Andy Reid: Fletcher Cox Told Me About Dak Prescott In 2012
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Let's go back to 2012 for a second. Things were a lot different in Philadelphia Eagles land.
Andy Reid was entering what would become his 14th and final season as head coach. Fletcher Cox, the team's 12th overall pick out of Mississippi State, was entering his rookie season. And with Michael Vick nearing the end of his career, Reid was searching for the next franchise quarterback, taking a shot on Nick Foles in the third-round.
But back down south at Cox's Alma Mater, there was a little baby redshirt freshman quarterback that made an impression on the future Pro Bowl defensive lineman in practice the previous year. So much so, that Cox told his head coach about him.
His name? Dak Prescott.
"Cox told me, he says, 'You wait and see this quarterback that we [Mississippi State] have coming up here. Man, this guy is gonna be something.' And here he is," Reid told Colin Cowherd of Prescott on Wednesday. "Here this kid is and they're just doing a heck of a job."
"And he's really just building a foundation," Reid continued of Prescott. "Things are simple right now. So we're not throwing out our best stuff at people. That's not what we're doing. We're trying to give the young kids an opportunity to execute so we can evaluate them as players so they're not doing so much thinking. They're doing more playing and reacting. And right now, that kid is doing a nice job with it and I think he's building a nice foundation for myself."
The 23-year-old was entering the NFL with everything you dream of in a pro quarterback prospect. A four-year player at Mississippi State, Prescott dominated in his final two years accounting for 81 total touchdowns to just 16 turnovers. As a junior, Prescott threw for 3,449 yards, 27 touchdowns, and 11 picks while running for another 986 yards and 14 touchdowns. He led Mississippi State to a 10-2 record and their first No. 1 overall ranking in program history, finishing eighth in the Heisman Trophy voting.
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His athleticism came out even more at the NFL combine. At 6-2, 226-pounds, Prescott ran a 4.79 40-yard dash (67th-percentile) with a 114.9 burst score (71st-percentile). His Nike SPARQ-x score, which combines all of players' physical traits into one metric, was 95.0 (63rd-percentile) according to playerprofiler.com.
Prescott, however, was arrested in March for a DUI charge and fell to the Dallas Cowboys in the fourth-round.
In two preseason games, no NFL player has opened more eyes than Prescott. He is 22-27 for 338 yards, four TDs, and no interceptions...and that's just through the air. On the ground, Prescott has five carries for 41 yards and two more scores.
"It's very vanilla," Reid said of what Prescott is seeing preseason. "But whatever is thrown at you, if you're doing OK with it that's OK. Now, he's young. They've got a great quarterback. Tony Romo probably doesn't get enough credit for what he does. The kid is phenomenal and he's a great kid. And so they're in good hands. As long as he's healthy, they're good, but how about having a young guy behind him that's productive? I mean that's a beautiful thing that you could raise him in your system and he'll get the blitzes down the road here and we'll see how he handles that."
Ideally, Reid says he would give rookie quarterbacks a year in the NFL to learn blitz schemes like he did with Donovan McNabb, the Eagles' 1999 No. 2 overall pick. This is something McNabb's former backup and new Eagles head coach, Doug Pederson, is doing in Philadelphia with current No. 2 overall pick Carson Wentz.
"Well I would give him a year," Reid said of his ideal quarterback plan. "I did that with Donovan. I kind of brought him along through the first year and the last couple games -- we weren't very good. We won five games our first year. So those last couple games I gave him an opportunity to get in there and start. And I was lucky enough to bring Doug Pederson with me as a quarterback at that time and it was good to have him take all the blows in Philadelphia for Donovan. And then, also help Donovan, teach him. It's the blitz game that those kids need to work on."
