Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott exited his team's Week 9 game at the beginning of the fourth quarter after suffering a hamstring injury during a scramble.

After the game, Prescott said he was unsure if he sustained the injury while he was running or during the tackle.

"It's something I’ve never felt," the quarterback said after the loss to the Atlanta Falcons. "I saw the medical team and asked could I make it worse. At that point they said I wouldn’t be able to protect myself and made the call to hold me out."

On Monday, Prescott received an MRI on his injured leg. It revealed that the extent of the injury was worse than he or the team had originally feared, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. The NFL's highest-paid player will likely miss significant time.

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Dak Prescott injury update

According to reporting from NFL Network and ESPN, Prescott is expected to miss multiple weeks with a hamstring injury.

He first felt the injury after a scramble late in the third quarter but wasn't sure if he sustained it during the run or the tackle. The nine-year NFL veteran said the injury was something he'd "never felt" before; Dallas' medical staff convinced him to sit for the fourth quarter when they told him he wouldn't be able to protect himself from further aggravation.

The Cowboys' quarterback initially told reporters after the game that he would "be out there next week." After undergoing an MRI on Monday, the results led to a less optimistic conclusion.

Dallas is 3-5 through its first eight games of the season with Prescott starting under center. The quarterback has thrown for 1,978 yards with 11 touchdowns and eight interceptions in those eight games.

Cowboys quarterback depth chart

The Cowboys have two other quarterbacks behind Prescott on their depth chart.

• Dak Prescott (hamstring injury)

• Cooper Rush

• Trey Lance

Rush has been with Dallas for seven years in total since the team signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2017. He's appeared in 29 games for the team with six starts.

Of those starts, five came early in the 2022 season as Prescott recovered from a broken thumb he suffered in Week 1 of that year. Rush won four straight games before a Week 6 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles gave him his first career loss as a starter.

Lance was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers. He played in six games for the team as a rookie, starting two of them. In 2022, he started just two games before suffering a season-ending ankle injury. The North Dakota State never played in another game for San Francisco after the rise of then-rookie Brock Purdy closed out that 2022 season.

The 49ers traded Lance to the Cowboys ahead of the 2023 season for a 2024 fourth-round pick. He has been the third-string quarterback for the team since and has yet to appear in a game for Dallas.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dak Prescott injury update: When will Cowboys QB return?