Tag: injury rehab

Cowboys’ Jerry Jones: Prescott progressing, but can’t yet grip football ‘well enough to play’

The Cowboys owner is pleased with his starter’s progress and rehab, but there’s no need to rush Prescott back in Week 5 if he’s not ready. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is slated to visit a doctor on Tuesday for a checkup on his right hand. The results of that examination should go a long way in determining whether the veteran starter will return to action on Sunday against the defending world champs.

But while the man who signs his paychecks is pleased with Prescott’s progress, Jerry Jones doesn’t seem to be laying any sort of legitimate groundwork for a comeback this week from No. 4.

“I know that it’s better,” Jones said Tuesday morning on 105.3 The Fan of Prescott’s throwing hand, “and I know that he’s going to go out there every day and make progress toward being able to grip the ball.”

Prescott got the stitches removed from his right thumb last Monday. Since then, he’s been waiting for the swelling to subside and working to re-establish his grip while doing just light tossing.

But when asked point-blank whether Prescott is gripping the ball right now, five days before kickoff, Jones was equally pointed in his reply.

“No. Not well enough to play.”

Of course, hurrying Prescott back to the field isn’t the emergency that most people- Jones included- expected it would be when he suffered the fracture hitting a Buccaneers defender mid-throw in the season-opening loss.

Backup Cooper Rush stepped into the starting role and hasn’t lost yet. Things looked bleak at 0-1 when Prescott was thought to be lost until perhaps Week 8. But sitting at 3-1 is a much different scenario, even with road games against the Super Bowl champion Rams and the top-ranked Eagles next on the schedule.

Rather than staring down the barrel of a lost season, though, the Cowboys are fighting for a share of the NFC East lead at the quarter-turn mark.

Prescott himself had hinted that he was eyeing the Los Angeles trip for his possible return, and the Week 5 game might provide a chance to work out some kinks before the divisional clash with Philadelphia the following week.

Prescott will no doubt push his limits to stick to that timeline.

“He’ll have a big week,” Jones reported, “and he’ll be hard on himself getting it ready to go.”

But the fact is, thanks to the surprising play from his understudy, there is suddenly no reason to rush Dak back. (Pun very much intended.)

Head coach Mike McCarthy said Monday that he wanted to see a full week of practice from Prescott before penciling him back into the lineup. That he already (apparently) won’t get a “full week” this week would seem to indicate that Rush will likely get the start at SoFi Stadium.

Make no mistake; this not a quarterback controversy. The job is Prescott’s whenever he’s fully ready. And the resilient Cowboys should be happy to ride with Rush until their starter’s hand is once again really and truly fully ready to retake the controls of the Dallas offense.

It’s almost there.

“I don’t know that you could ask for better news- technically, physically- in how it’s responding, how it’s healing,” Jones said. “All those things are a go.”

That’s Dr. Jerry’s prognosis. A second opinion from Prescott’s actual doctor should be coming shortly.

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‘A question mark’: Cowboys tempering expectations about Michael Gallup’s return date

Early hope that Gallup would be ready for Week 1 has turned into suggestions from ownership that he could miss multiple games to start 2022. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The Cowboys were always hopeful that wide receiver Michael Gallup would be fully recovered from his ACL tear in time to suit up for the 2022 season opener.

They’re still hopeful, but they’re also realistic in tempering expectations.

“Optimistically, I expect him to give us a question mark around the first game,” team owner Jerry Jones told reporters this week at the annual league meetings in Florida.

That question mark may even extend to multiple games to start the season.

The timetable was always going to be tight. The four-year veteran felt a “pop” as he landed while making a twisting catch on January 2 in the Cowboys’ Week 17 game versus Arizona. The touchdown grab proved to be Gallup’s final play of the season, as MRI results showed a clean tear of the ligament in his left knee.

Dr. Dan Cooper performed surgery in early February, after a waiting period to allow the initial swelling to abate, in hopes that it would speed Gallup’s recovery.

As recently as two weeks ago, Gallup himself was reluctant to throw out a date when asked about his prognosis. He’ll return to the field on a new five-year contract to stay with the team after a trade sent Amari Cooper to Cleveland and Cedrick Wilson left in free agency.

“You don’t want to miss games, but you can’t put a timetable on it,” the 26-year-old said. “You want to play as soon as you’re able, but you’ve got to make sure you’re right before you go out there.”

Gallup’s boss, who just gave him a new five-year deal worth up to $62.5 million, agrees. Some of the money, though, is tied up in per-game roster bonuses. Now it seems he may miss a few.

“I see a conversation that’s a conservatively, ‘We’d like to have a couple more games to get him out there,’ Jerry said from Palm Beach. “And then I can see the aggressive side being, ‘He’s sure looking good out there, feels good and says he’s ready to go.'”

