It’s official: Injured Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott will play in showdown vs. Eagles
Despite all the drama concerning his lack of participation in practice this week due to a sprained A.C. joint on his right throwing shoulder, there was never really any mystery surrounding Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott’s availability for Sunday’s showdown at the Philadelphia Eagles for the NFC East title.
He has said he was playing.
His teammates never questioned him playing.
Consider cornerback Byron Jones’ answer when he was asked just now how it affects this matchup to have a quarterback dealing with an injury.
“Who? Carson?” Jones said, referring to Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz.
No, Dak Prescott.
“Oh. He’ll be fine,” Jones said “He said he is good to go Sunday. I believe him.”
And even though Prescott never threw any real passes in three days of limited work (soft tosses on Friday don’t really count) the Cowboys made it official when they released the final injury report for the Eagles.
Prescott wasn’t listed with a designation of probable or questionable because he will be in the starting lineup as expected.
And according to vice president Stephen Jones, the Cowboys don’t anticipate any limitations.
They expect Dak Prescott to be able to execute everything in the playbook.
“I think we’ll get his best,” Jones said on his radio show Friday on 105.3 The Fan. “There’s no one I’d rather have under center.”
Prescott’s availability will be no surprise to Eagles coach Doug Pederson. It’s what he expected.
“Listen, if you know Dak Prescott, and I’ve had a chance to meet him and talk to him, he’s a tough kid. He’s not going to miss this game,” Peterson said. “We know that. He’s a competitor and he’ll want to play. We know that.
“Expect a full Dak Prescott on Sunday.”
Backup Cooper Rush took all the reps during team drills all week, though Prescott did take first team reps in the walk through practices.
That he was more active in the warm-ups and stretches than earlier in the week was a positive sign that the pain and swelling had subsided.
Prescott threw soft tosses to in practice but will probably not go through a full work out of passing until pre-game warm-ups on Sunday, according to coach Jason Garrett.
Prescott injured his shoulder on the sixth play of Sunday’s 44-21 win over the Los Angeles Rams. He stayed in the game and didn’t start experiencing any real pain until Tuesday morning.
Results from a magnetic resonance imaging exam came back negative.
And because it’s an injury he dealt with many times at Mississippi State, Prescott never doubted his ability to be ready to go.
Don’t expect him to play cautiously with the division title on the line.
“Once I’m in between those lines, I don’t know. The competitive switch flips on,” Prescott said. “I’ll be ready to go. I won’t necessarily think ‘Right shoulder, left shoulder. Left one’s good, let me hit ‘em.’ I’ll just go and play and I’ll be OK.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 4:36 PM.
