Jerry Jones mentioned Tuesday that the Cowboys don’t exactly want to see Dak Prescott running with the football.
As football seasons go on sometimes things become unavoidable or impossible to ignore. We are reaching that particular point with one subject regarding the Dallas Cowboys.
Through the first seven games of the season the Cowboys are struggling just about everywhere besides special teams so picking one thing to focus on is a bit rich, but for the purposes of today’s discussion we will be talking about Dak Prescott running with the football. You see, he is not really doing that.
To be perfectly clear before we go any further, nobody is saying that Prescott is an incredibly mobile quarterback or that running with the ball has ever been an enormous part of his game. Throughout his earlier years we saw it more, but as he has developed over time we have seen it a bit less. Still though, there has always been some semblance of it to his game.
Here are the amount of rushing attempts that Prescott has had through the first seven games of each season of his career.
- 2024: 10
- 2023: 23
- 2022: 19
- 2021: 24
- 2020*: 18
- 2019: 24
- 2018: 40
- 2017: 23
- 2016: 27
The 2020 season carries an asterisk because it was horrible and we should eliminate it from history due to the fact that Prescott was injured and lost for the season during the fifth game; however, despite that fact he still had more rushing attempts in over two fewer games. Obviously he was injured while running.
When discussing or wondering why the change is so apparent here in 2024 that last line rings loudest. Football is a physical game and any time you run with the ball you are putting yourself at risk as a quarterback. In the wonderment as to why Prescott has not been running as much so far this season, particularly despite a low number of playmakers to throw the ball to, many have assumed that there has been some level of protection offered there whether by Dak himself or from a call inside the house, so to speak.
Jerry Jones made his standard 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday morning and was asked about this subject specifically. He noted that there aren’t exactly explicit instructions for Dak to avoid running with the ball, but he did mention that it is something that they don’t really want to see.
“You really don’t want to see him… you don’t want to see him really take off with that ball. These quarterbacks that run, you know they’re going to get injured. And that happens. It happens to the youngest. It happens to the best. It’s happened to Dak. To the end that we rely on him to stay healthy, that’s an important part of it. I wouldn’t say it’s up there in red letters in the practice facility ‘don’t run’, but I would say that we want him to be smart about it. And he is being smart about. He will, when he sees the opportunity, pull it down and run with it as we know.”
Once again, Jerry did not say that the Cowboys are completely against the idea of Prescott running with the football, but it is hard to not believe that there is some sort of decision that was made against the idea.
Let’s take a step back and look at the entire NFL as a whole so that we don’t just live in the tunnel vision that is the Cowboys. In an effort to equalize the parameters let’s remember that Prescott has played seven games so far this season for the team.
Consider every quarterback who started the first seven games of this season for their team in the way that Dak has (some quarterbacks have even played an eighth game, but to properly search this we had to limit it at seven to equate to Prescott’s total).
Dak Prescott has the second-fewest rushing attempts of all eligible players, per Stathead.
Stathead
Dak shouldn’t be anywhere near the top of this list. He is not Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson or Jayden Daniels from a rushing perspective. He isn’t Josh Allen or Kyler Murray. We all understand this.
But the discrepancy here is massive. There is a case to be made that the overall idea of protecting your quarterback from injury by curbing his running is a good one, but seeing the data like this shows that we are over that line. This is timidity.
There is no reason whatsoever that Kirk Cousins, recovering from a torn Achilles this season mind you, should have more rushing attempts than Dak Prescott. Especially if we remember that Dak has limited options to work with in the passing game. The Cowboys are at a point where they have to run with the ball (as we have seen them try to do with their low-quality running back operation) to open things up.
Protecting your quarterback is something that is smart in a general sense, but you can’t hinder your operation out of fear. It seems the Dallas Cowboys may be doing that.
