thankful to be healthy and to be in this position to do it. I was on the [TV] production call, and they asked me the same thing, 'Would I have thought this 10 years ago?' And I said, 'Yeah, I was very arrogant as a rookie,'" Prescott said. "When you've played in this game long enough and you can stay healthy, with my expectations of what my play is, that's supposed to happen. So just thankful, humbled, super grateful to be playing a game I love at this high of a level. To still be doing it and look forward to keeping going any of those that will happen."

It's one he views as being shared with all of the wide receivers and tight ends he's thrown to over the years from Lamb, George Pickens and Pro Bowl wide receiver Amari Cooper to future Hall of Fame tight end Jason Witten and more. 

"I's definitely something to be shared, whether it be with CeeDee, whether it be with Amari had a big part of it, right? All these receivers. Michael Gallup played a big part of these records, right? Dalton Schultz. Jake Ferg, Witten," Prescott said. "Like, so many of them. I'm just a product of a lot of great players. And that's my point, you play a long time and you play with the standard and expectation that I have, you should accomplish these types of things."

However, Prescott himself actually takes more pride in already being the Cowboys' all-time completion percentage leader at 67.1%. He's also taken hold of the career passer rating record (98.5) and more. 

"I'd probably say I take the most pride in completion percentage, and that's something that's hard to do. It's hard to do every year, each game and that's something that I actually don't think about the long haul of it," Prescott said. "I just go into every game honestly trying to get 80 [percent] and that's such a steep number but that's what I want. I think I've told y'all that after games, any incompletion I don't like unless it's a good one (where) I have to throw it away and have to live to the next play. That's probably the one I'm most proud of. The rest of them, like I said, when you're playing this game long enough, I think you should to an extent."

* 160 yards away from surpassing Tony Romo as Cowboys' all-time pass yards leader

With Prescott at the controls once again this season under first-year head coach Brian Schottenheimer, Dallas' offense is one of the best in football. Prescott (2,587 yards passing, fifth-best in the NFL), running back Javonte Williams (809 yards rushing, fifth-best in the NFL) and wide receiver George Pickens (908 yards receiving, second-best in the NFL) are all playing like top-five players at their respective positions for the NFL's No. 2 scoring offense (29.6 points per game). The Cowboys are the only team in the league this year entering Week 12 to have a player in the top five of the NFL in passing, rushing and receiving. That doesn't even factor in Lamb, who missed three games with a sprained ankle.

"He's hoopin. I've said that plenty of times," Lamb said. "He's taking control of the offense, he's taking the control of the game, he's managing the game, he's operating the game, and obviously we're clicking on all cylinders when he's doing that."

To Lamb's points, Prescott is playing like a top-5 to top 10 quarterback on the field this season. Although to Schottenheimer, that's not even where Prescott is at his most valuable at times despite the sparkling statistics. 

"I think he's invaluable in so many ways, what value he adds to this team, from leadership, from accountability, from he holds himself more accountable than maybe anybody. He's the first to say, 'I messed that up; I screwed this up. Hey, I got to be better.' You love that about your leader, one of your best players, the confidence he exudes, the way he's teaching and reading some of these young guys," Schottenheimer said. ... We've had a few more player-led meetings the past two weeks, just kind of wanting these guys to be able to talk football a lot. Sometimes it's good for the coaches to get the hell out of the way, and let these guys that have to go step in between the white lines and do the things together, do that. We've done that both on offense and defense. Dak certainly is very involved running that, but I'm not in there. I stay out of there, but my feedback from talking to the guys in there is it's great feedback. They work out the kinks on certain things, which I think is invaluable for us in this game and moving forward."