FRISCO, Texas -- For a week last January, Carson Wentz was essentially a member of the Dallas Cowboys.

With the Cowboys coaches working with the North team at the Senior Bowl, Wentz was able to go through what a Cowboys' practice was like. He got to run a scaled-back version of the Cowboys' offense. He got to connect with the coaches and support staff. He even got to shake hands with owner and general manager Jerry Jones after one practice.

This was a couple months before the Philadelphia Eagles would move up to the second overall pick in the draft in a trade with the Cleveland Browns. You didn't need to be a draftnik to know the Cowboys would be looking at any and all quarterbacks with Tony Romo turning 36 in the offseason.

With the Cowboys holding the fourth overall pick in the first round, there was a natural connection between them and Wentz.

"He's got the prototype size, he's an athlete," offensive coordinator Scott Linehan said after one practice at Ladd-Peebles Stadium last January. "He's got some sneaky quick, fast body mechanics and movement to go along with a really nice arm."

Wentz started for the North team and completed 6 of 10 passes for 50 yards. He did not have a touchdown pass. He did not have a pass intercepted. But he answered any questions any team might have had about him coming out of North Dakota State.

"He clearly loves football," coach Jason Garrett said. "He's very passionate about it. He's a smart football player. He's a talented football player. I thought he grew over the course of the week, a real tribute to the approach that he took. He had a real command with his teammates. I thought he played well in practice, played well in the game. Very impressed by him."

Now the Cowboys have to try and beat Wentz when he visits AT&T Stadium for the first time as the Eagles' starter on Sunday.

"I'm not so sure he had ever lost a game, maybe one or two," Linehan said, recalling the background work the Cowboys did on Wentz. "The thing that blew me away was he never made anything lower than like an A in school. I said, 'Well, you broke my record. I didn't make it through kindergarten without getting a B.' But he was really sharp. And he's a really talented kid. I'm not surprised he's doing well at all."

Because of the time together in Mobile, Alabama, the Cowboys did not need to conduct a private workout with Wentz. He did, however, visit the Cowboys' Valley Ranch facility before the draft for a formal interview.

Despite playing at North Dakota State, the Cowboys weren't scared off by the small-school stigma. While the production was there, he only started 23 games in college, including seven as a fifth-year senior because of a broken wrist.

"We grilled him for hours and had a chance to be around him, saw his work habits, his work ethic," quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson said. "He's a very impressive guy."

The Cowboys liked Wentz so much that he was the highest-rated quarterback on their draft board.

But it was another quarterback at the Senior Bowl that intrigued the Cowboys, too. While they did not have the hands-on meetings they had with Wentz, an hour-long meeting with the quarterbacks from the South team the day before the Senior Bowl started the Cowboys' investigation into Dak Prescott in earnest.

He completed 7 of 10 passes for 61 yards and had a touchdown pass in the Senior Bowl.

"He reminds me that they beat us, by the way," Linehan said.

Wentz was the second pick of the draft and shared an on-stage hug from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. The Cowboys chose Prescott 133 selections later, in the fourth round. His selection was announced by Telemundo president and general manager John Trevino and Hall of Famer Rayfield Wright at AT&T Stadium.

Despite the disparity in draft experiences, Prescott has the Cowboys in first place in the NFC East, a game up on Wentz's Eagles. According to Elias Sports Bureau, this is the first time since the 1970 merger where the combined rookie winning percentage was .750 or better with a minimum of three starts each, entering the matchup.

Prescott is 5-1 with seven touchdown passes and one interception, while completing 125 of 182 passes for 1,486 yards. Wentz is 4-2 with eight touchdown passes and three interceptions, while completing 118 of 185 passes for 1,324 yards.

"I'm really happy with our guy," Wilson said. "That's the main thing."