The biggest reason why you don’t bother writing a National Football League preview well in advance of the regular season is because somebody is bound to get hurt in the absurdly long preseason. It always happens. If it happens to be a star player whose fortunes will greatly dictate the direction of his team, your preview can essentially be deleted because it’s worthless. An injury to Tony Romo falls into that category.

The Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback broke a bone in his back in the team’s second-to-last preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks when he was taken down hard by defensive end Cliff Avril. Romo is expected out for six-to-10 weeks with the Week 8 game against the Philadelphia Eagles on October 30 targeted as his potential return date.

So where does this leave Jason Garrett and the Cowboys? Well, the narrative that a healthy offence led by Romo, Dez Bryant and rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott would lead the team back to NFC contender-status is shot. The fact that suspensions will hamper their defence (defensive ends Randy Gregory and Demarcus Lawrence, as well as linebacker Rolando McClain are all banned for four games or longer) becomes secondary. Instead, the story with the Cowboys is a second consecutive year in which they’ll be without their starting quarterback for a significant stretch and that does not bode well. Week 2, in which both Romo (collarbone) and Bryant (fractured foot) went down with injury a season ago, destroyed any hopes of a repeat of 2014 where the Cowboys were an interpretation of the catch rule away from the NFC Championship game. While the situation right now is similar, the team is optimistic it can keep above water until Romo gets back.

With Romo out last season, the Cowboys were forced to turn to journeyman QBs in his stead with the likes of Matt Cassel, Brandon Weeden and Kellen Moore. Now, the keys to Scott Linehan’s offence are in the hands of Dak Prescott (and hey, Mark Sanchez is in Dallas now, too, if you need him). The fourth-round pick out of Mississippi State has impressed in the preseason. Maybe that’s underselling it a bit: Prescott’s passer rating of 137.8 is the highest by a rookie QB (with a minimum of 40 pass attempts) since 2000. He’s been dynamite, but let’s not go crazy. Prescott has been in there against defences filled with guys unlikely to be on opening-day rosters.

There’s a lot to like about Prescott, though. He’s a big guy with a big arm and he’s mobile. The interception problems that plagued him earlier in his collegiate career were reined in last year. Having one of the game’s elite receivers in Bryant will certainly help ease the transition into the pro game. Of course, a rookie will make mistakes and he will need help. He’ll get that from one of the league’s youngest and arguably best offensive lines led by Travis Frederick and Zack Martin. And Elliott is a helluva blocker in his own right, tremendous against the blitz.

Let’s talk about Elliott. Trent Richardson was enough to scare a lot of teams out of taking a running back with a top-five pick ever again, but in the former Buckeye, the Cowboys saw a way to transport their running game back to 2014 when DeMarco Murray led the league in rushing. After the falling out with Murray led to his signing with the hated rival Eagles, the Cowboys’ rush took a step back last season. Though Darren McFadden registered a respectable 1,089 yards and the team was ninth in rushing, the Cowboys were down 364 yards and seven places from 2014. In Elliott, Linehan has at his disposal a quick-thinking and powerful back whose biggest asset might be his ability to gain yards after contact. There were plans for Elliott to get a lot of touches when Romo was healthy, so you can imagine that potential workload could increase over those first six games. Considering he was a hoss at OSU, that shouldn’t be a problem for Elliott, a legitimate challenger for the rushing title in 2016.

So if we are to assume that Romo returns for that game with the Eagles, the six games (Week 7 is a bye) the Cowboys will be without him are against the New York Giants (home), Washington Redskins (away), Chicago Bears (home), San Francisco 49ers (away), Cincinnati Bengals (home) and Green Bay Packers (away). If the Cowboys can escape from this stretch at .500 or better (a distinct possibility), the team can position itself for a run at the NFC East title down the stretch.

But if the club flounders in Romo’s absence like it did a year ago, then 2016 will be a lot like 2015 for the Dallas Cowboys – a wasted season with a lot of wondering about what could have been.