Dallas Cowboys players were told on Saturday to expect to play without their starting quarterback this weekend, according to a new report from CowboysSI.com.
After suffering a right calf strain on the final play of an overtime win against the New England Patriots two weeks ago, Dak Prescott has been rehabbing and working to reach 100% before Sunday’s primetime match against the Minnesota Vikings. Although he hasn’t taken snaps with the first team in any practice, he expressed Thursday that he wishes the decision was his to make.
“If it was my call and it was totally up to me, [I’m playing],” Prescott said on Thursday. “But this is something I agree with the experts. I don’t want it to linger. I don’t want this to be week after week.”
With Dallas sitting happily atop the NFC East, Sunday’s game against the Vikings certainly isn’t do-or-die. While the rest of the division sits at a combined 7-15 and shows little signs of improvement, the Cowboys have dominated in almost every aspect of the game, winners of five straight.
So if Dak Prescott does indeed sit out in Minnesota, who leads the team into battle? The quarterback who took every first team rep in practice this week, Cooper Rush.
Rush is a four-year veteran out of Central Michigan University. He’s thrown three passes in his NFL career, none since 2017, and has never started a game.
The Cowboys are known to have the most prolific offense in the NFL, but with an inexperienced quarterback stepping in for their MVP candidate, it’s truly a toss-up as to who will win Sunday night.
In any case, the Cowboys are about to find out how much they really need Dak Prescott to succeed.