Before the Dallas Cowboys took the field versus the San Francisco 49ers this past weekend, they announced something that made a huge part of Cowboys Nation happy. The undrafted rookie free agent Cooper Rush was active for the first time in his career.
It came as a surprise, as Kellen Moore had been the backup quarterback for Dak Prescott for the first five weeks of the season. It certainly feels like the right call for the Cowboys, this is what we all wanted to see.
Cooper Rush was amazingly good in the preseason and showed a lot of promise. Kellen Moore on the other hand, was far from impressive. Moore has found a way to hang around the NFL for quite some time now, mainly because of his football IQ.
Stephen Jones says it's "more than likely" that Cooper Rush will be the backup quarterback for the rest of the season.
— 105.3 The FAN (@1053thefan) October 23, 2017
It seems like the Cowboys were planning to make Cooper Rush the backup after the bye week all along. This means more than just downgrading Kellen Moore to QB3. I would expect the Dallas Cowboys to make some changes pretty soon in the roster, because they need to. And Kellen Moore might end up being a casualty. At least, he should.
Before the regular season began, Moore was released by the team to make place for Rico Gathers to be able to put him on Injured Reserve. As soon as Rico was placed on IR, Moore was signed back to the team.
Rico is already practicing and will be able to return after week 8 of the season. There is one roster spot that the Cowboys should be ready to make when it's necessary.
Also, Dan Bailey was injured in the 49ers game. With the most accurate kicker in NFL history out for several weeks, the Dallas Cowboys are already working out free agent kickers.
Other than LB Justin March-Lillard, I don't know who else the Cowboys would cut to open roster spots for any of these guys before Moore. We know they like something about 17, but we also know they were already willing to risk losing him after releasing him earlier this year.
Even if Moore continues to be on the team, Cooper Rush should be the back up going forward.
Should the Cowboys have the chance to play Cooper Rush in garbage time once again, I would like to see more from him. As fellow Inside The Star writer Jess Haynie pointed out in the game recap, Rush only threw two passes and completed a short one to Switzer.
It's a story we should keep a close eye on in the following days. and we will continue to keep you updated here at Inside The Star. For now, it's fair to say that it was nice to see this staff giving the rookie the nod to go out there and play football.
