Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones doesn't want quarterback Dak Prescott to use his legs like 49ers star Brock Purdy does.
After San Francisco smoked Dallas, 30-24, on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” Jones explained his preferences regarding Prescott’s mobility to 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday.
“You really don't want to see him really take off with that ball,” Jones said (h/t DallasCowboys.com’s Patrik Walker). “These quarterbacks that run, you know they're gonna get injured. That happens. It happens to the youngest and it happens to the best. It's happened to Dak.
"It's easy to compare, and that's fair, when the opposing quarterback is really complementing what they're doing with their offense with his running. But I'm satisfied with Dak, in terms of his ability to run. It's there, as far as physically, he can run. We want Dak, in the future, to do the kind of job with his arm and get the ball out to the outside, you see us trying to do that a lot, and make up for anything that we might want to do [with his legs]."
Jones didn’t explicitly mention Purdy.
However, San Francisco’s quarterback rushed for 56 yards and a touchdown on just eight carries in front of Jones this past weekend.
Prescott, meanwhile, didn’t intentionally run the ball -- outside of being sacked -- against the 49ers once.
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Prescott averaged 305 rushing yards over his first four NFL seasons. But the nine-year veteran’s gruesome foot fracture during the 2020 season has deterred that aspect of his game.
"To the end that we rely on [Prescott] to stay healthy, that's an important part of it,” Jones added. “I wouldn't say it's up there in red letters at the facility to not run, but I'd say we want him to be smart about it. And he is being smart about it. However, he will, when he sees the opportunity, pull it down and run with it -- as we know."
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Dallas generally goes as Prescott does. The Cowboys can’t afford to lose him as they did in 2020 when they finished 6-10.
It is wise for Jones to want to protect his longtime quarterback. But when done right, running can be a valuable tool for quarterbacks, the same it is for Purdy -- who was the winner against Jones’ philosophy in Week 8 of the 2024 NFL season at Levi’s Stadium.
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