Dak Prescott recruited former Navy Seals for Dallas Cowboys reality check
Dak Prescott recruited Navy SEALs to improve the chemistry of the Dallas Cowboys offense ahead of the 2023 NFL season.
Following the Cowboys’ playoff defeat to the San Francisco 49ers for the second successive year, Prescott looked for new methods that could help spur America’s Team on and find postseason success. Back in March, Prescott and his marketing agent Peter Miller met with former Navy SEALs Adam La Reau and Paul McCullough to learn about their company O2X - short for ‘Optimize to the X’, a military imperative to always find the most optimal way to hit the target.
O2X seeks to enhance physical and mental performance among government, law enforcement and military agencies. The company tailors workshops around nutrition, sleep, conditioning, resilience and stress management, so Prescott called for a culturally-focused clinc without influence from coaches.
The 30-year-old, who passed for 2,860 yards and 23 touchdowns to go with 15 interceptions in 2022, wanted to gain a mental advantage over his opponents. Prescott wanted the advantage to be spread throughout the offense, so he organised the remarkable event with others from his unit including CeeDee Lamb and Brandin Cooks.
“[Prescott] gravitated right away to anything neck up,” McCullough told Yahoo Sports during a recent Zoom call. “Anything about culture, accountability, goal-setting or getting one percent better, his eyes lit up.”
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Prescott is passionate about mentality and inner strength, adding: “I don't wanna just be culture, culture and how to build a better culture because we're good on that - it’s more about how to use your culture.
“It doesn’t mean anything if guys aren’t telling us what they’re sacrificing or what they’re trying to get better at, and if other guys aren’t holding them to that.”
Dak Prescott hopes the clinics with the Navy SEALs will help the Dallas Cowboys offense excel in critical moments (Getty Images)For Prescott and the Cowboys offense, O2X masterminded a five-session plan stemming from strategies that special operations units employ to succeed in high-threat situations. This included interactive lessons on tactical resets, sacrifice and goal-setting over three days, while O2X also assigned each player a heart-rate monitor to demonstrate how physiology impacts their decision-making.
The Cowboys and Prescott need help improving decision-making in key moments. In the 19-12 Divisional Round defeat to the 49ers, the quarterback threw two interceptions. O2X also shared breathing exercises to improve decision-making that the NFC East franchise have taken onboard.
In huddles at training camp, Prescott gave his receivers fist bumps and said: “Breathe. Take a breath. We’re blessed. We’re thankful that we even get this series.”
Prescott is excited to see what the Cowboys do with their new teachings, insisting the exercises will translate to benefit the players on the field. He said: “Just being able to do that now at practice, when I do it in a game, that’s gonna be a grounding mechanism for all of them that it sounds just the same as we do at practice.
“It’ll be a way to block out whatever the situation is and understand: ‘Hey, this is what we do. Resort back to the training. Resort back to everything that we put in it.’”
Prescott and the Cowboys will kick off their 2023 season against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium on Sunday night.
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