BREAKING: Dak Prescott is now the Dallas Cowboys’ All-TIME LEADER in touchdown passes
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys have a new king of the mountain.
Dak Prescott, the fourth-round pick who was never supposed to be the guy, now stands alone atop the most prestigious passing record in franchise history. With a 24-yard strike to CeeDee Lamb in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 37-20 dismantling of the Washington Commanders, Prescott threw his 249th career touchdown pass, surpassing Tony Romo for the most in Dallas Cowboys history.
The record-breaking throw came with 3:13 left to play, capping a four-touchdown masterpiece in which Prescott completed 26 of 31 passes for 279 yards and zero interceptions. He tied Romo’s mark earlier in the third quarter with a 12-yard dart to tight end Jake Ferguson, then sealed his place in the record books with the deep ball to Lamb that sent a raucous AT&T Stadium crowd into a frenzy.
The Man Who Wore 12
In his postgame press conference, Prescott walked to the podium wearing a Roger Staubach jersey — a deliberate nod to the legends he now sits beside in the record books.
“You grow up a Cowboys fan, and you understand the history of this organization, the past quarterbacks before me,” Prescott said. “The prestige of quarterbacks that I surpassed — Roger Staubach, Danny White, Troy Aikman, Tony Romo — that’s not something that is lost on me. It’s humbling”.
Romo, who held the record with 248 touchdown passes from 2006 to 2016, was the quarterback Prescott replaced when a back injury ended Romo’s 2016 season and launched the most unlikely franchise-quarterback tenure in NFL history. The two have been linked ever since — the undrafted understudy and the star he never gave the job back to.
Now, Prescott has surpassed him in virtually every passing category that matters: touchdowns (249), passing yards (36,164), completions (3,206), attempts (4,793), completion percentage (66.9%), and passer rating (98.2). He needed just 141 career games to reach the touchdown mark; Romo needed 156.
The Throw That Sealed It
The record-breaker was vintage Prescott. Off play-action, he dropped a perfectly placed ball down the right sideline to Lamb, who had beaten his man cleanly. The ball traveled roughly 35 yards in the air before Lamb hauled it in and stepped into the end zone. Tom Brady, calling the game for Fox, described the throw as an “absolute piss missile”.
Lamb, who has now caught 37 of Prescott’s 249 touchdown passes — the most of any receiver in Prescott’s career — knew the moment was bigger than just another score.
“That was crazy to find out,” Lamb said. “To be a part of history like that, with a guy like Dak, it means everything”.
A Career Defined by Defiance
The numbers alone tell an extraordinary story. A two-star recruit from Haughton, Louisiana, who transferred to Mississippi State after a redshirt season at LSU, Prescott was the 135th overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. He was supposed to be the Cowboys’ third-string quarterback, a developmental project behind Romo and Kellen Moore.
Then Romo and Moore both went down in the preseason. Prescott took the job and never gave it back. He won 13 games as a rookie, earned Rookie of the Year honors, and has been the face of the most visible franchise in American sports ever since.
“I’m just getting started,” Prescott said, echoing a line he’s used throughout his career. “Records are meant to be broken. I’ll go and try to set this one high, which makes it harder for the next guy to break. But it’s a huge honor”.
What’s Left
Prescott now owns every major passing record in Cowboys history. The only milestone remaining is victories, where he trails Hall of Famers Troy Aikman (94) and Roger Staubach (85). Prescott sits third with 83 wins as a starter.
But the one thing that has eluded him — and the one thing that defines Cowboys quarterbacks — remains the Super Bowl. It’s been 30 seasons since Dallas last hoisted the Lombardi Trophy. Prescott, now 33 and in his 11th season, has never been past the divisional round of the playoffs.
“I’m blessed, honored,” Prescott said of the record. “But at the same time, there’s a lot of better things than records. I understand that better than anybody. This is my time to break this one. Pretty cool to do it against the team I threw my first touchdown against. But there’s more work to be done”.
The Bigger Picture
Sunday’s win was more than a record-setting afternoon. After a disheartening Week 1 loss to the New York Giants, the Cowboys needed a statement performance against a division rival. They got one — and Prescott delivered it with ruthless efficiency.
The defense, maligned all offseason, held Washington to 20 points. The run game showed signs of life. And Prescott, the steady hand who has weathered a decade of scrutiny in the most pressure-packed market in football, reminded everyone why he’s still the man under center.
“He understands the position,” wrote Cowboys senior writer Mickey Spagnola. “He understands the goal. He understands what it means to be the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys — maybe the hill that Tony Romo was trying to climb. It’s the same hill Dak is scaling as well”.
On Sunday, Dak Prescott climbed another summit. The view from the top looks familiar — but for the first time, he’s the one standing there alone.
