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-go-again 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.”
McCarthy believed Prescott was a special person before he got to the Cowboys last year.
He is even more bullish on him now after watching him endure the hardships of 2020, which included battling depression, dealing with the death of his brother Jace who took his own life, and then having to be sidelined for most of the season after a gruesome ankle injury.
“Just to watch him go through it, think about it,” McCarthy said. “You hardly know somebody, and think about your first, second, third phone calls that you’re having with your new quarterback. He’s everything that’s been said about him before I got here and more. Most importantly, he’s the same guy every day. It’s so important that you have that from your leader — not only to be successful, but to stay successful.”
McCarthy admits he made a mistake in how he handled his relationship in the media with Rodgers in Green Bay, fueling the perception that they didn’t get along at all and probably leading to the team’s downfall and his firing in 2018.
He believes the prickly relationship he had with his former quarterback was based on his hardscrabble upbringing in Pittsburgh compared to Rodgers’ more easygoing California nature.
“Now we were together for 13 years, so, yeah, there’s definitely some ammunition to fuel that storyline,” McCarthy said. “But I like prickly. I think that’s part of where we grew up. Conflict is good. But, yeah, he’s an interesting cat. He’s as eclectic and intelligent of a guy as I’ve ever worked with. Obviously a great quarterback, but, yeah I liked our relationship. I think those stories grow sometimes. But I think part of the way I handled the media in the past didn’t help him. I think that’s part of the reflection that I admit to.”
His relationship is still evolving with Prescott.
It’s different from his past interactions with quarterbacks because he is not the coordinator and primary play caller, resulting in daily and weekly meetings to go over game plans.
He did spend a good amount of time with Prescott during one of the last night’s in training camp in Oxnard, Calif., as they stayed on the field talking.
He says they have a good relationship.
But what he cares about most is Prescott’s relationship with offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
Building on that relationship and keeping that continuity is why he gave up play-calling duties to Moore when he took the job last season because that’s best for the quarterback’s success as well as that of the team in his quest to build a Super Bowl winner.
“The reason why Kellen Moore was given the opportunity he was given is because I wanted to continue the advancement of Dak Prescott, and that’s why I gave it up,” McCarthy said. “I saw Joe Montana stay in a very similar offense his whole career. I watched Brett Favre stay, and I watched Aaron Rodgers do the same. I think that’s a huge, huge component. We need to build off of that.”
