FRISCO, Texas – Of all the things we witnessed during the Cowboys' OTA workouts, who was practicing, who wasn't practicing, who was there, who wasn't there. Even where certain guys were lined up at which position. First team reps, second team reps.
And there sure was a whole lot of attention paid to the initial relationship of CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens. The enthusiasm, the fast pace, the energy and exactly what head coach Brian Schottenheimer is doing to create this family-atmosphere culture, including free-throw shooting contests, dinners upstairs at Cowboys Club and some ping-pong competitions.
But to me, here is the most important aspect of this first three-day OTA workout week and should not be taken for granted. Ever.
Dak Prescott is back to work. Doing agility drills like the rest of the quarterbacks. Throwing the football with authority. Running plays during the 11-on-11 periods. Acting as if nothing happened to end his 2024 season after just right at seven and a half games.
But something did. Something significant did. And after all these years of covering the Dallas Cowboys, Dak suffered an injury not all that common to playing football. Tearing a ligament connecting the hamstring muscle away from the pelvic bone in Game 8 on Nov. 3. Hurts to even type that, let alone having to suffer a season-ending injury like that.
And let's not ever minimize surgery, especially this one. Can remember seeing him moving around on crutches the final month of the season. Even the time Dak traveled with the team to an away game, seeing him struggle having to climb up the airstairs from the tarmac to the charter, crutches of no use, step by step on his own.
Then the ensuing rehabilitation, training the leg to walk again. Then jog. Then run in straight lines. Then sidesteps, using those resistance cords.
And here we are, a good six months later, and the Cowboys' starting quarterback is back on the field, participating in these sanitized OTA workouts.
Dak tells me he feels great. That he can do nearly everything everyone else is doing at this time of the offseason.
"Just not cleared for contact, got a while for that anyway," Dak says. "Yeah, feeling great."
That's good news because he won't even be close to contact for another good two months. And once he is, he'll be wearing that red quarterback "hands-off" jersey. Even if he participates in any of the three preseason games, and he hasn't been doing so for the past couple of years, his time in a game will be quite limited, and play calls can keep him out of harm's way.
Insists he'll be cleared for contact the start of training camp. That means he'll then have another six and a half weeks until the Sept. 4 season opener against the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles, who he hasn't faced since beating them 33-13 on Dec. 10, 2023, having missed both games against Philly last year the Cowboys lost.
"Yeah, feeling great" is the best Cowboys news staring down Monday's Memorial Day.
Now the Cowboys need to keep him feeling this way.
Think this is any coincidence?
Since Dak became the Cowboys' starting quarterback in 2016, the result of preseason injuries to Tony Romo and presumptive backup Kellen Moore, the Cowboys have suffered through just two losing seasons: 2020 when Dak missed ten and a half games after suffering his gruesome compound fibula fracture and torn ankle ligaments, finishing 6-10; and 2024 when missing nine and a half games with the complicated hamstring injury, the Cowboys finishing 7-10.
Of course, he did miss five games during the 2022 season with a fractured bone in his thumb that was surgically repaired, but the Cowboys were able to keep their heads above water with backup Cooper Rush going 4-1 during that stretch to reach the playoffs at 12-5 for the second of three consecutive seasons.
But understand how important a franchise's starting quarterback is to the success of NFL teams. Take this past season and get this: Of the 14 teams qualifying for the playoffs, 10 advanced with their main man starting 17 of 17 games: Buffalo, Baltimore, Houston, Pittsburgh (Justin Fields 6 of-6 and Russell Wilson 11 of 11), LA Chargers, Denver, Washington, Detroit, Minnesota and Tampa Bay. Two more, Kansas City and LA Rams going 16 for 16, holding out starters Patrick Mahomes and Matthew Stafford from meaningless 17th games of the season. Only two teams lost starters to injuries, Philadelphia's Jalen Hurts starting 15 of 17, missing the final two after suffering a concussion, and Green Bay's Jordan Love starting 15 of 17 as well, a knee injury costing him two games early in the season.
Think about that, those 14 playoff teams combined for only four lost quarterback starts to injury and two more to head-coach decisions. That's just missing six of a possible 238 starts. Dak missed nine and a half games by his own self.
Hmmm, ya think the quarterback position is important?
So, let's not minimize Dak's absence affecting Dallas' 2024 season, again coinciding with the only two Cowboys losing seasons during Dak's nine-year career. And also again, the Cowboys have suffered only four losing seasons in the past 15, in those other two going 6-10 in 2010 and 4-12 in 2015 – Tony Romo starting just 10 of a possible 32 games while failing to finish three of those 10.
Feel me, right, when saying how important the quarterback is to a team's success.
And as a reminder of just how good Dak had been playing, don't forget the numbers he put up in the 2023 season when finishing runner-up in the NFL MVP voting: 410 of 590, (69.5 percent), 4,516 yards, 236 TDs, 9 interceptions and 105.9 QB rating. Among NFL QBs, here were his rankings:
Completions: first.
Completion %: second.
Yards: third.
Avgerage Gain: sixth.
Touchdowns: first.
Interceptions: second.
QB Rating: second.
That 2023 season, the Cowboys finished third in passing offense, and in the Cowboys' single-season record book, Dak's 69.5 completion percentage ranks second all-time to Tony Romo (69.9), his 7.6 yards per attempt are third behind Romo (7.89) and Staubach (7.67), and he's tied for second in touchdown passes, his 36 just one short of his own record of 37. And for those who will not acknowledge what he has done over his nine seasons with the Cowboys because the team hasn't advanced to the NFC title game during his career, shame on him in that 2023 season playoff loss to Green Bay for not producing 50 points in the 48-32 loss.
That's how relevant Dak's presence becomes during these OTA sessions, with three more in each of the next two weeks, and then that mandatory three-day minicamp, June 10-12.
Mostly, all emphasizing just how significant it will be to presumably having Dak available for the start of training camp along with the start of the 2025 season. His availability further underscored by the Cowboys having produced winning records leading to playoff appearances in five of the seven seasons he's remained healthy for at least nine games, along with a 9-7 record in 2017 and 8-8 in 2019, the only two non-losing playoff-less season records when healthy during his nine-year career.
That should speak mouthfuls for his importance to this team, certainly his presence on the practice field a relief to Schottenheimer.
"He looks good," Schottenheimer said after Monday's first OTA and prior to the second. "You guys will see him out there (Tuesday). He's doing his normal stuff. He's getting most of the work with the ones. … You'll see him. He looks good.
"I think he's progressing nicely."
Praise the heavens, taking a load off this team's shoulders.
