FRISCO, Texas — Dak Prescott is a week into the Dallas Cowboys‘ 2022 official offseason program, but he already feels “completely different,” than he did at this time in 2021 as he worked back from a compound fracture and dislocation of his right ankle.
“A year ago, you’re excited because you’re back on your leg. You’re moving it for the first time. From one week to the next you get to do two jumps to three jumps to jogging to sprinting, so you’re excited and you feel progress,” Prescott said before the Children’s Cancer Gala in which he was named an honorary co-chair with Troy Aikman a Roger Staubach passed the torch to the Cowboys’ current quarterback. “But a year (later), I get on the field and I don’t even think about my leg. It goes from getting that leg better to that’s not even a thought in my head. There’s days, maybe the cold front comes in, that I might feel it a little bit more, but it’s not a thought in my head or a worry or rehabbing on.”
Prescott had surgery on his left (non-throwing) shoulder earlier in the offseason, but he said “the shoulder’s great.” Last year, he missed most of training camp with a right latissimus strain and then missed one game in the regular season with a right calf injury.
He said he would likely continue some sort of prehab for the ankle injury prior to practices, “but not necessarily maybe to the full extent of the (resistance) bands and all that. But there are certain precautions and things I will go through to make sure that my leg is ready to go and there’s no small injuries coming off that.”
With his health, he can focus on improving on the field.
“I’m not rehabbing one thing. I’m working on my whole body,” he said. “From my foot speed, it’s not just putting this down. Now it’s, ‘Can I get this thing faster than they’ve ever been?’ It’s about improving on the person and player I was before the injury now and being the best player I can be for this organization.”
He said this is the healthiest he has felt in an offseason in quite some time.
“It’s exciting,” Prescott said. “Yeah, I mean throwing this morning and leaving that session, yeah, I mean pumped up just the way I feel, the leg feels, the arm feels, the body feels. Yeah, I’m excited.”
Prescott was at The Star well before the offseason program began going through captains workouts in which he said more than 20 players were in attendance. With the official program starting on Monday, the Cowboys had more than 60 players in attendance at the voluntary workouts.
“That encouraged guys. When they came around the building, they saw 15-20 guys around when we weren’t even voluntary and when it’s voluntary I’m sure all will be there, that they don’t want to miss. You don’t want to be the guy that’s not building the chemistry or building what we’re working on. I think it shows the character of the guys that we’ve got and credit to the front office and the coaches for getting people that want to be here when it’s completely voluntary.”