Deciphering former Cowboy Terrance Williams confusing response to the Jalen Hurts versus Dak Prescott conversation

On July 14th, former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrance Williams, did an interview where he was asked about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts and Dallas Cowboys star Dak Prescott. He sat with Boss Cowboy Sports and was asked about both signal-callers. “Do you see any differences in their game? … and I’m curious on what are your thoughts are on the quarterback up there in Philadelphia.”

We’re almost always open to getting different perspectives on quarterbacks, and it’s almost always great when they come from wide receivers who have spent time in the NFL. Unfortunately, these guys might not necessarily communicate in the most clear and concise way so we have to do a little bit of interpretation on our own to figure out what they’re really saying.

Terrance Williams shared his thoughts on the Eagles and Cowboys Quarterbacks.

In relation to the Dak versus Jalen discussion, Williams stated the following: 

"Jalen Hurts is spectacular, but Dak and him are different. Like, they’re not even close. Like, they’re not even the same. To me, Jalen Hurts is more of a runner. That’s just facts. He’s just built that way. Dak has the luxury of, in certain games, do you feel like running for 50 yards or do you feel like throwing for 400? Jalen’s bottled to like, 100 yards rushing, 200 yards passing. He’s more of a ground-and-pound type of quarterback. Dak is like the best of both worlds. Dak is more like a thrower"

- Terrance Williams

The way he answered the question/prompt was delightfully difficult to understand. So, let’s stretch our literary analysis muscles and piece this one out line by line, the same way our English teachers tried to have us do with Shakespearian poetry.

“Jalen Hurts is spectacular… but Dak and him are different. Like, they’re not even close. Like, they’re not even the same.”

You’re not going to find any disagreement here. One very big difference between Jalen and Dak is that Jalen Hurts is spectacular and Dak Prescott is not. Honestly, one of Jalen’s greatest intangibles is that he’s not like Dak. We love him for that. 

Jalen is a great leader that plays smart and elevates the team. Dak does this thing where he throws the ball to the other team’s defense and helps elevate them on a pretty regular basis. A general rule is that you want your quarterback to elevate his own team, you know... and not the other team.

“To me, Jalen Hurts is more of a runner. That’s just facts. He’s just built that way.”

Jalen’s most recent performance did happen to be the most prolific rushing performance by a quarterback in Super Bowl history with 15 carries for 70 yards and three touchdowns, so it’s understandable that Williams did mention Jalen’s rushing prowess first and foremost. Also, we haven’t seen Dak run for 70 yards in a game since October 14, 2018. So yes, Jalen Hurts is more of a runner than Dak Prescott. Jalen was also born with legs, so it is also correct that he was built that way. All of those are facts. Williams is nailing it so far. 

“Dak has the luxury of, in certain games, do you feel like running for 50 yards or do you feel like throwing for 400?” 

Uuuuh. Uh oh. Now the wheels are starting to come off. Let’s touch on the rushing part first: has Dak been able to use his legs in the past? Yes. Did he lose a lot of that ability when his ankle got turned into mashed potatoes in the 2020 season? Also yes. Was he ever a guy who made you think, 'Aw man, is he going to beat us with his legs here?' Not really, and at least not consistently. 

Williams throwing out 50 rushing yards as a common thing for Dak is kind of nuts because Dak’s only ever had 2 games in his career where he has rushed for over 50 yards. It happened most recently against Washington in 2019 (69 yards) and then Jacksonville in 2018 (82 yards). Bringing up something that happened four years ago is just a weird thing to do. 

Now the throwing for 400 yards aspect of this… At first glance, you might think, ‘Yeah, Dak probably throws for 400 yards a few times a year.’ Well, my friends, that’s not quite the case. In 2022, Dak hit 400 passing yards exactly zero times. In 2021 he got there twice. In 2020, three times. And in 2019, three times. From 2018 back to his rookie season, he got there, again, exactly zero times. Williams is out of pocket on this one. Even if you give him the benefit of the doubt and think that he’s speaking in hyperbole, it’s still ridiculous. 

The best part of this line is Williams' implication by using the word "or." He said 50 rushing yards OR 400 passing yards. In his mind, Dak is in the locker room before the game thinking, 'Well, today I'm either going to run the ball OR throw it. I can't do both. That's crazy.'

“Jalen’s bottled to like, 100 yards rushing, 200 yards passing. He’s more of a ground-and-pound type of quarterback.”

This was the hardest line to decipher because it’s both insultingly complementary and wrongly correct. Williams had just gotten done unintentionally (assumedly) insulting Dak's ability to use both his legs and arm, then he comes out and says Jalen can do both. It’s weird though, because Williams set the benchmark of 100 rushing yards INCREDIBLY high and the benchmark of 200 passing yards INCREDIBLY low. 

Jalen has only hit 100 rushing yards in a game twice in his career, so Williams is looking bad in that respect. Jalen has hit 200 passing yards 21 times in his career, so Williams is looking good in that respect. It’s difficult to say whether or not Williams actually likes or even respects Jalen. To think so highly of his running ability that you assume he regularly racks up 100 yards on the ground while simultaneously thinking that he’s got the arm of a toddler and can only hit 200 yards in the air… It’s weird.

“Dak is like the best of both worlds. Dak is more like a thrower”

Oh. Okay. Now it makes sense. Williams just hasn’t watched football in the past year. That’s what this is. See, it would’ve made this all easier if he started off the whole interview by saying, ‘You know, I actually got rid of all the electronics in my house then I decided to lock myself in the basement from September to January, so I’m not entirely sure what happened last year. But yeah, for sure. I’ll throw some takes out there and we can run with it.'

I guess if we want to say that Dak is more of a thrower than Jalen, the stat that we’ll cherry-pick is that in their professional careers, Dak has thrown the ball 3283 times and Jalen has thrown the ball 1040 times. So yeah, if that’s the number you want to go with, then you are correct: Dak has thrown the football more times than Jalen.

Now, for him to say that Dak is the best of both worlds? That's straight-up wild. You just got done saying that Dak can only live in one of those worlds each game. My dude, he's not in the top five of either world.

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