Tony Romo is coming back. And when he does, that's when things get interesting. The Cowboys' quarterback suffered a compression fracture in his back on Aug. 25 and has been recovering ever since. In the interim, rookie fourth-round pick Dak Prescott has been playing out of his mind.

And we don't mean Prescott has been a fine game manager, or hasn't done anything to lose games for the Cowboys. We mean that, through five weeks, he's one of the NFL's best quarterbacks. In fact, according to Football Outsiders' metrics, Prescott is No. 2 behind only red-hot Matt Ryan.

Still, the rookie understands he's a part-timer, at least for now.

"This is Tony's team," Prescott said Wednesday, via the team's website. "I knew that going into the situation. I think everybody knew that. I'm just trying to do the best I can to give my team a chance to win week in and week out."

He's done that and then some. The Cowboys are 4-1 and atop the NFC East. And while there has been no definitive timetable on Romo's return, Week 9 against the Browns might be a reasonable target date.

"As long as we're winning, I really don't care," Prescott continued. "Obviously I want to play. That's the competitor in me. But if we're winning I'm happy."

Meanwhile, owner and general manager Jerry Jones said last month that despite Prescott's emergence, Romo gives the team the best chance to win, according to ESPN's Chris Mortensen.

"Not necessarily, not necessarily," Jones said at the time, when asked if Prescott's play would allow the Cowboys to be patient as Romo recovered. "Tony's situation, when he's back, will be about whether he's functional. We're a better team. We play better."

But earlier this week, Jones seemed to hedge.

"It's just a question of him working back in," Jones said Tuesday on CBS Sports Radio affiliate 105.3 the Fan in Dallas. "We've got a great situation here. I just have to pinch myself to think about it. We've got Dak Prescott, who's playing at a level that is very capable of winning these games. We've got the future every time he walks out there. We've got the optimism of the future. It's inspiring. It's inspiring this team. And then we have, in my mind, one of the very top quarterbacks in the league as well."

If nothing else, the Cowboys have their quarterbacks of the present and future, something they certainly couldn't say a year ago.

"I think what Dak's success has done, though, is given us the luxury," Jones said. "No one is happier about this than Tony. It's given us the luxury to absolutely maximize any thought that we might have of [Romo's] rehab time and just have the ability to weigh that as we go and pick our spots."

Turns out, that's a two-way street; Prescott has only laudatory things to say about Romo.

"He's definitely helped me out throughout the whole time I've been here," the rookie said of the vet. "From the time I got drafted until now. Off the field issues and then on the field he's a great coach during the game, helping me out as I come to the sideline on things I can do or that he may have seen."