OXNARD, Calif. — It was all about getting as much as he could out of the joint scrimmage between the Dallas Cowboys and the Los Angeles Rams, considering Dak Prescott will likely not take a single snap in any of the coming preseason contests this August.
The All-Pro quarterback and MVP runner-up is simply too valuable to the Cowboys to risk it, and he understands the situation, so he maximized his reps on Thursday to build upon the red-hot camp he's having this year in Oxnard.
But without any preseason reps to come, will he be ready for Sept. 8 against the Cleveland Browns in the regular season opener?
"I'm going into Year 9 and I've had a lot of experience," said the three-time Pro Bowler. "I think that carries into my confidence. I could play a game right now."
In the absence of record-setting receiver CeeDee Lamb, Prescott has built chemistry with others in the WRs room in a way that will both serve the Cowboys once Lamb returns and also make it difficult to sort through things when the time comes to shave the roster down from 90 players to only 53 at the end of August; and then there's his eye-popping connection with Brandin Cooks in their second camp together.
There's nothing that indicates Prescott will have any semblance of rust in Cleveland.
After all, it's the same Prescott that, in 2021, took zero preseason snaps and then racked up 403 yards and three touchdowns to only one interception against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers in Tampa during that year's season opener. The Cowboys went on to lose that game, but it wasn't because Prescott wasn't sharp.
He was the scalpel in an episode of "Dexter".
"A part of me wishes that [scrimmage against the Rams] was a game," said Prescott. "I wish it was — that those third and fourth downs were real. To see the defense come on and to see the whole chess match, I'm looking forward to feeling that and getting into that rhythm, but the team will get to that and everything we need in the preseason to make sure that we're ready to roll when it's time to roll.
"Me, personally, I'm ready to play and get out there."
He'll have to wait another month before feeling anything close to what he felt against the Rams in Oxnard and, for Prescott, the trip to Cleveland can't come soon enough.
