In good company
Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy sees elements of Joe Montana and Brett Favre in Dak Prescott
Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy is admittedly superstitious. So he doesn’t want quarterback Dak Prescott’s shoulder injury to be compared at all to last season’s fractured ankle that sidelined him for the final 11 games.
It’s a setback, for sure, as Prescott will not play any preseason games and will take his first live snap in 11 months when the Cowboys take on the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the league’s season opener on Sept. 9.
But he knew right away when Prescott took himself out of practice on July 28 this wasn’t the same level of last season when the injury proved to be the turning point in a season that would see the Cowboys finish 6-10.
And he didn’t have those here-we-goagain feelings. He was simply hurting for his quarterback who worked tirelessly in the offseason to recover from the ankle injury only to have to deal with another setback.
“Right away, just the way they described it wasn’t a huge deal,” McCarthy said. “Really, the fact that he stopped was so smart and once we found out exactly what it was, really shutting it down and starting it all over again, put us in this timeline. I just feel the guy’s pain. When you think about what he’s done everyday to get himself ready for the season, now he’s got something like that. He is like a caged lion and rightfully so.”
But I didn’t feel that way. You shouldn’t bring that up either, that’s not fair,” the coach said. “I’m Irish. I got a good luck charm.”
To hear McCarthy tell it, he has more than a good luck charm in Prescott. He sees him as the centerpiece of not just a championship team but a possibly dynasty team.
McCarthy said there is no doubt in his mind that he’s going to be successful in Dallas and Prescott will be the key to sustained success based on his prior experiences with Hall of Famer Joe Montana and Rich Gannon with the Kansas City Chiefs and Hall of Famer Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers with the Green Bay Packers.
“To win every year here, that’s the real challenge. And we have that part right,”
McCarthy said. “We have the quarterback. We have the right person, the right leader, and he’ll be a huge part in that. But that’s what we had with Montana, that’s what we had with Rich Gannon, that’s what we had with Brett Favre — not only what they do on Sundays, but what they do in practice during the week. They’re so competitive, and they make the whole environment better. That’s how you win consistently. Dak is that for us.
So that’s what I’m excited about.”