Dallas Cowboys: Can The Cowboys Survive Without Dak Prescott?

On Sunday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dallas Cowboys‘ QB Dak Prescot walked away with a significant injury. An injury on his throwing hand, specifically his thumb was thought to keep him out 6-8 weeks. Now the Cowboys are optimistic they can have a quick recovery.

But that’s normal in Dallas. This isn’t the first time Dak Prescott has gone down with an injury. Again they’re going to rely on a quick recovery to get their 29-year-old quarterback back on the field as quickly as possible. It’s not a secret how much better the Dallas Cowboys look with Dak under center. Each time he’s been out with an injury, his backups proved why they’re the backups and they barely fit that role.

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But can the Cowboys stay afloat in the NFC East should Dak need the full 6-8 weeks? As it stands right now, they’ve already lost their first game. The rest of the NFC East took care of business and walked away from week 1 with a win. Dallas has a tough run ahead of them. In the next 5 weeks alone, they have 3 division matchups, the Super Bowl champs, and the Super Bowl runners-up from last season. That’s a tough schedule with a healthy starting quarterback. Now the Cowboys will rely on Cooper Rush.

Maybe Rush will be the next big thing out of Dallas, but the Cowboys have high hopes. In five NFL seasons, he’s only thrown 63 passes for 488 yards, 3 TDs, and 1 INT. At face value, completing 60% of your passes and a 3:1 TD-INT ratio is respectable. However, even with Dak, the team struggled to get the ball moving. Dallas was only able to put up 3 points against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with Prescott throwing 29 passes for only 134 yards.

Dallas didn’t have a problem running the football as both Ezekiel Elliot and Dak Prescott averaged 5.0+ YPC so they may focus on the run first. But that could limit the team to a one-dimensional approach and long to-go situations.

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Of course, there’s the option of trading away for a more experienced veteran backup but now they’re giving up future picks to save their season. Losing Dak is a huge loss this early in the year, but he could be back in time enough to matter. Yet, this is the NFL and setbacks happen just as frequently. Shame on Jerry Jones for not having a better plan given the QB’s injury history. If Dak Prescott can’t come back in a timely fashion, the Dallas Cowboys season might be over before it got a chance to start.