Dak Prescott and starters will remain in for Cowboys even if playoff hopes die
As the Dallas Cowboys cling to the smallest of playoff hopes (less than 1 percent odds after Sunday’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings), head coach Brian Schottenheimer is not planning on making any major changes to the lineup with three games left in the season.
While some teams tend to lean into personnel changes to evaluate the full roster when already eliminated from playoff contention, Schottenheimer said doing so would deviate from the team mantra all season: compete every day. Even though losing games would benefit draft positioning, Schottenheimer wants to do everything possible to win the team’s final three games.
“It doesn’t change,” Schottenheimer said Wednesday. “We get judged on winning and losing, and we haven’t won enough games. Doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be things when we look back that we’re like, ‘Hey, we’ve built this and this is great. We really upgraded this position.’”
“I’m going to stay in the moment. I’m going to be all about the Chargers. After we go and play the Chargers, and hopefully win, I’m going to be all about the Commanders and then the Giants and see what happens. We’ll take a broader, bigger picture at that point.”
When asked directly if he would consider giving backup quarterback Joe Milton III a start over Dak Prescott down the stretch, Schottenheimer was direct.
“I want to win,” he said. “So, the plan will be to play Dak.”
Even after a weekend that saw Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes go down with a torn ACL that could affect the start of the 2026 season for the franchise, the plan remains to keep Prescott on the field.
Prescott hasn’t faced any major injury concerns this season — only popping up briefly on the injury report earlier this year with a hip issue that didn’t affect his game status — and it seems as though he’s going to finish the season out with a good chance at leading the NFL in passing yards.
His 3,931 passing yards are 209 more than the second-place passer in the league, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford. If he can finish the year as the league’s leading passer, it would be the first time to achieve the feat in his career. He is on pace for 4,773 yards, which would be the second-highest total in his career after he threw for 4,902 yards in 2019.
This story was originally published December 17, 2025 at 4:46 PM.