The Cowboys signed free agent receiver James Washington earlier this month. The Steelers veteran is expected to play a major role, and the Texas native says he plans to show more in Dallas than he was allowed to over four seasons in Pittsburgh.

It seems he may get his chance right away, although the Cowboys are likely looking at also adding to the receiving corps via the draft late next month.

For now, Gallup continues the slow and steady work of getting his knee ready for its fifth NFL season.

“Obviously when I get back out there, you’ve got to take it up a notch,” Gallup said after agreeing to his new contract to remain a Cowboy. “They put all their faith in me, so I need to put all my work into the team.”

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‘I got word that I was playing:’ Cowboys WR Amari Cooper could make preseason debut Saturday

The Cowboys veteran is looking to ramp up his preseason work in a hurry, eager to get his confidence back in the exhibition against Houston. | From @ToddBrock24f7

At no point during the 2021 offseason did Cowboys wide receiver Amari Cooper have August 18th circled on his calendar as a day of any real significance. But all of a sudden, the team’s Wednesday practice session could be the deciding factor in when Cooper’s seventh NFL campaign finally kicks off.

The 27-year-old has been sidelined as he recovered from two ankle surgeries earlier in the year and painful inflammation that kept him off to the side for most of training camp. But now with a clean bill of health, Cooper is making up for lost time in practice and wants badly to get into this Saturday’s preseason game versus Houston.

“Yeah, I want to play, for sure. I got word that I was playing,” Cooper said Tuesday via the team website.

But the midweek practice session will likely decide.

“I would really have to run the full route tree,” he said, per Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News. “There’s just a lot that I haven’t done. When I was 100%, I did everything. I ran every route. Some things on the football field are harder to do than others. I haven’t really done the more challenging aspects of my position yet.”

Cooper has increased his strength over the past few months, which he believes will make him even faster on the field. But he’s also dropped weight; USA Today’s Jori Epstein details many of the changes he’s made, including cutting out late-night wing orders and eating at all after 8 p.m. Gehlken notes that Cooper’s recovery was hindered by a Vitamin D deficiency, something else his new dietary regimen looks to address.

The inflammation is a “whole lot better now,” Cooper says.

Monday was Cooper’s first practice back, though he had done some light pitch-and-catch work with Dak Prescott last week. While he doesn’t want to push it too far and risk a setback, Cooper knows the chance to get in a preseason game would be an important step to being ready for opening night.

“With me, I just want to do enough to feel confident going into Week 1,” he said. “I just started practicing, so it’s just about getting my legs back underneath me and getting my confidence back.”

A handful of snaps against the Texans could be a big boost to that confidence.

But Cooper’s work on Saturday night likely comes down to the work he puts in on Wednesday.

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Dak Prescott returns to practice on first day of Cowboys OTAs

The veteran QB returned to the field for live practice, the first real action he’s seen since his gruesome October 11 ankle injury.

Two hundred and twenty-five days. That’s how long Cowboys Nation held its breath. On Monday came the long-awaited exhale.

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott suffered a horrific injury on October 11 in the team’s Week 5 game against the Giants. On a first-down play nearing the red zone in the third quarter of the contest, Prescott received a shotgun snap and took off running. Trying to pick up the first down, he went to the turf awkwardly in the grasp of a Giants defender. He had suffered a total dislocation and compound fracture of the right ankle. His season was over, and by the time he had been driven into the tunnel, in tears on the back of a cart, most Cowboys fans assumed their season was, too.

On May 24, the first day of voluntary organized team activities, Prescott was back on the practice field, wearing a helmet and throwing real-speed passes to route-running receivers being covered by actual defenders for the first time since.

Along the way, there were photos from hospital beds, visits with his teammates while balancing on crutches, a second cleanup surgery, and various appearances at local sporting events and community service opportunities. Oh, and the high drama surrounding whether he would come to terms on a new contract or play the second straight year on a franchise tag.

And through it all, a vow from Prescott himself that he would be ready in time to participate in the 2021 offseason program.

As recently as May 4, the five-year veteran said he could go play in a game “and be very successful.” He went on to say say, “By training camp, I’ll be in dominating fashion, better than I was before I came off the field.”

Seven months and 13 days after the injury, Prescott was back out there. Whether he was actually dominating on Day One or noticeably better than he had been before is something that perhaps only Prescott himself would be able to answer.

But for now, for Cowboys fans everywhere, for the team’s owners and coaches and players, this is cause enough for a collective sigh of relief.

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Prescott says he’s ready to play now, vows: ‘Better than I was’ by Cowboys camp

The Dallas QB gave a promising update on his injury rehab while announcing his new partnership in a Louisiana-based sports bar franchise.

