Dak Prescott gives update on injury recovery, discusses what George Pickens offers Cowboys

The 2024 Dallas Cowboys fell to 3-5 on the campaign on the same day that quarterback Dak Prescott went down with what became a season-ending hamstring injury in Week 9.

While speaking with reporters at his youth football camp in Texas on Tuesday, Prescott offered an encouraging update regarding his hamstring as he prepares for Dallas' first training camp practice, scheduled for July 22.

"I’m healthy as I’ll be," Prescott explained, Pro Football Talk's Myles Simmons shared. "I’ll be full go for camp. I’m healthy, yeah. I think soon, here, I’ll probably get an official sign-off from doc. But I’m healthy."

Prescott emerged as a 2023 Most Valuable Player Award finalist while playing under then-head coach Mike McCarthy and then-offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. It's believed that a significant reason the Cowboys ultimately promoted Schottenheimer shortly after parting ways with McCarthy this past winter is that Prescott wanted "continuity" and didn't want to learn a new offensive system. 

Prescott agreed to a four-year contract extension reportedly worth $240M with $231M guaranteed shortly before Dallas' regular-season opener last September. According to Pro Football Reference, he ended this past campaign ranked 32nd in the NFL among qualified players with a 45.3 adjusted QBR and 27th with an 86.0 passer rating. Over his eight games, he tallied 11 touchdown passes and eight interceptions. 

The Cowboys gave Prescott a new No. 2 wide receiver when they acquired George Pickens from the Pittsburgh Steelers in May. While it's still early days in their relationship, Prescott seems to be a fan of what he saw from Pickens during springtime workouts. 

"We'll turn on that guy's tape, he is getting separation," Prescott said about Pickens on Tuesday, per Sports Illustrated's Randy Gurzi. "He’s got separation even when he’s not getting the ball at times. And when he doesn't have separation, he’s still making the catch." 

Pittsburgh reportedly got "fed up" with Pickens and had no desire to offer him an extension when he was due to feature for the club in the final year of his rookie contract. 

If Prescott can keep Pickens happy through at least early January, the latter could go down as one of the top pickups made by a team this offseason.