Dak Prescott Injury Status: Cowboys Playing 'Mind Games' With Eagles?

Dak Prescott's recovery from his thumb injury will take another step on Saturday at Cowboys HQ at The Star. Will the Eagles be paying attention?

Dak Prescott is ramping up his recovery from his injury sustained in Week 1, which required surgery to fix his fractured right thumb. The 29-year-old participated on a limited basis in individual drills on Thursday at The Star, but head coach Mike McCarthy needs to see more from his starter before putting him back in the saddle.

Nevertheless, Dak enters the weekend listed as "questionable'' for the Sunday night showdown at Philadelphia, causing some to wonder if Dallas is trying some trickery on the Eagles, playing "mind games'' with how Philly might think about having to prepare for both Cooper Rush ... and maybe, Dak.

"We've thrown on air,'' McCarthy said, without winking into the camera. "We haven't yet thrown in a competitive drill. That's one of the next hurdles. Hopefully we'll potentially get over that in (Saturday's) practice."

So now we have a road map of sorts for Prescott's return. And again, his status changed as well. It is understandable that his game status listed as "questionable" on the Cowboys' latest practice report sent tongues wagging across Cowboys Nation.

#DallasCowboys Practice / Injury and Game Status Report for #eagles pic.twitter.com/IzuhClrBJv

— fishsports ✭ (@fishsports) October 14, 2022

However, we should temper expectations on precisely what Prescott can do at this stage of his recovery. McCarthy stated that after Prescott participated in individual drills on Thursday, his quarterback was rather sore on Friday.

"He's sore as you could expect. That's the most he's thrown to this point. … But I think we're in a good place," McCarthy said.

Additionally, in terms of expectations, we have COO Stephen Jones on the record talking about Dak playing next week against the Lions, or "certainly'' the game after that against the Bears.

With Rush taking over and leading Dallas to a 4-1 record, there is no "rush" on having Prescott back. Instead, McCarthy is simply happy that Dak is on schedule in his recovery.

So, expect Rush to start on Sunday night against the 5-0 Eagles, and agree that Prescott can be forgiven for being a little antsy to return to the field ... maybe with the good folks at Lincoln Financial Field not completely certain what they'll see in the Dallas backfield?

We feel pretty certain about what we'll see. But "mind games'' are always fun.

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