The Dallas Cowboys and their quarterback situation is always going to be a trending topic among Cowboys Nation. This offseason has been no different with much of the discussion focusing on the looming contract extension for Dak Prescott. The Cowboys are ready to invest heavily in Prescott as their franchise quarterback and, in my opinion, deservedly so. He’s not yet a finished product, but in only three years in the NFL, he’s already shown you a lot as a player and leader of this football team, that you should feel confident about his career trajectory.
I understand, however, if you’re not so confident in the backup quarterback spot, which is currently being battled for by Mike White and Cooper Rush. So far in offseason practices, neither player has distinguished themselves from the other and taken the lead as the team’s QB2. It’s led many media members and fans to speculate if there’s a veteran option for the Dallas Cowboys to bring in to provide insurance for Dak.
With that, let’s dig into this week’s mailbag.
This week, I’m going to address question number three above from Eric.
Eric asks, “Seriously, if Dak gets hurt… are there any options?”
Aside from a trade, the answer is no. The free agent quarterback market is terrible. At this point in the offseason, the Dallas Cowboys and the 31 other NFL teams have picked clean a backup quarterback crop that wasn’t super hot to begin with.
Every team is looking for two to three quarterbacks to carry on their roster and every single one of them wants one that can win games when the starter is not available. There aren’t even 32 good quarterbacks in the league, let alone backups for each.
The reality of the situation is, if your starter goes down in the NFL, expecting your backup quarterback to carry you through a season is unrealistic. Yes, the Philadelphia Eagles got really good play from Nick Foles in 2017 and 2018, but that is an aberration, not the norm.
We have no further than 2015 to look when talking about the backup quarterback position for the Dallas Cowboys. When Tony Romo went down early in the season, the Cowboys used Brandon Weeden, Matt Cassel, and Kellen Moore to start games for a team that remarkably stayed in the playoff hunt despite going 2-11 with their backup quarterbacks that season. Yikes.
Your best options are Mark Sanchez, Brock Osweiler, Josh Johnson, Matt Cassel, and Brandon Weeden. None of those names do anything for me. I’d honestly rather the team put all their eggs into the Cooper Rush or Mike White basket if Dak Prescott were to get hurt. If he’s successful as a backup, then you can flip him for a draft pick like the Patriots have been able to do in years past with Cassel, Jimmy Garoppolo, Ryan Mallett, and Jacoby Brissett.
There’s a reason the Dallas Cowboys like these guys. They can play a little bit. Keep giving them the primary backup reps and see which one stands out through the preseason.
Also, I wouldn’t worry a ton about Dak getting hurt, the dude is built like a tank and doesn’t take a lot of big shots.
https://twitter.com/tommyvictorysec/status/1140589032608583685?s=21
Probably the hottest topic for the last year surrounding the Dallas Cowboys is around Dak Prescott’s contract extension. That will continue to trend among Cowboys Nation for long after the contract is done.
For as good as Dak Prescott’s been, he’s a polarizing figure in the Cowboys community, partly because of the way he came to be the starting quarterback and the other part is that he’s not a finished product yet.
I sincerely think the Dallas Cowboys will get something done with Dak Prescott prior to training camp. It’s not one of those things they want to be asked questions about in Oxnard on a daily basis and Jerry Jones loves stealing the public relations spotlight.
I think a realistic scenario is that the Cowboys and Dak’s agent come to an agreement sometime just before the team leaves for Oxnard, California to start training camp to get all of the attention focused on the Dallas Cowboys. As they say, deadlines make deals, and that has generally been a deadline for the Dallas Cowboys to get contract extensions done for their players.
Another real scenario is that they’re able to come to an agreement with each of the newest triplets and have them all on the podium together to announce the contract extensions. That would be so huge, Jerry could sell tickets to that press conference.
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As always, feel free to leave questions in the comment section for future mailbags or to hit me up on Twitter for each week’s Cowboys Mailbag.
