Dak Prescott was 10 years old when the Dallas Cowboys drafted Tony Romo in 2003. Prescott arrived at Dallas as a rookie the year Romo played his last. This season will mark 10 years since that pivotal moment in the franchise’s history, and now, very little is left for Prescott to become the Cowboys’ all-time franchise statistical leader.

“Dak Prescott needs 5 passing touchdowns to tie Tony Romo as the Dallas Cowboys franchise leader in the category. Romo currently holds the record at 248,” wrote RJ Ochoa on X. “If/when Dak passes Romo he will be the franchise’s all-time leader in passing yards, passing touchdowns, completions, pass attempts, and completion percentage.”

Romo set the record of 248 passing touchdowns after 13 seasons. Prescott has chased him down in only 10 years in the league, which shows how prolific the quarterback is for the franchise. He has the potential to cover the gap in one game itself; he famously reached his career-high of five touchdowns in a single game vs arch-rivals Philadelphia Eagles in the 2021 playoffs. But if not Week 1, Week 2 should see Prescott not only tying the record, but extending the gap between him and Romo.

Prescott has passed the former quarterback in passing yards last year against the Eagles (there might be a pattern here), tallying 354 yards, while he needed only 160 passing yards to break the record. His 1-yard touchdown pass to George Pickens late in the first half tied Romo’s record, while a 9-yard connection with Pickens in the third quarter pushed him past it.

However, how he reacted to the achievement is very telling of his mindset.

“They did the whole deal [with acknowledging the record] during the timeout break and some of the guys were giving congratulations, and I’m like ‘No. Whatever. We’ll celebrate this after the win. I don’t want to hear anything about that right now,’” Prescott said.

By the end of the season, he held 35,989 yards, while Romo called off his NFL career with 34,183 yards. Not to forget, Prescott put up those numbers with a league-worst defense to deal with, and he still has a good few years ahead of him before retirement.

Prescott overtook Troy Aikman for the franchise record in completions with 2,901 in 2025 against the Green Bay Packers. In that same game, he also surpassed Romo with his 10th game of 300-plus passing yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. It was his fourth performance with three passing touchdowns and a rushing TD, which broke a tie with Romo and Danny White for the most in team history.

Even though analysts and stat-afficionados will keep an eye on these numbers this season, Prescott will enter 2026 with a chip on his shoulder, following a 7-9-1 finish last year. The quarterback was in elite form, but an embarrassingly poor defense upended his efforts. Dallas needs to win, period.

With 83 regular-season victories, Prescott is already third on the Cowboys’ all-time list for quarterback wins. He needs just three wins to move past Roger Staubach’s 85 and take second place. Catching Troy Aikman’s franchise-best 94 wins, however, would require a major push.

Off the field, both Prescott and Romo have mutual respect for each other, even though they were teammates for only one year.

“He has earned the right to be our quarterback,” Romo said about Prescott during the latter’s rookie season. “As hard as that is for me to say, he has earned that right.”

The very next year, Prescott reflected on the bond he shared with Romo. 

“Tony did an amazing job of helping me out. I think Tony realised that he couldn’t necessarily control whether he was going to play or not, but what he could control was our relationship,” shared Prescott in an interview in 2017. “I feel Tony did a great job, and I commend Tony and thank him so much for that – being another coach for me, helping me out on the game, in the middle of a game, at practice, on the field, off the field, giving me advice.”

With playoff goals in mind, Prescott and the Cowboys should go on to make Romo and former Cowboys greats proud.