FRISCO, Texas – The 2025 season will mark year 10 in the NFL for Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who is looking to return fully healthy and start every game for Dallas, something that he's only been able to do in two of the last five seasons under center.
His landscape from a personnel standpoint looks a little bit different this year with both Zack Martin and Tyron Smith, who were mainstays on Dallas' offensive line for quite some time, both retiring this offseason. The one thing that isn't changing is his approach to a leadership role for the Cowboys, something that both Martin and Smith commended him for in their retirement ceremonies.
"Most definitely," Prescott said on Wednesday when asked on The Ticket if he takes pride in being a big voice in the locker room. "It's just huge losing Zack, and obviously losing Tyron a year ago, but to see them return and hang up the cleats, yeah it's special."
"That's what these brotherhoods and that's what the culture and being a leader and a teammate is all about. When they hang up their cleats, when they say they're done, our relationship isn't finished, our relationship doesn't retire."
Prescott's presence as the voice of the locker room will be crucial for first year head coach Brian Schottenheimer, who has put a heavy emphasis on rebuilding Dallas' culture from strategically moving lockers around to drafting players with high character marks. The play on the field is important, but what Prescott does off of it has an impact too.
"It's important for me to be a leader," Prescott said. "I think that I'm very intentional with certain ways that I do it, but I also think that it can't be forced. Sometimes when guys just try things to try them to be a leader, they're unnatural."
"There's different times you're reaching out to different people, whether it's them getting drafted or whether it's welcoming a baby into their family or getting engaged, it's important for me to know the person and not just the guy in the football number."
When the Cowboys drafted Tyler Booker in the first round, Prescott was one of the first to reach out thanks to an early connection from one of his former representatives. It was easy to see early on why Booker captured the attention of so many in his early press conferences, and Prescott was won over too.
"A guy who loves football," Prescott said of Booker. "When you all interviewed him or anybody interviewed him, you hear it through his answers how much it means to him. I mean, just him wanting to take the love of football away from a guy throughout a game to his history and his journey to get here… I know he's ready for it."
And they'll need to be ready quickly, as there's no easing into the 2025 season for the Cowboys with their first game of the season coming on the road in the first game of the entire NFL season against the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, with another division game the following week in the home opener at AT&T Stadium against the New York Giants.
It'll be an early test for Prescott's leadership of this group and Schottenheimer's culture, but it's one that they're both ready for.
"I'm more than excited to start this thing off against the defending Super Bowl champions and then get home against another division rival," Prescott said. "It's an exciting start, ready to see the rest of it, and I know my team will be ready."
For a look at the full 2025 Cowboys schedule, click here.
