The offseason roster churn has brought pessimism that the Dallas Cowboys can repeat as NFC East champs, with most picking the Philadelphia Eagles as the favorite in the division. But that negativity only spurs quarterback Dak Prescott's resolve.
"Where we are right now, it's all excitement. It is," Prescott said, via ESPN. "It's truly a privilege to be the quarterback of this team, to be a leader of these guys, offense, defense, this coaching staff that we have. And yeah, especially with everything being said about us -- you know what I mean? -- the lack of what we have, keep writing, keep talking. We're ready to go play."
Dallas' starting crew looks much different as the Cowboys prepare to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the season opener for the second consecutive season. Amari Cooper and Randy Gregory are gone. Michael Gallup and James Washington won't suit up. Tyron Smith is injured, likely thrusting rookie Tyler Smith into a starting blind-side role.
Receiver attrition has provided big question marks behind CeeDee Lamb, where Noah Brown and rookie Jalen Tolbert expect to play significant roles to open the season.
"I believe high expectations create higher results," Prescott said. "I feel like I'm my biggest critic. I'm tough on myself. I'm always going to hold myself to extreme, super-high expectations, higher than I think anyone else can. When you feel other people have those expectations for you as well, it's fun. It's fun. At that point, what you believe in yourself, other people believe in it, too. You just want to continue to improve and be the best you can."
The Cowboys famously haven't won multiple playoff games in a season or made the NFC Championship Game since 1995. Dallas also has not made it to the postseason in back-to-back campaigns since 2006-2007.
"It's definitely time for us to go back-to-back winning this division, getting to the playoffs, things that you said haven't been done in my career and hadn't been done in a long time," he said. "That's how you make those steps. You got to compile good years on top of good years to make those runs to give yourself a good chance. We got a good team. We got a great team, great coaching, great organization. Now it's time not to have any lapse, be better than we were last year and take the next step on top of last year."
The Cowboys usually enter the season with soaring, outsized projections from the football cognoscenti. Perhaps lower expectations entering the 2022 campaign will bring a different result.
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