It looks like Dak Prescott will not be playing against the Cardinals tonight, and he’s certainly not going to play in the final preseason game next week. Which means the 39 snaps Prescott played in the first two preseason games are all we have to draw any type of conclusions from.
And that got me wondering about who else got snaps while Prescott was on the field, the working assumption being that those other players would be likely considered first-teamers (or borderline first-teamers) and should see the bulk of the regular season action.
But we look into total snap counts, let’s first take a look at the personnel groupings the Cowboys deployed with Prescott on the field:
| Cowboys first-team personnel groupings, 2018 preseason | |||
| Personnel | Total | Pass | Run |
| 00 (0 RB, 0 TE) | - - | - - | - - |
| 10 (1 RB, 0 TE) | - - | - - | - - |
| 20 (2 RB, 0 TE) | - - | - - | - - |
| 01 (0 RB, 1 TE) | - - | - - | - - |
| 11 (1 RB, 1 TE) | 15 | 6 | 9 |
| 21 (2 RB, 1 TE) | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| 02 (0 RB, 2 TE) | - - | - - | - - |
| 12 (1 RB, 2 TE) | 15 | 11 | 4 |
| 22 (2 RB, 2 TE) | 1 | - - | 1 |
| 13 (1 RB, 3 TE) | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 23 (2 RB, 3 TE) | - - | - - | - - |
| Total | 39 | 20 | 19 |
Over the last three years, the Cowboys have run about 75% of their plays out of either 11 or 12 personnel, and they continue that approach in the 2018 preseason, with 30/39 snaps (77%) coming in those two personnel groups.