It was widely speculated, now the biggest question in all of sports can be put to rest. It is official. Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is done for the season.
Team owner and general manager Jerry Jones broke the news on his weekly radio spot on 105.3 The Fan, that Prescott is scheduled to undergo hamstring surgery Wednesday and will miss the rest of the season.
Prescott flew to New York on Monday to consult with a specialist, while understanding and coming to grips with the fact that surgery would be the most likely outcome. After Sunday’s 34-6 blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Prescott said he wanted to make sure this would not be a lingering issue that would affect him and his play going forward.
“It’s a more common injury in hockey, and he’s got doctors that are very familiar with how to repair that,” Jones said. “And his prognosis is wonderful. It just means that we’re not going to have him the rest of the year.”
With the surgery, Prescott is facing at a three-month recovery period.
Starting in Week 11, the Cowboys will depend on backup quarterbacks Cooper Rush and Trey Lance to lead them through the rest of the season.
He suffered the injury in the second half of the Cowboys’ November 3rd 27-21 loss to Kirk Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons on a run. Television cameras showed Prescott in a great deal of pain after making a wobbly pass to the sideline. His final pass fell incomplete on a screen pass that could have been a potential touchdown.
Embed from Getty ImagesThis is a hard pill to swallow but not unexpected news for the Cowboys and their loyal fans. The 31-year-old Prescott injured his hamstring in their Week 9 loss, going down at the end of the third quarter with what he thought was just a “pull” to his hamstring. But when he tried to bear weight on it during the next play, he said he could barely walk.
He was replaced by Rush, who then started the Cowboys’ Week 10 game against their division rival the Eagles. That was a demoralizing beat down that caused uncalled for drama between star linebacker Micah Parsons and coach Mike McCarthy, who is on the last year of his contract, and almost assuredly get his pink slip at the end of the season.
This will be the fourth surgery Prescott will have to endure since 2020. He missed five games in 2022 because of a broken right thumb and after that season he had surgery on his left shoulder.
The Cowboys will place Prescott on injured reserve, creating a roster spot, but they have signed Will Grier to the practice squad to have three quarterbacks available. Rush will make his second straight start in Monday’s game against the Houston Texans, backed up by Lance.
Grier was with the Cowboys in 2021-22 before he was ultimately released prior to the 2023 season. Most recently he had a cup of coffee on the Philadelphia Eagles’ practice squad.
The Cowboys are third in the NFC East with a 3-6 record. They remain ahead of the 2-8 New York Football Giants, but with the Eagles in first place at 7-2 and the Washington Commanders in second at 7-3, Dallas’ season is essentially over.
