Dak Prescott - Injury History

What You Need to Know:

• Prescott finished 7th among fantasy QBs (depending on your scoring format) in his return from the 2020 ankle injury.
• He delivered 11 top-12 fantasy finishes among his 16 games, including 7 weeks among the top 6. Both of those totals beat his numbers for those categories in 2019, his last full season. Only Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes finished more weeks in the top 12 last year.
• Prescott also had more finishes at 20th or lower than in 2019: 5 of them, vs. 3 in 2019.
• He earned a career-high Pro Football Focus passing grade, increasing that number for the 4th straight season. Prescott ranked 8th in the league in that category.
• Prescott’s yards per pass attempt dipped to 7.5 after 2 straight seasons over 8.0. His TD rate climbed to a career-high 6.2%, though. Betting on regression in that 2nd number seems wise. As for the previous …
• Dallas traded away Amari Cooper, who led the 2019 and 2020 Cowboys in receiving yards, and ranked 2nd (behind CeeDee Lamb) last season. Cooper trailed Lamb in yards per catch in each of their 2 shared seasons and trailed Michael Gallup in that category his 1st 2 seasons with the team. (Gallup missed 8 games with injuries last year.)
• The Cowboys re-signed Gallup, who is coming off a Jan. 2 ACL tear. Dallas also signed James Washington and drafted WR Jalen Tolbert in Round 4.
• Despite having Lamb, Cooper, Gallup (for half a season) and Cedrick Wilson (now gone to Miami), Dallas targeted WRs last season at its lowest rate since 2015. That 56.1% share ranked 17th in the league.
• Prescott’s rushing numbers fell way off in his return from the 2020 ankle injury. His 3.0 carris per game checked in just short of the 3.3 he averaged in 2019. But Prescott went from 5.1 yards per attempt over his previous 4 full seasons to just 3.0 in 2021. That cut his rushing yards per game in half. And after scoring 3+ TDs on the ground in each of his first 5 seasons (even the injury-shortened campaign), Prescott scored only 1 rushing TD in 2021.
• His 15 red-zone rushes for the year were right in line with previous seasons – including 9 from inside the 10 (according to Pro Football Reference). Whether Prescott’s ankle was limiting his effectiveness or he was just unlucky, the QB seems a good bet for positive regression there.
• Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy said the team will utilize QB Dak Prescott's legs more in 2022. The plan is for Dallas to “put in more quarterback runs and quarterback movement plays," per beat writer Clarence Hill.
• Jon Machota of The Athletic writes that Dallas’ O-line “has more question marks than it ever has in [Dak] Prescott’s career.”

Draft Sharks Bottom Line:

Prescott seems a little low at QB13 in our site rankings. Blame a crowded position more than the QB himself, with DeShaun Watson and Trey Lance arriving after not factoring into last year’s QB picture – and Russell Wilson moving to a franchise that wants to let him cook. Prescott does face the challenge, though, of losing Amari Cooper and waiting for another starting WR to recover from a Week 17 ACL tear. Prescott and his offense are good enough to overcome those challenges, and he might well outperform our ranking. But there’s also some downside risk that the Dallas pass offense slows vs. recent seasons. Prescott remains solid, but don’t overcommit to him in 2022.