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Cowboys Predicted To 'Flirt' With Playoffs

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Adam Schultz | Last updated May 18, 2025 9:00 AM ET

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott will enter the 2025 season needing to prove many skeptics wrong about two things.

His ability to stay healthy and his ability to lead his team to a deep playoff run.

And one can't happen without the other.

After a hamstring injury ended his season in Week 9 last year, Prescott is on the comeback trail and will take part in training camp in Oxnard. Still, with the offseason the Cowboys have had, many doubt if Dak can lift this team up to the playoffs and beyond.

But for CBS Sports' Cody Benjamin, he thinks Dak will bounce back in 2025.

"It's bad enough that Prescott missed nine games -- roughly half the Dallas Cowboys' season -- in 2024," Benjamin writes. "The fact he's now missed extensive time in three of his last five seasons means there's even more pressure on the 31-year-old to stay upright. Still, with Tyler Booker plugged in up front and George Pickens now opposite CeeDee Lamb out wide, Prescott should have the support to flirt with the playoffs again. The real question is whether he can carve out the defining January run his resume still lacks."

To put it in easy terms, when Dak is healthy for a full season, more often than not, Dallas makes the playoffs. Six times Prescott has played all regular-season games, and five times the Cowboys were playoff-bound.

So the recipe going forward is simple. Keep Dak healthy.

With a revamped offensive line, another weapon in George Pickens to go with CeeDee Lamb, and a run game that will be better than last season, Dak won't have to be Superman anymore.

And that won't put him in harm's way, and that should, in theory, allow him to stay healthy.

And when he stays healthy, the Cowboys are a playoff team, and there's every reason to suggest Dallas will be just that in 2025...if Dak stays out of the treatment room.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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