Rookie fourth-round pick Dak Prescott gets the call Sunday in the regular-season opener for the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium against the New York Giants.
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Romo has been much-maligned in almost a decade as the Cowboys’ starting signal caller, but he’s been one of the NFL’s most consistent quarterbacks when he’s been able to stay on the field. At this point, the way Morris played in the preseason, I can see Garrett easing Zeke into his National Football League career by splitting most of the carries this week.
The early timetable suggested Romo’s injury could cost him 8-10 weeks of the season.
McCain signed undrafted with the Dolphins following the 2014 NFL Draft. But the Dallas Cowboys have always targeted the October 30 game against the Philadelphia Eagles after the bye week for Romo’s comeback, sidelining him for six weeks. The Cowboys still have a tremendous offensive line, but it’ll have to survive without Romo, which they struggled with last season. Prescott had his worst preseason performance when he spent much of his time on the field against the first-team defense of the Seattle Seahawks, and he still managed to go 17-of-23 for 166 yards and a score, good enough for a 99.2 passer rating.
Prescott may not throw for over 400 yards with 5 touchdowns, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple touchdowns and 200+ yards.
Dak Prescott enters the 2016 season as the Dallas Cowboys’ starting quarterback. The preseason – that’s all you can judge him on.
Daring fantasy owners are already jumping on Prescott as a QB2 despite the lack of clarity beyond the Cowboys’ first handful of games. Like most Cowboys Giants games, I expect a close one with Prescott making a few plays that will get the Cowboys faithful excited for the future. And given that he will face a pass rush that includes Jason Pierre-Paul, Olivier Vernon and Damon Harrison, it might be a long as well as a painful afternoon for Prescott. The Giants now have a rookie head coach Ben McAdoo. Entering his third season in New York’s current offensive system, Manning might improve upon the 35 touchdowns and 14 interceptions he threw past year, and it all starts on Sunday.
Manning has fared well against the Cowboys in recent meetings and Dallas was 27th in the National Football League in pass defense last season.
The New York Giants come off of a disappointing 2015 campaign that saw the G-men finish a disappointing 6-10, losing 6 of their last 7 games to finish the season. “In Tony’s case, the IR term is for eight weeks and we feel like, given what the injury is and the progress he’s made, we feel at this point we want to do that”.
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The oddsmakers are well aware of the impact that Romo’s absence will have, and it might be the difference between Dallas going 1-0 and the Cowboys losing a nail-biter in Week 1.
