One debate ended in St. Louis on Sunday night, while another debate shows no signs of slowing down in Texas.The 4-1 Cowboys are one of the most surprising teams in football, and at the center of their success is rookie fourth-round pick Dak Prescott, who has surpassed even the lofty expectations augured by his promising preseason. Given how previous preseason sensations looked when the gloves came off, I was skeptical that Prescott would be able to live up to his level of play from August. I was wrong.Adam Schefter reported Sunday morning that the Bengals, Prescotts opponent in Week 5, broke the rookie down on tape and did not believe he had thrown?a single bad pass all season. I would argue that there is probably a pass or two in there which might fit the description, but thats beside the point: Prescott has been incredibly effective. Outside of some aggressive decisions in the red zone, Prescott also didnt do much on Sunday to prove the Bengals wrong. He was phenomenal during Dallas 28-14 win, going 18-of-24 for 227 yards with a passing touchdown and a rushing score on a read-option keeper. Prescott fumbled in the red zone and took an unnecessary shot from Vontaze Burfict late in the game when he neglected to slide, but he finished with an 87.5 QBR, the fifth-best figure of the week.Prescott is now second in the league in opponent-adjusted QBR at 84.1, behind league leader Matt Ryan, and he might be losing his job in a few weeks. Even after this hot start, owner Jerry Jones has insisted that Tony Romo is still the teams No. 1 quarterback. Romo is recovering from a broken back, and while the Cowboys obviously dont need to rush him back into the lineup, the preseason timeframe for Romo suggests that hell be back after Dallas Week 7 bye for what now looms as a crucial divisional matchup against the Eagles on Oct. 30.Should the Cowboys insert Romo back into the lineup? Or should they keep Prescott -- who is eight passes away from breaking?Tom Bradys record for most pass attempts to start a career without an interception -- in the job for the foreseeable future? I think you can make a case for each side, so lets do that and see if one seems stronger than the other. Starting with the incumbent:The case for starting Tony RomoRomo has been a better passer than Prescott. As good as Prescott has been this year, when Romo has been healthy over the past couple of seasons, he has actually been a tiny bit better. Heres a table comparing their numbers since the beginning of 2014, when Romo was gifted with Zack Martin to complete Dallas devastating offensive line:Prescotts QBR is better because he has added significant value as a runner, which counts, but might not be sustainable over the long haul. Prescott has three rushing touchdowns in five games, for one. He also wont manage to go his entire career without throwing an interception, and even while we give him credit for having done so up to this point, Prescotts passing numbers are slightly worse than Romos?on a rate basis. The biggest difference is that Romo throws downfield far more frequently than Prescott, as noted in the air yards column; 11.2 percent of Romos passes traveled 20 or more yards in the air, compared to just 5.2 percent of Prescotts passes.There are pretty huge error bars on both sides of those numbers: Romo is 36 and missed most of the past year with injuries, while Prescott is five games into his NFL career. Given what weve seen most recently, though, Romo has been the slightly better passer. Given how Romo spreads the field more frequently, he also seems to be the quarterback with the higher short-term upside for the Cowboys.Romo is more experienced. If the Cowboys are trying to win now and value experience as an asset, Romo obviously has that over Prescott in spades. The old arguments that Romo would turn to dust in December were always foolish and mysteriously never came up in 2014, when the Cowboys went 4-0 and Romo threw 12 touchdowns against one interception with a 133.7 passer rating. Romos playoff record is an underwhelming 2-4, but he has been relatively effective within those games, throwing eight touchdowns against two picks and posting a passer rating of 93.0. His sack rate in those games is a staggering 10.6 percent, nearly dublu his career rate of 5.4 percent, which might tell you what has gone wrong in those contests.The argument against rushing Prescott into a key postseason role before hes ready for the moment, ironically, is Tony Romo. It was Romo who had critics bestowing him with the it factor during the red-hot start to his own career before a pair of brutal postseason blows. Romo famously fumbled the snap on a