Cowboys: Don´t Expect Drew Brees On Sunday Night

The Dallas Cowboys will certainly prepare for New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, but that does not mean he will play a single down.

The Dallas Cowboys look to have caught a break on the 2015 regular season schedule. Next up is the 0-3 New Orleans Saints at the Mercedes-Benz Super Dome in the Crescent City.

Normally, this would be a game of great concern, which is certainly not to say that this one isn’t.

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Having said that, the fact that Super Bowl XLIV MVP Drew Brees is nursing a bruised rotator cuff gives at least the idea that Brees will not play on Sunday night.

In trying to determine whether Brees will or won’t play, I did some basic research on what exactly it means to have a bruised rotator cuff, not to be confused with the far worse condition of having a torn rotator cuff.

Sorry, but lacking starting quarterback Tony Romo for just the second of a possible eight games minimum, the Cowboys aren’t going to feel too much sympathy for the Saints.

According to recent reports, there seems to be the indication that Brees will try to play against the Cowboys on Sunday night.

The Dallas Morning News quotes Brees from his recent appearance on ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ with the following regarding his work in practice and overall preparations to return to the field:

"I feel really good about Sunday I’ll see how the shoulder responds tomorrow and for the rest of the day, but each day I’m able to do more and more and feel stronger and stronger."

When peppered some more about the type of throws he’s been making during this week’s practice, Brees added this telling statement:

"I was going to temper my enthusiasm … be smart and make sure that it’s one of these ramp-ups and it’s not zero to 60."

Well, the NFL happens to be a “zero to 60” type of league.

If Brees is still working gradually to get back to his former 36-year old self, it really doesn’t appear that he’s going to play close to 100-percent if he takes the field against the Cowboys.

Why?

Well, because a rotator cuff tear is a rather serious injury that generally requires anywhere from weeks to months, especially if surgery is involved. Brees didn’t require surgery, but it still seems like missing just one game due to his injury is awfully tight, right?

According to the medical website WebMD, an athlete returning from a rotator cuff tear should ease back into the activity that got them injured in the first place. Might I suggest that playing professional football might be one of those professions that requires a longer healing process than an insurance agent who simply types on a computer and talks on the phone all day?

What a lot of athletes really want to know is when they can get back in the game after a rotator cuff tear. But it’s hard to say. Recovery time depends on how serious the tear is. It may take weeks or months.

Should Brees return, he will have only missed a single game against the Carolina Panthers last weekend.

I get that anything is possible. Nobody sent me the actual MRI images that Dr. James Andrews reviewed just a couple of days after Brees was injured. Although it’s clear that there’s reportedly no tear, it still seems like the kind of injury that would require missing more games than just one.

It doesn’t really matter who the Cowboys face on Sunday when discussing the presence of either Brees or backup Luke McCown. With the way that the Cowboys rush the passer this season, I think most anybody beyond the high school level of playing quarterback could probably handle the Dallas defense.

However, with Brandon Weeden still trying to prove his worth to both the Cowboys and to all 31 other teams in the NFL, a missing Brees could go a long ways towards helping Dallas reach a record of 3-1, which keeps this franchise on pace to go 12-4 this season.

This is not to say that the Cowboys will win as many games as they did last season, but this set of circumstances, right along wit the absence of former Saints tight end Jimmy Graham, who’s now with the Seattle Seahawks, could strongly assist the Cowboys in staying above water until Romo returns sometime near Thanksgiving Day.

We can’t expect the Saints to be upfront and honest regarding their plans for Sunday night’s game.

We can, however, use common sense in determining that Brees, already hiding among the weaker arms in the NFL, isn’t going to suit up and play against he Cowboys.

See, the Saints are in a similar position that the Cowboys are in, takeaway their respective records. Both play in arguably the two worst divisions in the NFC and it might not take a whole lot of wins to finish at the top of either one. While an 0-4 start all but guarantees no postseason opportunities, it’s a bit different when as few as seven victoriess can actually win the NFC South, just like the Carolina Panthers did in 2014.

The Saints, like the Cowboys, can only be successful if their starting quarterback is completely healthy.

At this time, Brees simply isn’t.

Next: The Cowboys Need Leary, Not Collins, In Lineup

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