Cowboys’ Dak Prescott to have season-ending surgery, Jones says
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Todd Archer, ESPN Staff WriterNov 12, 2024, 10:22 AM ET
- Todd Archer is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Dallas Cowboys. Archer has covered the NFL since 1997 and Dallas since 2003. He joined ESPN in 2010. You can follow him on Twitter at @toddarcher.
FRISCO, Texas — The season is over for Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott.
Speaking on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas on Tuesday, owner and general manager Jerry Jones confirmed Prescott will have surgery to repair the partial avulsion of his hamstring in New York on Wednesday.
Prescott flew to New York on Monday to visit with a specialist all the while understanding that surgery would be the most likely outcome. After Sunday’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Prescott said he wanted to make sure this would not be an issue that affected him in the future.
“It’s a more common injury in hockey, and he’s got doctors that are very familiar with how to repair that,” Jones said. “And his prognosis is wonderful. It just means that we’re not going to have him the rest of the year.”
There was a strong possibility Prescott would not have been able to return this year even without surgery. Multiple sources said he would need six to eight weeks to recover before he could potentially get back on the field. The Cowboys are 3-6 and have eight games remaining in the regular season.
With the surgery, Prescott is looking at a three-month recovery period.
He suffered in the injury in the Cowboys’ Nov. 3 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on a run. Television cameras caught Prescott in pain after making a wobbly pass to the sideline and his final pass fell incomplete on a screen pass that could have been a potential touchdown.
This is the second time in the past five seasons Prescott has been unable to finish the season because of injury. In 2020, he suffered a dislocation and compound fracture of his right ankle in the fifth game of the season.
Prescott, 31, will finish this season with 1,978 yards passing, 11 touchdowns and eight interceptions. In September, Prescott signed a four-year, $240 million extension with the Cowboys that made him the highest-paid quarterback in NFL history.
This will be the fourth surgery he has had since 2020. He missed five games in 2022 because of a broken right thumb and after that season he had surgery on his left shoulder.
The Cowboys will place Prescott on injured reserve, creating a roster spot, but they have signed Will Grier to the practice squad to have three quarterbacks available. Cooper Rush will make his second straight start in Monday’s game against the Houston Texans, backed up by Trey Lance.
Grier was with the Cowboys in 2021-22 before his release before the 2023 season. Most recently he had been on the Philadelphia Eagles’ practice squad.