The biggest news of the young NFL season came down on Sunday night when Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones revealed that Dak Prescott will be out with a hand injury. The quarterback underwent right thumb surgery on Monday and is expected to miss several weeks.
The Cowboys managed just three points in Sunday night’s loss to the Buccaneers. Their offense may continue to struggle without Prescott at the helm. In turn, their NFC East rivals and upcoming opponents will benefit from Prescott’s injury.
Danny Parkins and Andrew Fillipponi discussed Prescott’s injury and what it means for the Cowboys on Audacy’s “1st & Pod” podcast.
“The Eagles just won the NFC East, right?” Parkins said (19:23 in player above).
“I told you I think Washington, because of their schedule, can make the playoffs, but I don’t think they’re as good as the Eagles,” Fillipponi replied. “If you’re them, you got to go find another quarterback, don’t you? If that’s a month to two month injury, if it’s something like that, like 4-to-8 weeks, they don’t have – because the salary cap problems – they don’t have the roster to win with a backup quarterback.”
Even if the Cowboys were better suited to win with a backup quarterback, their early-season schedule doesn’t do them any favors.
“I could not agree more,” Parkins said. “Let’s use your timeline. So it’s Bengals this week in Dallas, then back to back division games – granted against the bottom of the division – Giants and Washington, but then it’s Rams and Eagles. If it’s a five-week injury, that’s four games in conference, three division games, and Bengals, Rams, and Eagles, which would all be losses without Dak. Maybe you split Washington and New York. So if that’s a five-week injury, they’re looking at four losses – three of them in-conference, two of them in-division – they’re done. They’re done.”
Jones said on Tuesday that Prescott could return sooner than expected, perhaps in four weeks. Still, the Cowboys need a stopgap in the meantime.
With Prescott on the shelf, the Cowboys have to turn to Cooper Rush at quarterback. Rush made his first NFL start last season, completing 24 of 40 passes for 325 yards with two touchdowns and one interception in a 20-16 win in Minnesota. But relying on Rush may not be the best thing for the Cowboys, even if it’s what Jones ends up doing.
“Unless Cooper Rush is like Tony Romo and he’s another one of these guys that’s just never gotten a chance,” Fillipponi said. “On that note, because you have an owner who also doubles as the GM and I think actually likes to be made right. I think he’d rather discover a guy like Dak Prescott and Tony Romo and get the credit for it than have somebody else build a Super Bowl winner for him… Maybe they won’t go out and bring in another quarterback. Maybe he’ll try to say ‘Hey, with the team we have with Rush we’ll be fine.’ But the coach is terrible. I think (Kellen) Moore is overrated as an offensive coordinator, too. So I would right now if I had to bet say that Dallas is going to finish in last place with the news we just got here.”
In fact, Jones said nearly exactly that on Tuesday regarding the team's direction at quarterback. He backed Rush as well as Will Grier. Nevertheless, the Cowboys are in a tough position.
While the Cowboys are slated to play a handful of difficult opponents without Prescott, the Eagles have a chance to rack up some wins. They host the Vikings on Monday night before playing in Washington, at home against the Jaguars, in Arizona, and that home game against the Cowboys.
The Eagles should be favored – or only slight underdogs – in most of those games. Prescott’s injury cracks the door wide open for them build a lead heading into their Week 7 bye.
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