The Cowboys open September 11 at home against the New York Giants.
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But with Romo in a back brace for the foreseeable future, the fourth round draft pick is thrust right into the spotlight.
“I didn’t even see him until after I celebrated and saw he was still on the ground”, Avril said.
Prescott took the first-team snaps on Sunday, and Garrett said he is not sure if the fourth-round pick would play in Thursday’s preseason finale against the Houston Texans. “He’ll do the things that he’s capable of doing and won’t do the things he’s not capable of doing and hopefully he’ll progress every day”.
Romo has a broken bone in his back and is reportedly expected to miss between six and 10 weeks of action. Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reported the injury could linger and that he might need epidural injections in order to play. In the meantime, while Romo has time to ponder his career in the National Football League and the Cowboys can think about their next move in regards to their franchise quarterback, Prescott will start on the field. And based on his comments Sunday, it sounds like he’s expecting his 36-year-old injury-prone veteran back onto the field sooner, rather than later.
After it was announced Saturday that quarterback Tony Romo suffered a compression fracture in his back during the team’s preseason game against Seattle, Prescott went about his day like normal.
The Cowboys organization isn’t saying much about the details of the injury, but during a press conference Stephen Jones called Romo “the ultimate competitor” and said he’d spoken with him since the injury. While that was fine when Dallas was stockpiling rings in the ’90s with Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin and the durable Aikman, it was only a matter of time before such a strategy would start to show cracks.
But if the Cowboys are going to win games without Romo, it’ll only partly fall on the shoulders of the guy who has looked nothing like Tebow during an ultra-successful preseason.
Prescott has shined in the preseason. But the Cowboys dropped their next seven games, going 0-3 with Weeden, 1-6 with Matt Cassel, whom they traded for immediately following the injury, and then 0-2 with Kellen Moore. “Everybody focus on doing their job, and I think our team understands that”. But there are things Prescott can do with his legs that Romo can’t, or at least shouldn’t at this stage, and the Cowboys surely are already analyzing how to use that to their advantage.
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“Dak has done a nice job”, he said. “He wants to take full advantage of the opportunity”. He works very hard at it. “Like I said, keeping each other lifted and building real chemistry”.
