Cowboy Fans Shouldn’t Overreact to the Injury Report This Week

Old-fashioned newspapers are notorious for hiding some of the most useful sports information in the fine print. Look at the headlines, and you’ll see how one of the town’s NFL heroes is appearing on Dancing With the Stars. Check the small print in a back-end section, and lo and behold, Sonny Jurgenson was traded for Joe Namath.

But you won’t need a magnifying glass to know what’s going on with Silver Star QB Dak Prescott this week. Leading up to the Cowboys’ all-important NFC Divisional Round meeting with the L.A. Rams, Prescott is – gasp! – on the official injury list.

It may likely be nothing to worry about at all. Big D blogger Patrik Walker puts it this way: “One of the more durable quarterbacks in the NFL, the former Rookie of the Year hasn’t missed a single start since taking the reins in 2016. It does appear he injured his knee (in the Seattle game) but nothing…that stopped him from running to convert on 3rd-and-16 with the game on the line…it looks like the Cowboys are listing him because they have no choice — per NFL rules.”

It’s true that there are many players listed “probable” on any week-to-week NFL injury chart – with a majority of those cases being minor bumps and bruises and nothing that would prevent a full-blown start. Dak is a certainty to start against the Mountain Goats. But it could be a little too glib for beat reporters to claim there’s nothing actually smarting on the QB’s knee. Prescott could have gotten some temporary pain relief from a trainer at AT&T Stadium, then rolled out of bed gingerly on Sunday.

WR Cole Beasley, who sealed the deal for the Cowboys at the NFC Wild Card game with a catch on a weird onside drop-kick, is fighting a pair of ankle and foot injuries and did not participate in Tuesday’s practice.