FRISCO — The Dallas Cowboys' 2024 campaign had already soured by the time Dak Prescott suffered a season-ending hamstring injury in Week 9 against the Atlanta Falcons. Eight games into the season, it became abundantly clear that this iteration of "America's Team" would not be destined to break an extensive conference championship drought.
Despite that reality, the Cowboys still missed him in a significant way as they stumbled through the second half of the season. After all, most teams would encounter similar experiences without an arguable top 10 quarterback in their lineup.
It makes for a tough situation after Dallas signed Prescott to the biggest contract extension in NFL history in September. He has now suffered two season-ending injuries in the last five seasons and another saw him miss a good chunk of the 2022 season.
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His health has not shown any major regression in terms of his ability as a passer to this point. But give the recent history and his age ticking up, the window for Prescott to be a championship caliber quarterback for this franchise could be closing within the next few years.
That makes the hire of Brian Schottenheimer so crucial. Schottenheimer has worked with Prescott the past two seasons and now, as the head coach and offensive play caller, the Cowboys are counting on him to help Prescott lead Dallas out of the wilderness.
Prescott seemed to have that same understanding following Schottenheimer's introductory press conference earlier this week. .
"I know the approach he's going to have. I wanted to show him, hey, I'm going to be here with you and for you," Prescott said. "Not only, what, he signs for four years? I got four years left on my contract. He's tied directly to my future, so let's go be the best that we can in these four years."
And that is the major truth to be found here. Jerry Jones and the Cowboys brass faced backlash for their handling of the hiring process and the candidates they targeted.
But continuity is key here and they are relying on that aspect of this quarterback-head coach relationship to recapture the magic of the three previous seasons that saw Dallas win the NFC East twice. They will also hope to avoid the same ills that plagued them in disastrous failures in the postseason those years.
It is certainly a gamble on this relationship given the pedigree of the other candidates available during this coaching cycle. However, the Cowboys now believe they have the right guy in both of those vital positions to get things back on track.
