This definitely won’t backfire: Dak Prescott guarantees Cowboys will win the NFC East

Dak Prescott made a declaration earlier this week. The Dallas Cowboys quarterback guaranteed his team is going to win the NFC East again in 2017.

“We’re the Cowboys. We’re gonna win the NFC East.”

The Cowboys are certainly favored to win the division this year after going 13-3 in 2016, but history is not on their side. There hasn’t been a repeat winner in the NFC East since the Eagles did it back in 2004.

In addition, the 2016 Cowboys are not the 2017 Cowboys. Dallas had the second most amount of roster turnover in the league this offseason. The Cowboys suddenly have some question marks along their offensive line. Dallas is also dealing with a number of suspensions. Their best pass rusher will miss the first four games. Ezekiel Elliott, the team’s best overall player, could miss at least a game or two. The Cowboys probably won’t be bad this year, but there’s plenty of reason to believe they could take a step back.

And for the “What was Dak supposed to say?” crowd, how about something like Carson Wentz recently said (via CSN Philly):

"We have high expectations around here," Wentz said in a radio interview on WIP. "We hope and we expect to be playing into January and then to see what happens. I think that's the biggest thing.”

"Our goal is to win the NFC East and we believe we have the guys to do it.”

"We just have to now go put the work in and go make things happen. We have high expectations ... 7-9 is never good enough. I never want to be done after the regular season again. That doesn't sit well with me and it never will. We definitely have high expectations to be playing into January and then hopefully get hot and see what happens."

No silly guarantees that are bound to backfire. Just a nice display of confidence in his team.

Prescott, meanwhile, is writing checks that history suggests he can’t cash. But I guess that’s easier to do when you use autopen.