When the Cowboys lost quarterback Dak Prescott to a broken bone in his hand, he was expected to miss 6-8 weeks. Almost immediately, the timeline changed.
Dr. Jerry Jones said almost immediately that Prescott could return within the next four games. The fact that the Cowboys didn’t put Dak on injured reserve gave credence to that confidence.
But here we are, four games later. And there’s no sign that Dak will be back for the Sunday night showdown against the Eagles, five weeks after the injury. Indeed, the Cowboys have now said they’re preparing to proceed with Cooper Rush.
If Dak isn’t ready for to play this weekend, and with home games against the Lions and Bears coming before the bye, it could make sense to just wait until Week 10, at Green Bay.
That would be nine weeks after the injury. And the high end of the initial estimate will have been accurate.
So what was Jerry trying to prove by suggesting that Dak would be back within four weeks? One possibility is that he believed this would keep the players from potentially giving up on the season. That if the players thought Dak would be back soon, they still had a chance to fulfill their always-lofty objectives. And that they wouldn’t believe the balloon had been popped on another campaign that commenced with high expectations.
If it was deliberate, it was genius. It has kept the team on track, getting them to focus on winning an to not think about making excuses or believing it’ just not their year. One month and one day after the injury happened, it could be their year.
Especially if they can keep winning until Dak returns at 100 percent for the second half of the season.
On Dak Prescott’s absence, Jerry Jones may have handled it like a genius originally appeared on Pro Football Talk