Dak Prescott surpasses Tony Romo to become Cowboys’ all-time passing yards leader

When Dak Prescott was named the starting quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys before the start of his rookie season in 2016, the then 23-year-old was supposed to serve as a temporary replacement for an injured Tony Romo.

Little did the team know that, right in front of their eyes, was their next franchise quarterback, as Romo officially passed the torch midway through that 2016 season, when Prescott led the team to an 8-1 start.

Now 133 games later, the 32-year-old signal caller, heading into Week 12 of the 2025 season, needed just 160 yards to surpass his predecessor as the franchise’s all-time leader in passing yards.

That mark was officially achieved during Sunday’s Week 12 matchup at home during the third quarter after Prescott connected with wide receiver George Pickens on a nine-yard completion early in the third quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles.

When asked earlier in the week on whether the thought of achieving this record ever crossed his mind 10 years ago, Prescott didn’t hesitate.

“Yeah, I was very arrogant as a rookie,” he said on Thursday.

“I’m humbled. Thankful to be healthy and to be in this position to do it,” Prescott said. “I was on the production call, and they asked me the same thing. When you’ve played in this game long enough and you can stay healthy, with my expectations of what my play is, that’s supposed to happen. So just thankful, humbled, super grateful to be playing a game I love at this high of a level.”

Congrats, Dak 👏#DallasCowboys | @Gatorade pic.twitter.com/6c5VmrONBI

— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) November 23, 2025

Prescott already broke legendary Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman’s franchise record for career completions earlier in the season, and with 234 career touchdown passes, needs just 15 more to pass Romo for the all-time mark in team history.

The former fourth-round draft selection is also the Cowboys’ leader in passer rating (98.5) and in completion percentage (67.1%).

“I’d probably say I take the most pride in completion percentage and that’s something that’s hard to do, Prescott said. “It’s hard to do every year, each game and that’s something that I actually don’t think the long haul of it. I just go into every game honestly trying to get 80 (percent) and that’s such a steep number but that’s what I want. I think I’ve told y’all that after games, any incompletion I don’t like unless it’s a good one (where) I have to throw it away and have to live to the next play. That’s probably the one I’m most proud of.”

Prescott also holds the franchise records for games with 3+ touchdown passes (41) and games with 4+ touchdown passes (13). He also ranks second in passing attempts (4,521) and is third in wins (80), behind Aikman as well legendary Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach.