Reminder: The 2016 Cowboys exhausted backup QB options before turning to Dak

With the offseason settling in and the Cowboys considered the prohibitive favorites to win the NFC East again, it's easy to forget where Dallas was this time last year in its search for a backup to Tony Romo. Dak Prescott was not definitely the answer.

Just ask his quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson, who pointed out to Todd Archer of ESPN last week that Prescott had terrible feet and didn't know how to call a play.

"The snap, he'd never done that," Wilson said. "Never called a play. He had his feet all goofed up. Never been under center too much. Never. Rarely said the words in the huddle or really any verbal communication at all."

This was right after rookie minicamp, basically a year ago right now. History is told by the winners, of course, so now the big book of football reads as if the Cowboys masterfully selected Prescott on Day 3, eyeing a talent with a connection to their playbook and plucking him with a value grab that would alter the course of the franchise and perhaps the division. 

The reality? Just like the Patriots with Tom Brady, the Cowboys got lucky. 

And that's perfectly fine, because any good oil tycoon will tell you, sometimes it's better to be lucky than to be good. The Cowboys were just that with Dak. It's still worth looking back at how close they came to never getting him and how they never really knew what they had on their hands.

Other quarterback targets in the draft

When the draft was happening, Jerry Jones and the Cowboys were determined to acquire an additional quarterback, a young signal caller to groom behind Tony Romo for the future. Dallas tried to make a play on the first night of the draft with a trade up, but nothing materialized. 

The Cowboys were targeting Paxton Lynch in the draft, but the Broncos ended up pulling off a deal that left the Cowboys out in the cold. The next day, Jones lamented a lack of sleep during the night because he was unwilling to overpay for the right to draft Lynch.

"When I look back on my life, I've overpaid for my big successes every time. I probably should've overpaid [for Paxton Lynch]," Jones told reporters.

This should be obvious, but the Cowboys were not drafting Prescott if they came away from the first round with both Ezekiel Elliott and Lynch. 

That wasn't the only bullet they accidentally dodged in the draft. The Cowboys also whiffed on an attempt to trade up in the fourth round and nab Connor Cook out of Michigan State.

"I was pretty surprised," Cook told reporters after being selected by the Raiders, who traded up one spot in front of Dallas to pick the quarterback. "I think Dallas was interested and they were trying to trade up."

Indeed, multiple reports confirm that the Browns and Cowboys were having discussions, but Cleveland took the offer from the Raiders instead. 

The Cowboys would "settle" for Prescott later in the fourth round, but passed on him one more time after missing on Cook, when they took Oklahoma defensive end Charles Tapper one pick after Cook was drafted. 

The Cowboys did their due diligence on quarterbacks in the draft and were going to come away with someone. They got extremely lucky that their guy was Prescott. Even after the draft, they weren't sure that he could help them right away.

Desperation mode

The Cowboys were nervous about something happening to Romo, and you can't blame them; Romo's stats suggest he might very well be the greatest quarterback in Cowboys history, but he also missed a ton of time with injuries. After a relatively healthy stretch from 2011 through 2014 (two total games missed), Romo suffered an injury early in 2015, getting knocked out with a collarbone injury in Week 2 against the Eagles.

He would return in Week 10, beat the Dolphins and promptly re-aggravate the injury against the Panthers on Thanksgiving, ending a season that featured Dallas teetering on playoff contention in a terrible NFC East anyway. The struggles of backups Brandon Weeden -- Jerry Jones famously said "you won't see a more gifted passer" -- and Matt Cassel -- Bills in a trade after Romo got hurt -- put the Cowboys on notice moving forward. 

So things moved to DEFCON 1 pretty quickly during the offseason when Kellen Moore went down with a season-ending injury in early August. Moore isn't saving anyone's season, but he was the backup to Romo. I repeat: the Cowboys were prepared to play Kellen Moore over Dak Prescott if something happened to Tony Romo. 

Prescott was supposed to be a project quarterback and, at the time, the Cowboys looked like they might have the worst backup quarterback situation in the league. 

Don't just yell at the idiot who wrote that either -- the Cowboys felt like they were in such a pickle that Nick Foles when he was released by the Rams. Chiefs in August of last year. Yes, the Cowboys wanted to sign Foles and start him over Prescott, but Foles wasn't interested in being the backup to Romo. Say it out loud, folks. 

Dallas Josh McCown. The Cowboys were so concerned with their backup situation they needed help from a team that won a single game last year. 

Again: all of these quarterbacks were on the table ahead of just, you know, playing Prescott. 

And all of this was before Romo went down in the preseason. Cliff Avril famously pulled him down from behind, setting off a chain reaction that would net Prescott Rookie of the Year honors and let Romo slide seamlessly into an NFL on CBS gig. (He's also doing work with our coverage of the PGA Tour, starting this weekend at the Colonial.)

Prescott was described before the draft as a "work in progress." It's pretty clear from the Cowboys' own assessment at the time they felt the same way.

But Dak improved tremendously and, by Week 1 of the preseason, actually looked pretty good. OK, he looked really good. 

And he just kept looking better and better as the preseason rolled along.

So once Romo actually went down there was a bit of "well, maybe Dak could do this" hope, but there was still a firm belief that once the regular season bullets started flying, defenses would catch up. 

They never really did. Part of that is having a great offensive line -- easily the best in the NFL -- opening up huge holes for the league's leading rusher in Ezekiel Elliott. A great offensive line and a great running back can make a young quarterback look good. But clearly Dak held his own.

That he was able to transform from a goofy-footed rookie to a dominant quarterback that quickly is a testament to the Cowboys coaching staff and Prescott's work ethic. But it's also a reminder that sometimes you need a little bit of luck to strike oil.