Sometimes, football analysts will try to look beyond the numbers and beyond the plays to offer their viewers some critical insight into the bigger picture surrounding how a player has performed.
Other times, they might just say that an NFL player “sucks.”
NBC Sports Bay Area’s Donte Whitner went with the latter Sunday evening to describe Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott following their dismantling at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers.
In a head-to-head battle between two teams considered frontrunners to win the NFC, it wasn’t even a contest. Niners quarterback Brock Purdy threw for 252 yards and four touchdowns while Prescott threw for 153 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions. San Francisco cruised to a 42-10 victory and Whitner, working as an analyst for NBC Sports Bay Area, did not mince any words about Dallas’s QB afterward.
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“Dak Prescott sucks. Period,” he said during the postgame discussion. “They talk so much about Dak Prescott being a top-tier quarterback, franchise guy. I don’t see it. I see them trying to cover up for what he lacks. A lot of quick throws, cutting half the field off and getting him easy throws. Other than that, he’s not a quarterback that can drop back and really take advantage of a defense.
“The 49ers defense made him look like a tier-four quarterback.”
The “Oh my god” uttered by Carlos Ramirez after Whitner says “Dak Prescott sucks” was the perfect response for that moment of unabashed honesty.
Broadcasters have seemingly been getting a bit harsher in their assessments of quarterbacks in recent weeks. Prime Video’s Rodney Harrison caught a lot of flak last week for calling Jets quarterback Zach Wilson “garbage.” We’re not seeing the same level of pushback on Whitner, perhaps in part because he’s a regional broadcaster or perhaps because the 49ers-Cowboys rivalry invariably creates this kind of animated discussion.
Prescott, like many Cowboys quarterbacks before him, has been the focus of criticism because Dallas has been unable to get to the Super Bowl on his watch. Is the criticism a bit much? Almost certainly. Prescott had a miserable game but he’s also the guy two years removed from throwing for over 4,400 yards and 37 touchdowns. But such is the cost of doing business as the Dallas Cowboys quarterback. When the takes come, they’re pretty spicy.
