Training camp kicks off in Oxnard, California for the Dallas Cowboys later this month. After a disappointing 6-10 campaign in 2020, there’s optimism for a much better result this season with several players back healthy.
The most important player returning is quarterback Dak Prescott who suffered a compound fracture and dislocation of his right ankle. He recently spoke with Newy Scruggs of NBC 5 DFW and relayed that he expects a different outcome for the Cowboys in 2021.
“Improvement, a lot of improvement, obviously from last year to this year, but deeper than that from those first five games,” Prescott said. “Take those first five games and just say we’re going to be better than that as a team. We’re going to play more complementary football from defense to offense to special teams, and then we’re going to have a healthy team. We’ve all approached the offseason. We approached the season the right way. We’re just excited. We’re excited that hopefully, we can stay healthy, we can get good fortune on that end. And we can just put everything we’ve worked hard for together on all stages and all phases of the game. We’re excited for this year. It’s going to be very, very special for us and for Cowboys fans.”
Equally important to the health of Prescott is that of the guys who are responsible for protecting him. Tyron Smith, Zack Martin, and La’el Collins missed a combined 36 games last season. Smith is no stranger to the injury report as he missed three games each season from 2016 to 2019. The Cowboys hope it was simply a bump in the road for Martin and Collins, and history says that’s a smart bet. The former only missed two games in his career until he was out for six last season, and the latter started 47 of 48 games from 2017 to 2019.
The Cowboys hope to be much improved defensively as well with their additions during free agency and the draft. However, they’ll need guys such as Leighton Vander Esch, Trevon Diggs, Donovan Wilson, and Anthony Brown, who all missed time in 2020, to stay healthy for that to happen.
Expectations are one thing but putting it together on the field is another. Barring injury, the Cowboys have a good shot at being a good football team this season.
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