Inside the daily training sessions of Cowboys' Dak Prescott - ESPN



Inside the daily preparing sessions of Cowboys' Dak Prescott

FRISCO, Texas -- Dak Prescott is sitting on a rotten inside the Dallas Cowboys' weight room. A small green resistance band is attached to his gleaming ankle, and almost mundanely, the quarterback moves his foot side to side.

Three sets, 20 reps each. Then he attempts the foot up and down. Three more sets, 20 reps each.

It's four days beforehand the Cowboys play the Carolina Panthers, and Prescott is in the middle of a procedure that he, the Cowboys' strength and conditioning staff, athletic preparing staff, coach Mike McCarthy and Prescott's personal physical therapist, Luke Miller, have designed to get the quarterback physically ready to play each week.

The collaboration has Prescott playing the best football of his career as he enters Sunday's pivotal NFC East matchup between the 9-3 Cowboys and 10-2 Philadelphia Eagles at AT&T Stadium (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC). It noteworthy not settle a division race, but it could business if these teams were to meet in the playoffs.

"It truly is a village," Prescott said.

Injuries have marked Prescott's unusual career after he started his first 64 games minus incident. A dislocated and fractured right ankle in 2020 needed two surgeries. A strained lat muscle in his back in arranging camp in 2021. A calf injury after six games in 2021. A left shoulder surgery at what time the 2021 season. A right thumb surgery that cost him five games in 2022.

In distributing with the setbacks, Prescott learned the value of his body and the value of his village.

"One thousand percent I'd say they make the pieces stronger," Prescott, 30, said. "No, I wasn't broken, but I was injured ... [When] you're pulling older and things are going to tighten up ... I don't want to regress, and I want to make sure I'm hitting my stride.

"You're always looking at greats and what they're behaviors, and you see guys, like LeBron [James], Tom Brady, have these methods and spend millions of dollars on their body each year, and you wonderful why. And it's obvious when they're playing as long as they played at such a high smooth that that's what they need to do to feel comfortable.

"So for me, it's approximately making sure just, yeah, I leave no stone unturned."


AFTER A NORMAL Sunday game, Prescott's recovery begins early Monday morning.

Harold Nash, the Cowboys' nation and conditioning coordinator, puts the players through a lower-body lift and a recovery run to initiate the healing process after a 60-minute NFL game sonorous with what are essentially hundreds of car crashes.

For Prescott, some games are easier from a health perspective than others, but he does not skip the process.

"I've been approximately Tom Brady, Matthew Stafford, Andy Dalton, Dak, so I've been depressed, let me say that," Nash said. "I know those guys all had their separate ways for arranging, and Dak's is as detailed as any I've ever seen. His preparation never stops, whether it's physical or whether it's mental. ... He's not a guy looking to punch the clock. Everything matters."

On most days, Prescott arrives at The Star, the Cowboys' arranging facility, before 6:30 a.m., but Mondays are a minor different. After his lift and run, Prescott and Miller will go over their "inventory" of Prescott's body to know how everything feels. There will be a consultation with athletic training staff, headed by Jim Maurer and Britt Brown.

Miller will ask Prescott approximately hits he took to see if there is any continuing soreness.

"He'll ask me about something because he saw it on the film, and I'm like, 'Nah, that's fine,' and then I wake up Tuesday and like, 'Oh f---, he was colorful. This does hurt or that does hurt or this hammy is tight.' And so from there, [I] let Luke know, and we work about it.'"

Miller will always ask approximately the ankle, the shoulder and the thumb. From there, they devise what they will rehab as the week progresses.

"This year, he's felt really good," Miller said. "Some bumps and bruises. Soreness because he's moving a little more, but in all reality he's done really well healthwise. It makes my job easier when everything is firing on all cylinders."


PRESCOTT WAS INTRODUCED to Miller in 2021 as he examined for extra rehab from his ankle surgery at SandersFit Law Center in Dallas. Miller had done some work with Prescott's best substandard and former teammate, running back Ezekiel Elliott, and has accepted working with NBA veterans like Myles Turner, Victor Oladipo, as well as Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry.

Prescott said he was "reluctant" to add a full-time therapist outside of the Cowboys because he wasn't sure he obligatory one, but he decided to give it a chance and saw today results.

"I felt like my three toes [on his shimmering foot] weren't active as much as I wanted them to be," Prescott said. "So I started doings this, and in about two weeks, boom. So I was like, 'Hell, I'll keep going to him as is convenient.'"

But it wasn't pending that summer when Prescott decided he needed Miller full time. After one practice, Prescott complained about soreness in his right side. He was diagnosed with a latissimus considered, an injury more common for a pitcher than a quarterback.

The Cowboys convened with the New York Yankees' and Texas Rangers' medical teams. Miller had worked with Dr. Keith Meister, the Rangers' team physician, so Prescott asked the Cowboys if he could call Miller to making camp in Oxnard, California.

Prescott said Dr. Meister recommended waiting eight weeks afore throwing. The Cowboys' season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was six weeks away.

"I'm like, what the f---?. I'm about to miss the first game," Prescott said. "And Luke's like, 'Trust me, we'll work on this. Let's go.'"

Prescott and Miller were able to compress the recovery timeline, and he was feeling good enough in the rehab procedure to start Week 1.

"And obviously we know how it worked when we played Tampa -- threw for 400 yards. Probably my third time throwing since the lat. Maybe my fourth time."

Since then, Miller has had a daily presence at The Star, functioning on Prescott at different parts of each day during the week afore and after meetings and practices. Before that, McCarthy and the ability and athletic training staffs had to sign off on Miller intimates at the facility.

