Their on-field records are eerily similar. Their joint verdict in the Cowboys’ court of public opinion is ‘guilty of first-degree failure.’ But while one retired quarterback’s legacy is cemented, the concrete isn’t fully settled on his statistical doppelganger.

Is it too late for Dak Prescott, even in a year he’s putting up MVP stats, to distance himself from Tony Romo?

Romo was beloved by Dallas Cowboys fans for many years. He went from undrafted free agent to 10-year starter for the Cowboys, where he set franchise records in passing yards and passing touchdowns, surpassing the likes of Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman in the process.

However, there was one thing Romo could never accomplish.

Winning a Super Bowl. And because of it, when you ask the OG Cowboys fans, “Romo” is a four-letter swear word while Aikman is a diety.

Romo made the playoffs four times in his career with the Cowboys, and he never made it past the Divisional Round. Not all of that was his fault, of course, but when you’re below .500 in the playoffs on a team that gets as much scrutiny as the Cowboys, you’re going to get the blame. It’s safe to say that, when it came time for Romo to retire, Cowboys fans were ready for a new era.

The rookie takes over

Insert Dak Prescott. Despite a very successful collegiate career where he threw for over 9,000 yards and 70 touchdowns, nobody had super high expectations for the fourth-rounder.

Nonetheless, it didn’t take long for him to get thrust into the starting lineup. Romo, who was set to be the starter in 2016, fractured his back in the preseason, and Prescott was the next man up.

By the time Romo was slated to come back in the middle of the season, the Cowboys were 7-1 with Prescott under center, and the rest is history.

If you went back in time and told a Cowboys fan that they’d have Prescott under center for the next decade, many of them would’ve believed they’d win at least one Super Bowl.

As a rookie, Prescott completed over 67 percent of his passes for 3,667 yards, 24 touchdowns, and three interceptions. He looked like a future star, but 10 years later, he is still searching for that elusive Super Bowl win.

Prescott has now played 126 games in his career, and upon closer examination, his career is remarkably similar to Romo’s. He was supposed to be the guy who got the Cowboys over the hump and won their first Super Bowl since 1996.

But when you look at the stats, he may as well have just been Romo in disguise.

Stats through 126 career starts

Through their first 126 starts, Dak Prescott and Tony Romo’s career stats are eerily similar. They are within 1,000 yards, one touchdown, and one win of each other.

Similar beginnings

When you go back and look at how these two got started, you’ll find even more similarities. Tony Romo was an afterthought. He was undrafted in 2003 before signing with the Cowboys after the draft. He didn’t see the field for multiple years before earning his first start in place of Drew Bledsoe in 2006. After that, he made enough of an impression to hold the starting job for a decade.

While Dak Prescott didn’t go undrafted, nobody thought a fourth-round rookie would be the franchise quarterback for the Cowboys. He was never supposed to play as a rookie, but when Romo went down, he too seized his opportunity and grabbed hold of the starting job, which he’s had for 10 years now.

Struggles in the playoffs

ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith’s “Cowboys Steve” is an exaggeration.

But it’s based on a trend that is dangerously close to becoming an unarguable fact.

Under Romo, Prescott and Jerry Jones, you just gotta wait. Because one way or the other, this team will find a way to blow it.

In addition to their career beginnings and regular-season statistics, Tony Romo and Dak Prescott share another commonality. While they’ve been great regular-season performers, neither of them can seem to win in the playoffs. Both guys are under .500 in the playoffs in their careers and have struggled under the bright lights.

On top of their similar stats, both guys have had their fair share of playoff blunders.

For Romo, his biggest blunder didn’t come under center, but as a holder. In his first year as the Cowboys’ starter, he led Dallas to the playoffs. In the Wild Card round, the Cowboys traveled to Seattle and found themselves trailing 21-20 with under two minutes to go.

The Cowboys trotted out their field goal unit for a potential game-winning, 19-yard field goal, but Romo fumbled the snap and was tackled short of the goal line. The Cowboys would lose the game, all because Romo couldn’t handle the snap.

For Prescott, his biggest blunder came in 2024, when he and the Cowboys were ran out of their own building by the Packers. Prescott ended the game with 403 yards and three touchdowns, but two of those touchdowns and a chunk of those yards came in the fourth quarter when they were already trailing by 25.

It feels like, no matter how good of a team the Cowboys have, when Romo or Prescott are under center, they’ll always find a way to mess it up.

How can Dak get rid of the Romo stink?

If Prescott wants to hear his name mentioned with Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach and not Tony Romo once his career is over, there’s one thing he has to do: win.

There’s a simple solution to this problem for Prescott. He’s proven he can win big games in the regular season, but when the lights are the brightest in January, he really struggles to deliver.

Part of the reality: He needs a new GM. As much as we can blame this generational ineptitude on the QBs, it comes down to building a complete team and adding the essential pieces at the right times (and holding on to the GOAT talents you have).

Jones has turned what was one of the best defensive rosters in the NFL into a junior varsity team. Trading one of, if not the, best defender in football was a grave mistake, but he’s also let other key pieces of their defense go.

Dorance Armstrong isn’t a household name, but he had 8.5 and 7.5 sacks in 2022 and 2023, respectively. The Cowboys let him walk after 2023, and he signed with their arch-rivals, the Washington Commanders.

They also let Demarcus Lawrence walk this past offseason, and while he wasn’t a massive contributor, he had 3+ sacks in each of his last eight seasons with the team.

That’s three high-level edge rushers they let go, and now they’re – not shockingly – 28th in the league in pass rush according to Pro Football Focus, well behind both the 0-4 Jets (22nd) and Titans (17th).

Offensively, while the team is still good, they could be great if they made one key addition: Derek Henry. When the former Titan was a free agent a couple of years ago, Dallas sat on their hands and watched him sign with the Ravens. Jerry Jones was adamant that the Cowboys couldn’t afford him, but with the way he’s played in Baltimore, coughing up a few extra million would’ve been worth it.

Jones has proven incapable of achieving this balance. The Aikman dynasty was constructed by Jimmy Johnson.

Prescott is going to end his Cowboys career with more passing yards and touchdowns than any other player in franchise history, but that won’t matter if he can’t win in the playoffs.

I don’t think he even needs to win a Super Bowl to get rid of the Romo stink. If he can lead the Cowboys on a playoff run to the Super Bowl (or even the NFC Championship), I think he’ll finally get rid of the “he can’t win in the playoffs” title.

And time’s running out. The NFL is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league, and it’s been nearly three years since he won a playoff game.

Unfortunately for Prescott, with the roster the Cowboys currently have, it’s hard to envision them making the playoffs, much less making a deep run.

When their offense is healthy, it’s capable of winning a playoff game or two. And if they can add even a mid-level enforcement at the corner and on the D-line, that is worth the one late-game stop they need with Prescott arguably playing at an MVP level.

On the surface, it’s very simple for Prescott. All he needs to do is win in the playoffs. But when you look at the roster and the inability of Jones to recognize his own weaknesses and step aside, it’s hard to imagine a world where he gets another shot at a playoff run in the near future.