The fractured bone Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott suffered in his throwing hand this past Sunday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers initially seemed to be serious.
Most initial reports were that Prescott could miss up to eight weeks of action. Following his surgery, optimism is abound for the Cowboys. NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport reports that there’s an outside chance Prescott could return for Week 6 against the Philadelphia Eagles.
This comes after an expert in the field indicated that a six-week return seems to be more realistic for Prescott as he rehabs the injury suffered in Dallas’ humiliating season-opening loss to the Buccaneers. At the very least, there seems to be more confidence in a return sooner rather than later.
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Dak Prescott injury timeline and impact on the Dallas Cowboys
Assuming the best-case scenario is Week 6, this means Prescott will miss the next four games. That starts Sunday against the defending AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals. After that, Prescott is set to miss outings against the New York Giants, Washington Commanders and Los Angeles Rams.
Interestingly enough, Dallas did not place Prescott on injured reserve. Said move would have guaranteed he misses the next four games. Apparently, the Cowboys’ brass is holding out hope that this is even a shorter-term injury than it seems right now.
“Dak has a real chance to be back out there throwing the ball pretty quick,” Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said about Dak Prescott recently. Despite Prescott’s struggles in Week 1 before he went down to injury, the Cowboys are facing a massive drop off in production from the quarterback position with Cooper Rush taking over on a stopgap basis.
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The Cowboys have no intention of acquiring a veteran like Jimmy Garoppolo via a trade and have not been linked to former NFL MVP Cam Newton on the free-agent market.
- Dak Prescott stats (2021): 69% completion, 4,449 passing yards, 38 total TD, 7 INT
You don’t replace that type of production on a whim. The good news is that Dallas takes on two pedestrian opponents in that of the Giants and Commanders following Sunday’s outing and ahead of a Week 5 title against the defending champion Los Angeles Rams. If Dallas can find itself at 2-3 with Prescott returning in Week 6, that would be the best-case scenario.