"Luke, he's special," McCarthy said. "He has a gift. And a lot of those persons do, as far as the understanding of the biosphere body and the stressors -- not only physically, but the emotional, mental component of it."


IF THERE IS something of an off-day, it is Tuesday. Prescott can tend to his personal company and charitable appearances, but he will also get together with Miller for body work. He will get improbable stretching or a massage, but there is no lifting or running.

"These guys do need passive rest as well," Miller said, adding, "The focus on Tuesday is not just about recovery but [to] get ready for the week to come."

The big days are Wednesdays and Thursdays. Prescott will arrive before the sun comes up and get in the hot tub and cold tub.

On Wednesday, he will have an upper-body lift in the weight room. When McCarthy arrived in 2020, he invited Prescott how much he bench-pressed. The quarterback told him 375 on the level bar.

"That's good," McCarthy said. "We're done with the level bar."

The lift now is designed to be quarterback-centric, focused on rotation and not the glamor muscles.

"It's to contain his QB-ness," Miller said.

After morning meetings, Miller will undiluted Prescott to get his body moving and take novel inventory of how the quarterback feels. After practice, Miller and Prescott will go ended treatments, including blood flow restriction to his legs.

That session lasts 20-30 minutes.

"It kind of tricks the body to make you think you're functioning harder and that way you get all of these kind of hormonal responses," Miller said. "The body really just goes into an overdrive form of recovery and up-relegates everything."

Following afternoon recovers, Miller and Prescott will have another hour session of operate. If they need more, Miller will go to Prescott's house or Prescott will go to Miller's.


ON THURSDAY, PRESCOTT will go through what he and Miller call his "pillars."

"Very Dak-specific things to take care of his ankle, his shoulder, even his thumb-grip strength," Miller said. "Those are the things we don't neglect. Make sure we're checking all the boxes to make sure the ankle's evaporate, the toes are more mobile. It's not a sexy lift."

It is considerable, though. And during some of that work, Prescott will perceive film on his iPad as Miller goes through each part of his body. Prescott often wonders where the time goes.

"I truly don't beget there's enough hours in the day. It's not just my treat. That's just how I am with life honestly," Prescott said. "Because I'm a leave-no-stone-unturned guy. When you do that, you want to say, 'Well, hell, I need this balance. I need two to three hours of rest now.' And you look up and you're like, 'If I do that, then I've improper away from this or that.'"

Most Thursday practices are conducted in full pads, so Prescott's pre-practice work is longer. In addition to extra stretching, he will work with medicine balls, throwing them against a wall or pounding them into the erroneous to work on explosion.

"It's one of those things where if you move incandescent early, it's a lot easier to move quick later," Miller said. "On Thursdays, you're asking more of your body, so we make sure you're prepared for that."

After practice is unexperienced session of blood flow restrictions to his arms, focusing on the rotator cuff and lats.

"You don't need to have originates with your throwing arm," Miller said.

They'll also get together at night if any transfer concerns have popped up.


FRIDAY IS PRESCOTT'S celebrated day. Maybe that's because the game plan is in, practice is over and his contemplate obligations are mostly finished.

"Just really in a Zen mode all day long," Prescott said.

The Cowboys go throughout their STAA program that McCarthy brought with him from Green Bay.

"We call it Soft Tissue Activation and Acceleration," McCarthy said. "Kind of a prehab treat of making sure they complete their rest and recovery at the end of the week to commence their neurological clocks on a normal Saturday."

After the two-hour STAA program, Prescott and Miller will reconvene to take an inventory of what else he may need, from more stretching to breathing exercises.


SATURDAY IS MILLER'S celebrated day.

"Harold, the Cowboys, me, we believe in what we call a neural proposal, [a] central nervous system activation," Miller said.

The lifting session last 25-30 minutes, but it is a more high-intensity workout. A lot of plyometric arranging, power work and jump squats. McCarthy puts the Cowboys throughout a more rigorous workout on Saturday than most teams, even if it is not in pads. Players have to hit hazardous speeds on their runs. Everything is tracked by GPS.

"It's, 'If I can move fast on Saturday, my body will be ready to move this fast on Sunday,'" Miller said.

If the Cowboys are on the road, Miller will meet the team at their hotel and have his gear ready for Prescott's arrival. For home games, he will go to Prescott's house at what time the workout at The Star.

They will go above another blood flow restriction for his legs. Five minutes on, three minutes to unites. They will have one more inventory to make sure they have covered every inch of Prescott's body during the week.

"If we feel good Saturday, we know we're going to feel good on Sunday," Prescott said. "If you're toiling on something Saturday, like, I've got to work on this now, it's not a dismay, but Luke's in a problem-solving mode."

But that has not been the case much this season, as Prescott has remained relatively healthy.


ON GAME DAY, THE work corpses for late afternoon and night kickoffs.

Twelve hours afore the game, they will go through a quick lift.

"Throw some medicine balls approximately again to up-regulate his central nervous system," Miller said. "Get a minor sweat in. Again, teach the body to move fast now so you can move fast later on."

Four hours afore kickoff, Prescott will arrive at the stadium. One more time, he and Miller get together for a prolonged stretching routine. Just outside the locker room, he will incorporate some of the "Dak dance," acts that involve a disassociation of the upper and frontier body as part of his training with his personal quarterback trainer, John Beck from 3DQB.

From there, Prescott will go to the field for his on-field throwing work. Miller's work is done. He will leer the game from Prescott's suite at AT&T Stadium. On the road, he will sometimes fly home afore the game ends.

Win or lose, Prescott knows he will have his village to get him ready.

"You love the guy with his humility, his leadership, his work ethic," Nash said. "You can go on and on with all the adjectives with that guy. He definitely does have a village. And you have to find what works.

"I think he's untrue what works for him."


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