The 2024 calendar year has been different for Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott.
A year ago at this time, he was in the process of putting together the most efficient season of his NFL career with a personal passer rating of 105.9 en route to leading the NFL with 36 touchdown passes and leading the Cowboys to a regular season of 12-5. for the third consecutive year. Dallas is now 5-7 after Prescott suffered a season-ending hamstring injury that forced him to travel to New York for surgery. On Tuesday, Prescott celebrated the small victory of being able to drive again for the first time since the procedure in November.
“I feel good. Still on crutches. I’ll be on crutches for a little bit longer, but I’ll start walking a little bit more with my weight,” Prescott told CBS Sports on Tuesday. “Being able to drive today is something new. So it’s a step. It’s a small goal in the process, but yeah, starting to be able to do more, which is fun for me and now I can start racking up my little victories.”
The next important item on your recovery checklist is simply being able to drop the crutches for some physical therapy exercises and eventually full-time weight bearing on your own. Despite suffering the second season-ending lower-body injury of his career (his gruesome broken ankle in 2020 and torn hamstring in 2024), Prescott doesn’t see many stylistic changes in the way he plays the quarterback position going forward. . He is looking to return to his 2023 game after posting an 86.0 passer rating, the lowest of his nine-year career, while throwing for 11 touchdowns and eight interceptions and completing 64.7% of his passes, the second-highest passing percentage. lowest completes of his career. .
“I don’t think it changes much,” Prescott said of his injury. “I think, honestly, this rehab is a hamstring injury, a runner’s injury, the fact that I feel 100% is going to require a lot of running and regaining confidence and using my legs. I think just with that rehabilitation Naturally, I will return next year adding to the aerial game, everything I am going to work on with my precision, I know that I will play much better than this year. I think you will see a lot more than what you saw last year, if not. even using my legs a little more and not particularly on the quarterback’s running plays, but just in the passing game and to stay ahead of the chains.”
So when could Prescott return? Well, thanks to him opting to have surgery right away rather than fight through rehab to return this season, Dak could be back for the start of Dallas’ offseason program.
“My plan is to start the OTAs and start the offseason without restrictions, full force,” Prescott said. That’s part of making this jump to this surgery that we thought was inevitable anyway. “At that point, I just do everything I can to be the best quarterback and leader on this team to help this team go into next year with the best team possible.”
Let’s hit for Mike McCarthy and free agency help
Any relationship between a head coach and a starting quarterback in the NFL will be deep, at least for successful partnerships. Prescott’s relationship with Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy is no different in terms of football, but their friendship also extends beyond work. Prescott allowed McCarthy to hold his little girl MJ after training camp practices in Oxnard, California, while he chatted with his family, and Prescott went with McCarthy to the head coach’s family home in Pittsburgh before the Week 5 matchup. of the team against the Steelers.
Given his MVP-caliber season in 2023, McCarthy’s first as the Cowboys’ play-caller, and the numerous injuries suffered by himself, cornerback DaRon Bland (stress fracture in foot), edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence (foot), edge rusher Micah Parsons (high ankle sprain), right guard Zack Martin (ankle/shoulder), cornerback Trevon Diggs (groin/knee) and receiver open Brandin Cooks (knee), just to name a few. Few, Prescott plans to go to bat with Jerry and Stephen Jones on McCarthy’s behalf to try to get him a new contract as Cowboys coach after his initial five-year contract expires at the end of the season. Dallas went 12-5 in the three seasons of McCarthy’s five-year tenure and Prescott finished the year strong.
“Obviously, I’m going to make that case first and foremost, everything he’s had to fight for,” Prescott said. “This year is a contract year at the top of hell, it’s just a contract year and the pressure that comes with that during the offseason and now it goes on to the season and then on top of that, right, the injury bug. It’s affected. We’re big in part… I’m going to push and be in the corner and push for Mike to get a second contract… and just the opportunity to do more things with a healthy team. It’s been tough and. [I] “I feel helpless in the sense of not being able to help him in a year knowing how big this is, being able to go out and play well to get wins and even in the games we played, not being able to play as well or get wins, it was very frustrating.”
Prescott also doesn’t believe his new deal will prevent the Cowboys from being aggressive in bolstering the roster through free agency, but if he is asked to restructure his deal to add an impact teammate, he would be willing to do so. Jerry Jones spoke repeatedly about his management of the salary cap this past offseason and how he felt he needed to allocate money to Prescott and All-Pro wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, whom he re-signed to a four-year, $136 million extension. The Cowboys spent an NFL-low $20.13 million in free agency last offseason, according to OverTheCap.com, which was just over $10 million less than the perpetually cap-strapped New Orleans Saints ($30.925 million).
“Yeah, I don’t think my contract is going to stop us from making any moves or doing anything we need to do in free agency,” Prescott said. “However, if that big chess piece comes up, that will or does require it, yeah, the way my contract is structured and the way I believe in this team, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.” no problem at all to move things forward to make that happen.
A look back at “definitely one of the toughest years” of Prescott’s nine-year career
Calendar year 2024 has been, to use Prescott’s categorization, a roller coaster. His individual performance, in addition to Dallas winning the NFC East, resulted in Prescott being named a 2023 Second-Team All-Pro Quarterback and a 2023 NFL MVP runner-up, but the end of 2023 was marred by a playoff loss in wild card round 48-32. against the Green Bay Packers.
This year also brought Prescott a months-long public contract negotiation between him and Jerry Jones before Prescott signed a four-year, $240 million extension hours before Week 1 against the Cleveland Browns. That made him the highest-paid player in the NFL with an average annual salary of $60 million. He and his partner Sarah Jane also had their first child together in the spring, a daughter named Margaret Jane, and announced their engagement in October. That occurred before Prescott suffered his season-ending hamstring injury in Week 9 against the Atlanta Falcons. He also categorized 2024 as “definitely one of the toughest” of his NFL career.
“It’s been a roller coaster, all the ups and downs and then a couple of downs,” Prescott said. “For me, it’s about counting my blessings and not the trials that I’m going through and facing… They’re all worth it when you get home and you see Margaret Jane and Sarah Jane and you get home. Forget all that and “Take that perspective and be a dad and fiancé for a second… For me it’s about trying to stay level and not go through the ups and downs so much.”
Prescott spoke with CBS Sports to promote his partnership with DICK’s Sporting Goods to decorate a location in Dallas in an effort to help local youth sports organizations through DICK’S Sports Matter philanthropic grants.
The Cowboys quarterback participated in a store decorating competition across Texas against Team USA Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Simone Biles. (Houston)San Antonio Spurs point guard Chris Paul (Saint Anthony)and University of Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers. (Austin) to help raise funds for local area youth sports.
“It’s representing this great city of Dallas, like we did with the Denton DICK’s Sports blue and silver Christmas theme. More importantly, it’s about getting a win against those other three cities… excited for my part in it,” Prescott said. “Everything was amazing, so to be able to be a part of this in a philanthropic effort, giving back to the Sports Matter grant, $100,000 for youth sports is amazing, and [I] “I didn’t take a moment for granted.”
