Prescott, Goff and Wentz Swap Roles in Season 2 of 'As the Quarterbacks Turn'

Dak Prescott is pressing. The league has caught up with him. His accuracy is spotty. He’s not on the same page as his receivers. The rookie magic has worn off. 

Jared Goff is a Pro Bowl candidate, or maybe an MVP or Hall of Fame candidate. He has "arrived," whatever that means. He has proved the doubters wrong. His decision making is brilliant, his throws pinpoint. The Rams were geniuses for drafting him.

Carson Wentz has made great strides since his rookie year. Or maybe he has gotten lucky. He cannot throw the deep ball, except when he can. He’s immobile, except when he scrambles like king-sized Russell Wilson. Last year, the Eagles should have waited and drafted Prescott. Now, they were fools for not aggressively trading all the way up last year to nab Goff.

Welcome to the Quarterback Narrative, the NFL’s weekly reality series with a tenuous grasp on reality.

When last season ended, Prescott was the nigh infallible Rookie of the Year. Goff was a stumblebum headed for the all-time draft-bust listicles. Wentz was an inkblot test, a player to deconstruct mechanically and statistically the way grad students torture new meanings from old poems.

But reality television is all about surprise twists, so it’s time to shake up the status quo for Season 2.

Goff has now led the Rams to a 3-1 record. His 112.2 quarterback rating ranked third in the NFL entering Monday night, behind that of Alex Smith and Tom Brady. He’s thrown seven touchdowns and just one interception.

Prescott looked bad against the Broncos two weeks ago and couldn’t lead the Cowboys to a home victory against Goff’s once-lowly Rams. His 90.1 rating ranks 18th in the NFL, his 60.8 completion rate 25th. He has thrown three interceptions in four games after throwing just four in 16 games last year.

Wentz, always the in-betweener, has a 90.5 quarterback rating (16th), a 3-1 record and an open-to-interpretation collection of highlights and lowlights.

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

From these statistics and results we build storylines. A Prescott sophomore slump. A Goff redemption arc. Neurotic Eagles-fan Wentz worries.

But the storylines are mostly hogwash, just as they were last year.

Yes, Prescott played very well as a rookie, Goff very poorly and Wentz very much like a rookie. But no one was as wonderful or dreadful as we pretended they were last year. And not as much has changed this year as the standings and statistics would have you believe.

The Goff-Prescott storyline was humming along in status quo cruise control until about the eight-minute mark in the second quarter of Sunday's Rams-Cowboys game. At that point, Prescott had led three scoring drives and threw a touchdown pass to give the Cowboys a 17-6 lead. Goff's previous five passes had resulted in one completion for a loss of two on 3rd-and-10.

Then rookie returner Ryan Switzer muffed a punt, giving the Rams the ball at the 19-yard line and setting up a short Goff touchdown pass.

Prescott responded with a spectacular drive, scrambling to find Dez Bryant for 18 yards on 3rd-and-7, standing in the pocket against a free blitzer to float a 31-yard catch-and-run to Ezekiel Elliott and nailing Brice Butler in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown. When the Rams got the ball back after halftime, Goff got strip-sacked on his own 10-yard line, but his own lineman pounced on the ball.

The narrative was detaching itself from reality. Great Prescott plays and big Goff mistakes were being erased from the tale. And it kept happening. A run-heavy Rams drive set up another field goal. A short pass to Todd Gurley became a 53-yard rumble. The Cowboys run game stalled, forcing Prescott into a few 3rd-and-mediums that he failed to convert.

Suddenly the Rams held the lead, the Cowboys offensive line buckled on 3rd-and-9, and Prescott fluttered a pass into the hands of Mark Barron just as Michael Brockers walloped him. The play was ruled a fumble on the field but later classified as an interception; had the play remained a fumble, Prescott's quarterback rating would be 93.7, 13th in the NFL and higher than Wentz's.

One bad play, exacerbated by the Rams pass rush, and the narrative resequencing was on.

Ron Jenkins/Associated Press

Speaking of Wentz, he later faced the Chargers, winning the kind of game the Eagles typically lost last year. Wentz started hot but kept leading drives that stalled at the fringe of the red zone, his deep throws never quite connecting with his receivers.

The Eagles lost at least three games last year (Lions, Cowboys and Redskins) because they settled for too many field goals and couldn't close games out in the fourth quarter, the losses shading perceptions of Wentz's (and Prescott's, in the Cowboys game) performance.

This year's Eagles employ LeGarrette Blount at running back, and Blount ripped off a bruising 68-yard run to set up a fourth-quarter touchdown to give the Eagles breathing room. He then helped Wentz and the other backs munch the final six minutes and 44 seconds of the game while they clung to a two-point lead.

A likely tough road loss in 2016 became a gritty road win in 2017. Throw in a miracle field goal against the Giants, and the story is all about Wentz's development.

Which is not to say Wentz hasn't developed. He reads defenses better, makes adjustments better, throws on the run better. Goff has grown, too, now that he's executing game plans that don't look like they were scrawled onto the wall of a gas station bathroom.

Prescott has also developed, despite a pair of losses. For evidence, see the drives mentioned above, Sunday's late comeback bid that ended with two-point conversion penalties, or anything that happened after the second quarter on Monday night against the Cardinals. Prescott only suffers in comparison to the unsustainable highs of last year, when the Cowboys were in complete command of nearly every game and he rarely had to force a throw.

This year, the Cowboys aren't running or protecting Prescott quite as well as they did last year, and their defense bends a little too readily. Meanwhile, the Eagles are running and catching the ball better. The Rams are more balanced and have benefitted from facing the Colts and 49ers.

The unsexy truth is that Goff, Prescott and Wentz are three talented young quarterbacks who have always been products of their environments. Prescott inherited one of the best situations a rookie quarterback can ask for: All-Pro line, superstar running back, several weapons, stable coaching staff. Goff inherited one of the worst: Jeff Fisher, Jeff Fisher, Jeff Fisher and Jeff Fisher. Wentz became the starter days before the season opener for a team in transition and made the most of what he knew how to do.

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

But we praised one, buried the second and did a little of both to the third because we're addicted to the Quarterback Narrative like it's The Bachelorette and insist on confusing team performance with quarterback quality.

Now we risk overcorrecting and reacting to our own previous reactions, dwelling on errant Prescott throws we used to ignore, overlooking Goff's many off-the-back-foot heaves or obsessing over whatever the Philly sports talk guys dream up about Wentz.

That's not careful analysis, or even accurate observation. It's just narrative. Enjoy it if you like, but be prepared when it turns on a dime after a deflected pass, missed field goal, fluke penalty or something else well beyond any quarterback's control.

And enjoy these three young quarterbacks, shortcomings and all. They're fun to watch. And we still have a long way to go before we figure out who ranks where.

Mike Tanier covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. He is also a co-author of Football Outsiders Almanac and teaches a football analytics course for Sports Management Worldwide. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeTanier.