ESPN Wonders If The Real Dak Will Please Stand Up for Cowboys
ESPN Wonders If The Real Dak Will Please Stand Up for Cowboys originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott will enter the 2025 season, once again, with a lot of questions to answer.
Advertisement
But the biggest might be how healthy can he remain with injuries slowly starting to become an issue for the Pro Bowler.
Last season, Dak saw his year end in Week 9, and he has only played two full seasons in the last five years. But now, with his hamstring injury behind him, George Pickens as a dynamic option alongside CeeDee Lamb, an improved run game (they hope), as well as a better offensive line, things are trending up for Dak and Dallas.
However, for ESPN's Dan Graziano, the biggest question is which version of Dak will stand up fit the Cowboys in 2025.
"The Cowboys hope it's the healthy version," Graziano writes. "Prescott has played six fully healthy seasons in his nine-year NFL career, and the Cowboys won the NFC East in four of those seasons. Even after losing Prescott to a hamstring injury midway through last season, Dallas still managed to finish 7-10.
Advertisement
"Prescott is expected back healthy to start training camp, and the team added WR George Pickens to pair with top wideout CeeDee Lamb and expand Prescott's options in the passing game. If the post-Zack Martin offensive line holds up the way the Cowboys expect, Dallas has plenty of reason to think it can contend with Philadelphia and Washington in the NFC East."
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) scrambles against the Atlanta Falcons in the third quarter at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.Brett Davis-Imagn Images
A fully healthy Prescott, who plays a full season, more often than not, gets his team to the playoffs, and in Brian Schottenheimer's first season as head coach, that will be the aim.
Granted, Dak has all the tools needed to be that again in 2025, but his health and the status of his hamstring will be a big watch as the offseason continues.
Advertisement
Some aren't sold on the Cowboys in 2025, with Dak and Schottenheimer a big reason why, but there's no denying what Prescott brings to the table when fully healthy.
But the biggest question is which Dak will we get in 2025?
Related: Cowboys' Eberflus Explains How Dak Prescott Encouraged Return to Dallas
Related: 'Legacy Be Damned' as Cowboys' Dak Focuses On Super Bowl 'Sanity'
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 15, 2025, where it first appeared.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Uncovering Real Reason Todd Bowles Is On Buccaneers Hot Seat
Uncovering Real Reason Todd Bowles Is On Buccaneers Hot Seat originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have made the playoffs each year since Bruce Arians retired as head coach. That is a testament to the job Todd Bowles has done since taking over for the Super Bowl winner. Bowles' 27-24 record is nothing to shrug about. In the last three seasons, he has kept the Buccaneers as a perennial playoff contender. Advertisement That is no longer good enough, though. Tampa Bay has one of the best offenses in the league and a defense with plenty of talent at each level. It's no longer good enough to get to 10 wins and feel good about a Wild Card victory. The Buccaneers are good enough to compete for a Super Bowl. For that reason, Bowles is on the hot seat now. His career only shows a bigger reason why he may not be the right man for the job. In the last two seasons, the Buccaneers have seen their offensive coordinator/play-caller find head coaching jobs elsewhere. Because of Bowles' background as a defensive-minded coach, Tampa Bay will have to continue to recycle offensive coaches whenever they do a good enough job. Advertisement Therein lies the difficulty of hiring non-offensive play-callers for head coaching jobs. The more quarterback Baker Mayfield excels with a different play-caller, the more obvious it is that Tampa Bay needs to find a quality head coach who won't bring instability on that side of the ball. If a team is going to rely on a defensive-minded head coach, it needs to make sure it excels with multiple playoff wins per year. Think of coaches like Sean McDermott of the Buffalo Bills, Nick Sirianni of the Philadelphia Eagles, or Dan Campbell of the Detroit Lions. None of those coaches calls plays on offense, forcing the team to recycle its play-caller. However, each coach has reached the conference championship. Bowles has not. Advertisement If Tampa's coach wants to prove he deserves his current job, he'll need to get past the team's previous history of good-but-not-great seasons over the last few years. His job may depend on it this year. Related: Buccaneers' Coach Todd Bowles is 'More Ron Rivera than Mike Tomlin' Related: Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield Victim of Most Dropped Passes This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 16, 2025, where it first appeared.


