Another one bites the dust; the quarterback shuffle reaffirms Dak Prescott’s value to the Cowboys

When you identify your guy, you gotta push your chips all in the middle, and that’s exactly what the Chicago Bears did a few years ago to acquire Mitchell Trubisky. The Bears traded away their second-round (67th overall), fourth-round (111th), and a 2018 third-round pick to the San Francisco 49ers to move up one spot so they could select the North Carolina quarterback. But three years into his rookie deal, it looks like it could be the beginning of the end for Trubisky in Chicago.

After a good second season that looked like he was on the up and up, Trubisky took a step backwards last year. So much so, that the Bears made other plans by signing Nick Foles to a three-year deal with $21 million guaranteed a couple months ago. The Bears will have an open competition to see which guy will be their starting quarterback in 2020.

The potential fallout of Trubisky is just the latest example of quarterbacks selected in the top three overall of the draft who aren’t panning out. In just a little over a year’s time, several of these “elite” quarterbacks are being dumped or have the teams that drafted them hedging their bets by re-investing into the quarterback position.

The Philadelphia Eagles surprised everyone by using a second-round pick on Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts in last week’s draft. Call it an insurance policy, or call it looking ahead, but any way you cut it - that’s a hefty draft resource to be spend on a player whose only job is to back up franchise quarterback Carson Wentz.

Tampa Bay selected Jameis Winston first overall in the 2015 draft, but after five years at quarterback, the Buccaneers finally had enough. Winston is coming off a season where he threw 30 interceptions, the most picks thrown by a quarterback in over 30 years. With no extension, he signed a $1.1 million deal with the New Orleans Saints.

And if you go back a year earlier, you’ll find another five-year flame out. The Jacksonville Jaguars hoped Blake Bortles would be their quarterback for years to come when they selected him third overall in 2014, but after struggling in 2018, the Jaguars released him, turning to Nick Foles to be their new quarterback.

And now, just like Wentz and Bortles before him, Trubisky is the latest top three overall drafted quarterback to see Foles show up and take the helm.

All these circumstances serve as a reminder that franchise quarterbacks are just hard to come by. People will squabble over how much Dak Prescott deserves, but it really comes down to the whether you want your team to be the “haves” or the “have nots.” The stats clearly show it, Dak is pretty good quarterback.

While other teams are scrambling, throwing away all kinds of draft capital in an attempt to find that special person, we should all take comfort that the Cowboys already have their man, and are free to spend their draft resources on other things, like say, providing him with more weapons.

After a hot start last year, Prescott’s name surfaced into MVP consideration for the first time in his career, and with a wide receiver group that features Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, and CeeDee Lamb - don’t be surprised if we hear more of that same type of talk in 2020. And that’s a way more exciting outlook than some of these team are facing.