Cowboys don’t plan to rest starters down the stretch of 2016
By Dave Holcomb
Expect to see Zeke and Dak all the way until the end of the Cowboys’ season.
One more win and the Dallas Cowboys will clinch the NFC East. If that happens, it probably won’t be long until Dallas also earns the No. 1 seed and home field advantage.
At that point, the Cowboys would have nothing left to play for in the final weeks of December. Despite that possibility, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told 105.3 The Fan in Dallas that it will be “business as usual”, meaning regardless of what happens, the Cowboys will not rest any starters.
Winning 11 or 12 games before the middle of December is always a good thing and determining whether or not to rest players is a problem everyone wants to have. But it’s a problem nonetheless. Too much rest could cause a team to lose its edge or focus, but it’s also a risk playing stars in meaningless games because they could always get hurt.
Dallas is in a particularly interesting situation with two rookies in important positions on offense (quarterback and running back). Remember, even in today’s modern era of college football, teams play a maximum of 15 games, including the postseason, and that’s only if one advances to both a conference championship and the National championship. Even then, that’s still one fewer game than the NFL regular season.
Cowboys rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott did play 15 games during his sophomore season at Ohio State, but it’s also important to note that he received nearly a month off after game No. 13 before the national semifinal. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott played 13 games a year ago, but he also received several weeks off before the bowl game.
College players are used to playing 12 games over essentially three months. Dallas is hoping its rookies get to play all the way into February (five months) this year. That’s a lot of extra football.
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Jones is smart to make keeping the team’s momentum going Dallas’ No. 1 priority; however, if Elliott and Prescott show signs of hitting the “rookie wall” in December, the Cowboys shouldn’t hesitate to rest their rookies.