Quarterback Dak Prescott has found a way to spend some of that coin the Cowboys promised him back in March. But he celebrated his new business venture by making a different kind of handoff to some less fortunate residents of the Metroplex.

And he also made Cowboys fans’ day by giving the most tantalizing update yet on his injury rehab efforts.

Prescott is signing on to become a co-owner of the Dallas-Fort Worth and Waco outposts of the Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux franchise, according to CNBC. Prescott will reportedly hold a 20% stake, although further financial particulars of the deal were not publicized.

While announcing his investment deal, Prescott took the opportunity to brief the business network on how his football comeback is progressing. The update will no doubt delight Cowboys fans and cause serious concern for opposing defenses.

“[Monday] was the best day I’ve had,” Prescott said. “I can go play in a game right now and be very successful. By training camp, I’ll be in dominating fashion, better than I was before I came off the field.”

That’s music to the ears of the team’s fans, who eagerly await watching No. 4 pick up where he left off in Week 5 last season, torching the rest of the league as the leader of a high-powered- and still-improving- offense under head coach Mike McCarthy and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.

By all accounts, Prescott is taking a driven and methodical approach to his physical rehab. He’s using the same philosophy with the sudden wealth that comes with his four-year, $160-million deal. But now in addition to studying defensive pass coverages, he’s learning all about the stock market.

“I’ve got a great financial team teaching me about it, and we’re getting into that,” Prescott said. “I’ve got to be educated and know about it before I say, ‘Here’s $1 million; go make money.’ I want to be educated and know how I’m getting it back — the whole process.”

Recently-retired Saints quarterback Drew Brees is a co-owner of Walk-On’s parent company, which is based in Louisiana, where Prescott grew up. But apart from the chain’s QB pedigree, Prescott says a “genuine” hometown connection with the franchise played a role in his involvement.

“I grew up going to some Walk-On’s,” he said. “We had a Walk-On[‘s] right there in Bossier City. On the bathroom, when you walk in, my high school picture is probably still there.”

To commemorate the new partnership, Prescott and representatives from the chain helped to hand out approximately 1,000 meals on Tuesday at a local nonprofit that serves many unsheltered homeless in the area.

“Knowing that the core of this brand includes caring about people and encouraging a team-before-self mentality makes this commitment and partnership an easy decision,” Prescott said as per Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The five-year veteran also had sage words of advice for college prospects who just got the lucrative call to the NFL this past weekend.

“It’s about starting those business investments and business opportunities now,” Prescott explained, “so when the game goes away, you’re not trying to learn it. You already had a head start. You can go from one career to the next without hesitation.”

Cowboys fans know, however, that the fledgling restaurateur still has a long way to go with his current career. And it sounds like it’s about to resume in five-star style.

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Cowboys: Prescott’s injury rehab ‘maybe a little ahead of schedule’

The team’s management expressed confidence that Dak Prescott would be ‘110% ready to go’ when it matters for the Cowboys in 2021.

Tuesday’s press conference at The Star in Frisco was largely about linebacker Sean Lee and his decision to walk away from the game, but it didn’t take long for the assembled media to ask about the quarterback who’s on the comeback trail.

After hearing from Lee following his retirement announcement, reporters took the opportunity to ask Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, chief operating officer Stephen Jones, and head coach Mike McCarthy about Dak Prescott and the status of his ongoing recovery from the brutal ankle dislocation and compound fracture he suffered last October.

The prognosis, according to the Dallas brain trust, is very good.

“He’s throwing now, doing footwork drills. He’s made a lot of progress,” McCarthy said. “Very disciplined in his regimen. He’s here almost every day. I’d say he’s right on track, or maybe a little ahead of schedule.”

McCarthy revealed that this past weekend, he saw Prescott go through a workout session that the coach called “his most extensive work so far” and was “very impressed” with where Prescott is in late April.

“Just coming off the type of injury, and his footwork, and he’s doing all of the normal movements that you look to do in a quarterback-school format this time of year.”

For now, the team is just in the first phase of the voluntary offseason program, which means virtual meetings only, with no on-field drills or direct work with coaches. Prescott not being full-strength right now is relatively unimportant; he’s not missing anything.

Prescott himself set a slightly later timetable during last month’s press conference to announce his new contract.

“I’ll be ready when it matters,” Prescott said then, “and I’ll be more healthy and better than I was before.”

As of Tuesday, the team has now also publicly called its shot that No. 4 will be a full go by the time it truly matters.

“Where we sit right now, couldn’t be happier,” said Stephen Jones. “He’s just making a tremendous amount of progress, and we feel he’ll be 110% ready to go.”

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