To be clear, Jerry Jones does not have a medical license. But as the owner of the most valuable sports franchise on the planet, one can be reasonably sure that the 79-year-old billionaire keeps a close eye on his biggest investments. If an oil well has run dry, he knows about it. If a company he has a controlling interest in is foundering, he knows about it. If a blue-chip stock is no longer paying dividends, he knows about it.
Jones can’t talk about quarterback Dak Prescott’s right calf in the kind of detail that a doctor or a physical therapist or a member of the Cowboys medical staff might. But it’s highly probable that if there were a significant chance of the team’s $160 million man not being ready for a primetime meeting with the Minnesota Vikings in five days, Jones would absolutely know about that, too.
But speaking Tuesday with Dallas radio station 105.3 The Fan, Jones didn’t sound like a man who’s worried about his quarterback situation.
“Based on what you saw yesterday, that was very encouraging,” Jones began. He was referring to the team’s Monday return to The Star, when Prescott showed up without his protective boot, joked briefly with reporters, and apparently did some throwing in a closed session.
“But those things have to be monitored,” the owner continued. “We’ve got a solid week, which is great to monitor that. I thought [right guard Zack] Martin had a good description of it when he had the calf tear last year. He said some days it feels great, and then it feels like you got run over by a bulldozer the next day. But still, I feel very good about where Dak is right now.”
Good enough that there hasn’t been a peep about the team trading for or bringing in a veteran quarterback just in case.
Cooper Rush is listed as the Cowboys’ QB2 on the depth chart, with Will Grier behind him. Rush has not attempted a pass in a regular season game since November 2017 and is a career 1-for-3 passing for 2 yards. Grier started the final two games of Carolina’s 2019 season; the Panthers were outscored 80-16 in those contests.
Suffice it to say the Cowboys would be a vastly different team this Sunday night without Prescott. Still, with a 5-1 record and already a commanding lead in the NFC East, perhaps Dallas doesn’t need to hurry Prescott back into action?
The situation resembles training camp, when Prescott strained a throwing shoulder that kept him out of the team’s first padded practice. The Cowboys insisted the injury was not serious, yet they held him out of the entire preseason and didn’t let him throw at all for the majority of camp. The cautious approach paid off; Prescott came out on fire in the season opener and hasn’t cooled off since.
Prescott spent the bye week rehabbing after an “optimistic” MRI, with he and the team brushing off any visible concern. Still, he was shut down for a week. And held out of real practice on Monday. It’s the same easing-back-in process.
Resting Prescott for exhibitions in August is one thing. Shelving him for a conference game in the middle of a potential MVP campaign and legitimate playoff run is a very different proposition.
“We had less of it, but [had] some of this thinking early when we were thinking about his shoulder,” Jones recalled. “The idea then was: don’t be pennywise and pound-foolish. And make sure you feel good about his ability to not- as you much as you can- about his ability not to reinjure. That’ll be the key.”
In the grand scheme of things, Jones says the summer’s shoulder issue was far more worrisome than the current calf problem.
“Much less,” Jones said flatly. “Much less. Not even in my thought process of things to worry about.”
Jones is no doctor. But he’s also not an Oscar-caliber actor. If Prescott were in real danger of missing Sunday’s game, Jones would arguably be spinning a much different-sounding tale this week.
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