Coach Mike McCarthy Not Feeling Pressure To Play Prescott In Preseason

There are a number of high-profile players around the National Football League who are not seeing the field this preseason, which isn't anything new and could be a tell-tale sign of how coaching around the league has changed.

The league decided instead of the normal four-game preseason slate, teams will have only three preseason games, and it sounds like vets won't get the playing time that they normally would.

Instead coaches probably want to keep starters fresh, as the league has also added a 17th game to the regular season. Coaches want to preserve their key players so that they're ready to go instead of injured because they played in a meaningless preseason game in August.

Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy is the latest to come out and give his take on playing vets in the preseason, with the focus on franchise quarterback Dak Prescott, who is coming off an injury that sidelined him for all but five games in the 2020 season.

McCarthy did say to the media on Monday that game four for the Cowboys on August 29th against the Jacksonville Jaguars will be a chance to look at the bottom of the roster to see who is in the running for final cuts.

"We'll see how the week goes, but there's no urgency from my perspective to see Dak play against Houston," McCarthy said.

"This is more about we don't want to create a setback possibly. His volume of throwing leading up to that point, I mean, he was probably in midseason form from the amount of work he put in over the summer, coming out of the OTAs. Just trying to get that volume back to where it belongs."

Prescott is still trying to make it back from a shoulder injury that has shut him down for a good portion of camp to this point.

If McCarthy has his way, Prescott will likely be in street clothes when the game against the Jags takes place, and won't be on the field till Dallas' real season opener on September 9th against the champion Bucs.