chip-shot field goal attempt which would have sealed a playoff win over the Seahawks during his debut season in 2006, and he lost to the Mega Bowl-bound Giants at home the following year, which cemented his unfair reputation as a passer who couldnt win when it really mattered.Prescott may very well win those games when he gets the opportunity, or he might fail if the Cowboys give him the shot two or three years down the line. It also helps that Prescott looks about as cool and comfortable on the field as any young quarterback in recent memory. If experience matters, though, Romo obviously has that point in his favor.Romo is probably sticking around for 2017 either way. I wrote about Romos contract situation before the season, and while the Cowboys have locked up center Travis Frederick to a long-term deal, not much has changed. Dallas already has nearly $173 million in salaries tied up on its 2017 cap, and thats without considering deals for Barry Church, J.J. Wilcox, Brandon Carr, Terrance Williams?or even Morris Claiborne, who has shown flashes of competence this year. (Even if the Cowboys dont want to re-sign any of those guys, they still need somebody to start in the secondary.) Dallas will făurite cap room by restructuring Tyron Smiths deal for another year, but theyre still going to be working with limited salary-cap space for yet another season.After restructuring Romos deal twice since re-signing their star quarterback in March 2013, the Cowboys couldnt make a clean break even if they were so inclined. His cap hold on the roster next year is $24.7 million. If the Cowboys cut Romo, they could designate him as a post-June 1 release and eat $12.7 million in dead money in 2017 with $6.9 million in additional funds hitting their 2018 cap. More plausibly, if the Cowboys trade Romo or encourage the oft-injured passer to retire, Dallas would be responsible for $19.6 million in dead money for Romo on its 2017 cap.Could the Cowboys afford that sort of cap hold? Its not out of the question. The Cowboys have Prescott locked up for the next three seasons after this one with cap hits between $635,848 and $815,849. If Dallas doesnt need to find a starting quarterback, it could absorb the massive hit from a Romo trade next year, use the $5.1 million in savings to sign a backup quarterback to replace Romo, and then enjoy all the benefits of a bargain-basement quarterback in 2018 before locking Prescott up to an extension in 2019.Given that Romo will be 37 and coming off two injury-marred seasons, though, will there be an enormous trade market for his services (and contract)? It wont help that the Cowboys will have little leverage, since teams will know Dallas will be trying to offload its star passer. Itll also be in a market where organizations could be considering veteran options such as?Sam Bradford, Jay Cutler?and Colin Kaepernick in trade or as cap casualties. Somebody will be interested in Romo, but if all the Cowboys can get is a midround pick (a la the Brett Favre trade from Green Bay to the Jets), wouldnt it be better to keep Romo on the roster and have two viable quarterbacks on hand at all times?The case for starting Dak PrescottPrescott hasnt done anything to lose his job. Theres no simple, concrete answer to the question of whether a player such as Romo should lose his job if he gets hurt and the replacement does well, as you can see from this article. Some players who have been on the injured side of that situation and fearful for their futures would surely tell you they deserve a crack at the gig once theyre healthy, while athletes who lurked on the bench and desperately waited for their opportunity would likely say the opposite. Its a matter of preference and context.With that being said, theres a certain level of credibility a coach gains -- with fans and inside the locker room -- by self-evaluating and putting his best players on the field. Jason Garretts job isnt in danger, but he has pulled all the right strings during Dallas 4-1 start. If you watched the Cowboys blow out the Bengals on Sunday, you saw an unfamiliar scene among the guys wearing blue and white: smiles all around. Even the injured players on the bench like Romo and Dez Bryant were beaming. Im not saying the Cowboys will lose those smiles or see their chemistry dissipate if they make the move back to Romo, but if they do, and it turns out Prescott was the better option, it will cost Garrett a serious chunk of credibility.Romos margin for error will be razor-thin. I mention this a lot when we talk about teams promoting high-profile rookie quarterbacks into the starting role, but it applies here. The Cowboys dont need the fans o