Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott leads NFL in a statistical look at measuring ‘level of clutch’

One measure of clutch supports the idea that Dak Prescott is among the NFL’s very best quarterbacks.

For years now bright minds have done their best to try and measure how “clutch” certain athletes are. The word clutch, defined roughly as the ability to come through when the pressure is highest, generally follows the greatest names in sports. Tom Brady, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods all came through in the clutch when the stakes were the highest and the pressure was the most intense. As noted people have done their best to understand exactly what goes into this.

A few years ago I remember Sports Science (the television program on ESPN) doing studies to try and figure out what skills and attributes helped in this regard. Were some people able to keep their heartbeats lower and steadier than others? Was this something they could legitimately control, or a coincidence for the makeup of who they were as a person that worked for them in the particular line of work that they were in?

Whatever the case, the people who win the most generally have the word clutch associated with them the most often. These days when it comes to the NFL it is difficult to consider anyone more clutch than the Kansas City Chiefs and quarterback Patrick Mahomes specifically. Consider that when the San Francisco 49ers took a three-point lead in overtime of Super Bowl LVIII that the Chiefs, with everything on the line, marched down the field and scored the game-winning touchdown.

Acknowledging that he and they are the gold standard, the Dallas Cowboys and Dak Prescott have had their share of clutch moments in the past. To be clear the Cowboys and Prescott lost in the playoffs and were not clutch in that game. Nobody is saying anything otherwise. There were simply other moments where they and he delivered.

According to one analysis that made the rounds across the internet, nobody delivered like Dak and the Cowboys in a certain set of specific situations in the 2023 season. Below is a study that was done on third and fourth downs within 14-point games, as well as any down in the fourth quarter within 10-point games. You can see how overcoming these obstacles would suggest that a quarterback is “clutch.”

Apparently nobody was more so in this respective set of data in 2023 than Rayne Dakota Prescott.

To be clear here, as is often said with regards to things like fourth quarter comebacks, you have to be in a trailing position for these sorts of things to happen and occur. Getting more down to brass tacks, you have to have played in such a manner that you dug yourself a hole. Digging out of it is impressive do not get me wrong, but the hole was dug is the point.

The top of this list passes the eye test for the most part in that quarterbacks like C.J. Stroud, Jalen Hurts, Jordan Love, Justin Herbert, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen are there. For what it is worth Baker Mayfield and Kirk Cousins are both present and accounted for in the green region of the list and as mentioned Dak Prescott comes in at the very top.

Like with any statistical analysis, this should be taken with a grain of salt as no single one tells the entire story of a team or in this case a quarterback. And the methodology used to create it matters But it is hard to not give Prescott kudos for helping engineering comeback situations that get the Cowboys out of pickles, some of which he helps contribute to existing in the first place as mentioned.