USA Today
24 minutes ago
- USA Today
Alexandre Pantoja sees Kai Kara-France as Mike Tyson-level knockout threat at UFC 317
Alexandre Pantoja sees Kai Kara-France as Mike Tyson-level knockout threat at UFC 317 Alexandre Pantoja thinks highly of Kai Kara-France's knockout power and will be weary of it going into their UFC 317 title showdown. The reigning UFC flyweight champion Pantoja (29-5 MMA, 13-3 UFC) has tasted the hands of Kara-France (25-11 MMA, 8-4 UFC) before. They met in a two-round exhibition on Season 24 of "The Ultimate Fighter" reality series in 2016, with Pantoja winning by unanimous decision. Now they rematch with the highest possible stakes in the sport on June 28 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (ESPN+ pay-per-view). Pantoja has put together a reign of terror over the 125-pound weight class, and has already racked up three consecutive title defenses within a seven-fight winning streak overall. The Brazilian is arguably the UFC's most dominant champ, but even he admits Kara-France brings a different degree of danger than other contenders, and especially the one he faced almost a decade ago under far different circumstances. "I'm not playing when I get into the octagon," Pantoja told MMA Junkie. "It's kill or die. I fight with my soul every time and that's why everyone stops to watch my fights. I have the opportunity to do it one more time with Kai Kara-France. The guy with the powerful hands. I feel Kai-Kara France is like a Mike Tyson. I'm going to fight with someone who can knock me down and that makes me pay a lot of attention to his hands. That's a good challenge. I need challengers to train, I need challengers to live." Pantoja, No. 3 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie pound-for-pound rankings and No. 1 at flyweight, said he is fully focused on further establishing his legacy in the division against No. 8-ranked Kara-France. Already having run through many of the division's top contenders, and some of them twice over, Pantoja would have every reason to be complacent in his position. That's not in his DNA, though, and instead he is trying to hone in on and overcome the difficulty in every successive fight. With this one, it's the threat Kara-France brings on the feet. Does that mean he'll try to engage with the New Zealander as little as possible when standing? Pantoja hinted that could be far from the case. "He can knock you out with one punch," Pantoja said. "I need to pay attention to that. If I see him like Mike Tyson, maybe I need to be more like Muhammad Ali. I need movement. But if he tries to hit me, I have a very good chin. I've proved that many times. I don't want to prove that a lot. I want to move my head more. That's something I've really worked on. But I have strong hands, too, and that's going to be an amazing opportunity to prove to everyone that I have strong hands. "If you want to hit me, you need to know I'm going to hit you, too. I have strong hands. Maybe it's going to be a good opportunity to knock someone out. Kai Kara-France is a good fighter. Very competitive, high-level fighter and is going to be a good challenge for me."
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Knicks Head Coach Rumors: NBA Insider Claims Jason Kidd Has "Mutual" Interest In Taking Tom Thibodeau's Place
Knicks Head Coach Rumors: NBA Insider Claims Jason Kidd Has "Mutual" Interest In Taking Tom Thibodeau's Place originally appeared on Fadeaway World. The New York Knicks have explicitly shown an interest in Jason Kidd to fill the vacancy of the head coach position on their team. As per ESPN's Brian Windhorst, the sentiments may be mutually reciprocated from Kidd's end as well. While discussing the topic on SportsCenter, he said: Advertisement "The other way I would describe it is that there is mutual intrigue on both sides. Also, I know there's this whole thing about asking for permission. You don't ask for permission to hire another team's coach; when you ask, you're going to hire them." "So essentially, when the Knicks express interest, the ball will be in the Mavericks' court, and they have three options as I see it," said Windhorst. "One, they can just say, 'No, thank you very much. Jason will see you in the fall, look forward to the season, look forward to Cooper Flagg.' They can try to make Jason Kidd have zero interest in the Knicks, possibly with a new contract; they did just give him an extension last year." "Or, they can negotiate a trade, and we have seen a handful of trades of coaches over the last 15-18 years, including Jason Kidd. He was traded from the Brooklyn Nets to the Milwaukee Bucks for two second-round picks 11 years ago. So it's not like Jason Kidd has not been in this situation before." The Dallas Mavericks' head coach has seen a lot of interest from New York in the last few weeks. Having been a part of the Knicks organization during his playing years, Kidd made quite an impact. However, his success as the Mavericks' head coach has seen New York make quite an effort to lure him over to their side. Advertisement The Knicks made some drastic personnel changes after being eliminated from the ECF. After what could only be considered a successful season, the Knicks shocked the NBA world by firing head coach Tom Thibodeau. With a vacant spot, New York showed an interest in Houston's head coach, Ime Udoka, as well, but the chatter around Kidd at the moment seems to be gathering more buzz. Kidd's position in Dallas seems to be pretty secure at the moment. After what could only be referred to as a tumultuous period for the franchise since trading Doncic, the head coach seems to remain a part of the franchise's plans. With the possibility of selecting Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft, Kidd also has the chance to work with one of the most talented prospects in recent years. While there has been speculation that Jason Kidd would also want out of Dallas, there has been no real evidence to support this claim. However, given some of the events that had taken place before the Doncic trade, Kidd may have enough reason to also want to facilitate a move away from the organization. Related: Knicks Owner James Dolan Spearheaded Tom Thibodeau's Firing This story was originally reported by Fadeaway World on Jun 10, 2025, where it first appeared.