FRISCO (105.3 The Fan) - The Cowboys won't be playing it safe this season with quarterback Dak Prescott now more than a year removed from a second procedure on his injured ankle.
The Cowboys gave us a heavy dosage of run-pass options in Prescott's first four NFL seasons, but the quarterback's movement was tapered down in 2021, as he recovered from the gruesome ankle injury he suffered in 2020.
Now that Prescott was able to have a fully healthy offseason, it appears that head coach Mike McCarthy and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore are ready to open up the playbook a little bit more in 2022 and get the quarterback back to using his legs more.
"It's been huge. It's been huge for him. … Just for him to have no limits [in OTAs and offseason workouts] has been outstanding. I think you clearly see it in the way he's moving this year, you look at his body [and] he's clearly different than he was last year. He's had a heck of an offseason. He's leaner, more flexible. I think just the mechanics … there's no limits on the movement drills," McCarthy said.
When you discount his shortened 2020 season, Prescott had a career-low 48 rushing attempts last year, and averaged just 3.0 yards per carry, also a career-low. He averaged 5.1 yards per rushing attempt in his first five NFL seasons and averaged 60 carries from 2016 to 2019.
And according to McCarthy, the Cowboys "hope" to see more of that out of Prescott in 2021 after cutting back his moment last season.
"I think we tried to be smart. I think it's obvious that we didn't call as many quarterback runs than [the previous season], there weren't as many in the game plan. I think we tried to be smart when we used them. I think when you look at the history of the league, when a player has a major joint injury, it usually takes them a year [to get fully healthy]. So, that was definitely part of our thinking."
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