The Dallas Cowboys 2020 season took an unexpected and ugly turn when Quarterback Dak Prescott suffered a season-ending ankle injury in Week 5 against the New York Giants. Although the team was struggling with a 2-3 record, Prescott was performing at an even higher level than he did in 2019 (his 1,856 passing yards led the NFL at the time).
Cowboys COO Stephen Jones made his weekly appearance on 105.3 The Fan on Friday. The GBag Nation took some time to check on the latest surrounding Prescott’s recovery and Jones provided this update.
“I haven’t run into Dak in the last couple of weeks,” Jones said. “What I do is get these amazing reports on how he’s doing. It shouldn’t come as any surprise. He does everything to the 9s and the 10s, he just does it the very best. He’s been so diligent in his rehab, and that shouldn’t surprise anybody. They said (the team’s medical staff), if anything, he’s ahead of schedule and rolling. We expect him to have a full recovery. He avoided any of the complications that come anytime you have a bone that breaks the skin. You worry about infections and he certainly avoided any of that. We’re just fortunate to have a guy like Dak. It’s been tough not having him out there because his leadership is right at the top with his skill, and what he brings to the table as a quarterback in the NFL.”
The Cowboys offense has taken a significant dip in production in Prescott’s absence. In the first five games, they averaged 488 yards and 32.6 points. That has gone down to 279 yards and 10.3 points per game with Andy Dalton, Ben DiNucci, and Garrett Gilbert under center.
Prescott is expected to make a full recovery. Once he does return to the field the biggest elephant in the room will be his contract situation. If he receives a second franchise tag, he’ll make around $37.7 million ($31.4 million this season) in 2021.
When asked about Prescott’s contract status during a midseason meeting while the Cowboys were on their bye week, Jones had this to say.
“We really haven’t had any conversations with Dak since his injury other than talk about how he’s doing physically in terms of his injury and rehab,” Jones said. “We haven’t talked about in particular the future or anything to do with the contract at this point.”
The organization may not have spoken to Prescott about his contact since he went down, and probably won’t for a while since he’s early in his recovery, but his value has been on full display during the Cowboy’s current four-game losing streak.
