The Dallas Cowboys’ success this season has been almost entirely dependent on one thing: can Dak Prescott play like a top-three quarterback in the NFL?
To this point, he has, but that still hasn’t been enough at times.
Dallas is sitting at a 1-2-1 record, and they are traveling to New Jersey to avoid going into mid-October with just one win. The only issue is that this may be the toughest game yet for the Cowboys’ offense.
The Jets are no juggernaut, but as Dallas’s defense continues to struggle, the team expects CeeDee Lamb, KaVontae Turpin, and almost the entire starting offensive line to be out with injuries.
In short, it will take another masterclass, Superman-level performance from Prescott to overcome these problems.
Dak Prescott: What To Expect After Cowboys’ Injuries
As I mentioned, Tyler Guyton, Tyler Smith, Cooper Beebe, and Tyler Booker may all be out for this game; the only question is Smith’s availability.
That would leave Terence Steele as the only true starter on the entire line. The Jets haven’t had a great season when it comes to sacking quarterbacks, but you’d have to imagine things could get a lot easier for them this Sunday.
Not to mention, Lamb and Turpin aren’t the only absences in the weaponry: Miles Sanders is questionable, and Jonathan Mingo is still on IR.
So, what can we expect from 4? One way to tell is by looking at last week’s showdown.
THE GEORGE PICKENS GAME
⭐ 8 receptions
⭐ 134 yards
⭐ 2 touchdowns
⭐ 153.0 rating when targeted https://t.co/bXr5VI5C6U pic.twitter.com/GJhYtElN9w— PFF Fantasy (@PFF_Fantasy) September 29, 2025
Prescott fed George Pickens, Jalen Tolbert, and Jake Ferguson, and we should expect that to increase with Turpin missing from action. I would bank on a minimum of 12 catches combined between those three.
Some may argue that the lack of an offensive line could force Prescott to run more, and given the Jets’ start to the season, that may become a key in this game.
Can’t Catch Me Now: Jets Defense Allowing QB Rushing Yards
New York’s front office has tried to build one of the most explosive pass-rush duos in football with first-rounders Will McDonald IV and Jermaine Johnson. After all, in the AFC, you have to have guys who can track down Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson.
Unfortunately for the Jets, that duo is, at the very least, unlikely to be at 100% this Sunday.
Johnson has missed every game this season, and although he is questionable, it appears he may be inactive for this matchup as well. That absence has had a significant impact on their ability to stop running quarterbacks.
Injury report: #Jets holding out hope for Jermaine Johnson, who hasn’t practiced in three weeks. Seems unlikely to play. Cowboys ruled out Lamb, two starting OLM (Guyton and Booker) and are listing a third (Smith) as questionable with no practice. pic.twitter.com/LCOkmcVIpq
— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) October 3, 2025
Aside from their matchups against Aaron Rodgers and Tua Tagovailoa, who both notably don’t run, they’ve given up 59 rushing yards to Allen and 44 to Baker Mayfield.
Dak Prescott is, of course, not nearly the runner he used to be, but he may have no choice but to get those legs moving in Week 5.
The offensive line may not be able to protect long; two of his top weapons are out, and Sauce Gardner is set to shadow George Pickens. That could equate to running opportunities, and he needs to take them.
The Bottom Line: Dak Prescott Has His Plate Full Against The Jets
If you haven’t picked up on it yet, there is quite a bit on Dak Prescott’s plate in this matchup.
Between the Jets’ superstars on defense and the slew of injuries to Dallas’s offense, he’ll need to be close to perfect to put up points this Sunday, and that doesn’t even mention the Cowboys’ defensive struggles.
If they need Prescott to deliver another 35+ point performance, this one may not go in their favor.
Dallas needs a combination of heroism from their quarterback and stability from their defense if they want to defeat Justin Fields and the Jets.
Dak IS a top 3 QB . carrying the whole teams–including the defense–is beyond top 3. How is it media just has no memory of Dak? Every season Dak is a top 3 to 5 on analytics , wins a game by individual will and then the next year when he does it , media is all surprised. Remember Pittsburgh last year?
And, when a team has no defense, one receiver, a mediocre run game, a thrown together offense line —that does not require a “top 3 QB”—that requires some unknown magic to even get a first down by the QB. Dak annually makes chicken salad from Jerry’s chicken sh#t but this week Dak is not even getting chicken feathers to work with.
He didn’t have that last week and they scored 40 against one of the best defenses in the NFL. We’ll see how it goes this week, but their backup offensive line is really good actually.
Hardly a Superman act against one of the worst defenses in the NFL.
Really!? You think Green Bay has one of the worst defenses in the NFL!? Well your the only one that thinks that!! Because before Dak put 40 up on them, they were a top 5 defense, not allowing more than an average of 16 points a game!! But according to you, that’s a bad defense!! I think that shows how much you know football, and from the sounds of it, you don’t know very much!! A defense that keeps teams from scoring under 20 points every game isn’t one of the worst, that makes them one of the best!! And even after we put up 40 on them, I guarantee they’re still a top 10 defense!! Which in case you didn’t know, is still one of the best defenses in the NFL!! So unless your talking about some other team, you mite wanna go do some research because it looks like you don’t know much about football!!
The article is about needing a Superman a t to beat the Jets. I simply pointed out what Dak did against the Packers.
We’re gonna be starting the same offensive linemen we started last week against Green Bay, so why are there any worries about us not holding up against the jets!? The only difference is that Guyton won’t start this game, and his backup, who finished the last game will be starting, and he looked really good in the time he played, so we’ll probably be better with him than we would be with Guyton!! The only problem we mite have is if Tyler Smith don’t play!! But even if he don’t, we still have other linemen that’ll be good enough to start in his place!! They mite not be as good as Smith is, but they’ll be good enough to hold up for Dak!! So with that said, like I said above, our starting lineup will be the same as the one we finished with last week, so I’m not sure why everybody is acting like it’s a surprise that we’ll be starting 3 backups!!
And as far as the receivers go, we did just fine without Ceedee last week and Turpin didn’t do much of anything to help, so he’s not really a factor!! The only thing we’ll really miss him for is his kick and punt returns!! But on offense, we’ll still have Pickens, Tolbert and Flournoy!! Plus we called up Jalen Brooks to the active roster too, plus, if the rumors are true, we’ll see the debut of Jaydon Blue, who has the speed of Turpin, and mite even be better as a receiver, so I think we’ll be fine even with the injuries!! The only thing that we should be worried about is the fact that we don’t play as good on the road as we do at home!! But I still think we’re good enough to beat the jets!!