There is a lot of debate surrounding Prescott's availability coming off the bye.
Dak Prescott
@ Minnesota Vikings
SUN 6:20PM
*Game Time Decision
The Dallas quarterback strained his calf late in the week 6 matchup against New England, before heading into a bye. With two weeks to recover, missing time wasn't a concern until recently when we learned through various conflicting and confusing pressers that there have been some obvious setbacks.
The internet is wild with reports about this, but basically everyone is trying to over-analyze the same information coming (indirectly) from the same source. Here's what those involved are saying, between the lines: Dak feels good enough to play. There is still some pain in his calf, but not enough to hold him out, in his opinion. Mike McCarthy and the coaching staff feel that Dak is too valuable to risk re-injury if he has any pain at all in the calf, and would rather sit him one more week instead of feeding him to the Vikings on a tweaked leg. All this comes down to Dak being a game-time decision essentially, and with the Cowboys/Vikings playing the Sunday Night Football game this week...that puts Dak Prescott fantasy owners in a pickle.
If Dak doesn't play Sunday night, the only fantasy options at QB would be Kirk Cousins, or Daniel Jones Monday night against the Chiefs...or Dallas backup Cooper Rush, but if Rush starts you are likely looking at a minimal game plan that won't result in fantasy value. If you have (or can acquire) Jones or Cousins, you are set and can just swap them in if Dak is inactive, with both QBs having favorable matchups this week.
If you can't get those backup QBs, you either have to hope Prescott plays and have Cooper Rush in the back pocket...or pull the trigger and bench Dak for your backup QB who plays in an earlier game. I am faced with this very decision in multiple leagues, as I have a lot of shares of Dak Prescott. And it may not be the worst idea: Dak faces the Vikings defense that is top 10 in lowest points allowed to fantasy QBs, and Prescott obviously has some soreness associated with the calf, which probably effects his throwing ability in some way. All this to say, even a healthy Dak may be looking at an 18 point day against Minnesota.
Take a look at your rostered backups like Joe Burrow vs the Jets, Matt Stafford vs the Texans, Baker Mayfield (cleared to play) vs the Steelers, and those guys have similar floors and are easy choices to plug in rather than risk Prescott. If you don't have a backup QB, or your backup is Davis Mills or something, take a gander at the waiver wire. Matt Ryan, Ryan Tannehill, and Trevor Lawrence are available in most leagues (or at least one of them will be), and those guys also have surprisingly high floors and decent matchups this week to keep you afloat if you can't risk the Prescott play.
Prescott plans to go through normal pregame workouts, and if he experiences any pain he will be held out one more week. The QB really wants to play however, and we know how easy it is for players to feign health ("no Doc, it feels great!"), so I fully expect Prescott to trot out there tonight. If you just need floor production to secure a victory this week, pull Dak and roll out Burrow/Ryan/Mayfield. Most of us need more than that however, so if you leave in Dak you can do so knowing there will only be about a 10% chance you end up starting Cooper Rush.
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