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It’s been over three years since the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints squared off. That’s forever.
The last meeting between the two teams came early on in the 2015 season. Tony Romo was injured so Brandon Weeden started at quarterback, and he actually hit Terrance Williams for a game-tying touchdown that sent the game to overtime. Dallas lost on the second play thanks to C.J. Spiller.
That was the last time that the Cowboys played the NFC South, and fate didn’t draw them together since then. As the Cowboys are playing that division again this season it means a matchup against the Saints is happening, the first in the Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott era.
Dak Prescott has called Drew Brees his idol before
Considering he grew up and went to high school in Louisiana it’s not hard to believe that Dak is a huge fan of Saints quarterback Drew Brees. Prescott was in high school in 2009 when New Orleans won Super Bowl XLIV and Brees was named MVP of the game. Since he’s gotten into the NFL we’ve seen Dak speak highly of Brees.
As Thursday marks their first meeting against one another it’s not like Prescott has had an enormous amount of time to hang out with or around Brees. They did both make the Pro Bowl following the 2016 season and back then Dak was quoted as trying to shadow Brees to learn as much as possible from him.
.@dak's approach to shadowing @drewbrees this week at the Pro Bowl is just another reason he's so incredible. (h/t @nflnetwork Instagram) pic.twitter.com/d0fk6abkfv
— RJ Ochoa (@rjochoa) January 26, 2017
A few months later when the not-at-all-questionable and super accurate NFL Top 100 list came out, Prescott was included in the package centered around Brees. It was then that he referred to him as one of his idols.
They play in the same conference but, @drewbrees = @dak's QB idol.
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) April 20, 2017
Where should the @Saints all time passing leader rank on #NFLTop100? pic.twitter.com/GsZC5BrGUq
Due to NFL scheduling and the way things have worked out, Dak Prescott has played 14 of the non-Cowboys NFC teams so far throughout his career. Obviously he’s faced off against division rivals numerous times, in 2016 he faced the NFC North, and last season he faced the NFC West. The Cowboys are halfway through the NFC South this season but Dak has played the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before (the Zeke kettle game).
It’s funny that New Orleans might have been the game that Prescott is looking forward to most as a professional as it would feature his idol Brees and that they are literally the last NFC team for him to face.