Dak Prescott still has plenty of time before Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season.
If he needed too, though, the Cowboys quarterback believes he's recovered enough from last season's hamstring injury that he could suit up for a game right now.
"If I had to play a game today, I definitely could do that," Prescott said at Friday's 35th annual Children's Cancer Fund gala, via the team website. "It's about moving forward healthy to make sure I can play 17 times, 20 [games], whatever we get to when the time's right."
Prescott, 31, is working his way back from a partial hamstring avulsion -- meaning the tendon partially tore off the bone -- suffered in Week 9 last season. The Cowboys went on to lose that game to drop to 3-5, then went 4-5 in his absence the rest of the campaign to miss the playoffs for the first time in four years.
If Dallas is to have any chance to render the postseason miss a blip rather than a trend in 2025, it needs Prescott back at full strength. That's why, even though he feels game-ready now, Prescott plans to take things slow.
At the beginning of March, he wouldn't put a timeline on his recovery process. On Friday, Prescott wouldn't put a percentage on his recovery status, though he said he sees himself taking part in organized team activities in some capacity.
"I'm getting close to where I want to be, I don't want to put a percentage on it," Prescott said. "I know we've got team activities coming up, imagine myself being involved in some sort if not all.
"Then again I just understand my age, what I've had, what I've went through, it's about being my best in the fall. So I'm not rushing anything, but I'm where I want to be."
This season, his 10th in the NFL, marks Prescott's second time gearing up for a campaign coming off a major injury.
After suffering a fractured ankle five games into the 2020 campaign, Prescott returned with a vengeance the following year, throwing for 4,449 yards, 37 touchdowns and 10 interceptions while kicking off Dallas' three-year playoff run.
Having fought back so valiantly and effectively from his ankle fracture helps assure him he'll do the same coming off the hamstring injury.
"It's just the work that I've put into it, unfortunately I've been through this process of recovering from injuries before that I embrace it," Prescott said. "I know that a better version of me is on the other side, so that's just the way that I've approached this whole offseason and this whole rehab process."
In order to become his best, he said he's done work to redistribute his weight, becoming leaner up top while building his legs back up in rehab. Prescott also made it clear mobility will continue to play a huge factor in his game.
"Me playing my best, I'm mobile," he said. "Whether it's actually running past the line of scrimmage or just scrambling making plays happen with my arm, so that's vital for me, that's a big part of this.
"I've been running more, obviously you've got to when you're rehabbing a hamstring, it's about just staying on that trend of just getting better, staying mobile but doing it while feeling healthy."
Prescott is probably more likely to be evasive in the pocket in the season upcoming rather than scrambling for yards too aggressively. He ran for 146 yards the year after his aforementioned ankle fracture, his lowest total in any season outside the two ended early by injuries.
Still, the Cowboys will take whatever they can get from a Prescott who's primed to be fully healthy, which is usually enough to win plenty of games.
