The Dallas Cowboys will head into the season with three quarterbacks. And all three are in the final year of their respective contracts.
Dak Prescott is the unquestioned starter.
He brings with him a 73-41 regular season record. He also is saddled with a 2-5 career post-season record.
Cooper Rush has been the back up in Dallas for the last three seasons.
He is 5-1 as a starter during that time, winning his first five starts in relief of Prescott.
Trey Lance will enter his fourth NFL season – second in Dallas – and hasn’t played in a regular season game since 2022 with the 49ers.
He was 2-2 for San Francisco in an injury-plagued two-year run. Disappointing numbers from a high first round pick.
All three will be playing to stay in Dallas beyond the 2024 campaign.
The Cowboys may be auditioning all three to be their starter in 2025. Or determining if all three need to find somewhere else to play.
The Contestants
Dallas has been seemingly dragging their feet in extending Prescott’s contract beyond this season.
They have paid Prescott $162 million over his eight year career.
It has bought them exactly two playoff wins – and those coming only in the wildcard round at that.
Rush is at his best when he is a game manager, not taking risks with the ball. This was on full display in his lone loss as a starter.
After four games of ball control, he was asked to “make a statement” against the Eagles and threw three costly interceptions.
Lance was traded for by the 49ers in exchange for three first round picks. The 49ers traded him to Dallas for a single fourth rounder two years later.
Did the Cowboys get a steal?
That is what they need to find out this year.
Either way, it looks like Dallas’ quarterback room is getting placed under the crucible this year. The survivor will be the starter in 2025.
But who will it be?
Super Bowl Or Bust?
Last year it seemed likely that Prescott would need to get the Cowboys to nothing less than an NFC Championship game or he was gone.
He fell well short once again. With his contract expiring this year, he made need to get Dallas to the Super Bowl or start packing.
Not extending him until after the season plays out makes sense.
If he comes through, Jerry Jones can sign the check and Prescott can fill in the numbers, and rightfully so.
But, if he leads the team to another early exit – or misses the playoffs altogether – then he needs to play somewhere else. And the Cowboys need to start the rebuild.
Jones has paid Prescott $162 million.
Not a penny more until he earns it when the games really matter.
Prescott will be an unrestricted free agent in 2025, but he will still carry a significant hit in dead cap money even if he’s playing elsewhere.
Super Cooper
Cooper Rush came through twice when the Cowboys desperately needed him to.
In 2021, with Prescott injured, Rush hit Amari Cooper with a game-winning touchdown pass with 51 seconds left in a 20-16 win over the Vikings.
The following year, with Prescott out with a thumb injury suffered in a season opening loss, Rush saved the season.
He won the next four games, buying time for Prescott to heal and return to get Dallas to the playoffs. A 5-1 record is impressive.
But while he has been a stellar QB2, does he have what it takes to be a QB1?
Unlikely. But his task this year might just be to survive the chaos and emerge as the QB2 in 2025, whether its Prescott, Lance, or someone else at QB1.
However, Cooper will be an unrestricted free agent in 2025 and some other team might see that 5-1 record and throw a big bundle of cash at him.
The Wildcard
Enter Lance, who has not taken a single snap for the Cowboys since the trade last year.
Dallas just declined his fifth-year option, which makes him an unrestricted free agent in 2025 too.
But don’t read too much into that move. His option would have come with a $22 million price tag.
That’s a hefty sum for a back-up quarterback to be paid.
If Lance emerges at the top of the heap, and the Cowboys decide he’s the quarterback of the future, he’ll be getting paid more than that anyway.
But will he be the top man in Dallas at the end?
Who knows? There just isn’t enough of an NFL resume there to definitively say either way.
So, he’ll have to play his way to the top – assuming he gets a chance to get out on the field in 2024.
How It Ends
Its early May and my crystal ball is lucky to see ahead to the next eight minutes, much less the next eight months.
So your guess is as good as mine. The best I’ve got is this:
Result 1: Prescott gets Dallas to the Super Bowl. Jerry pulls out his checkbook and pays the man.
With a Lombardi Trophy in one hand at that.
So Jerry will be more than happy to write that check.
Result 2: The Cowboys make the playoffs but get bounced early again. Or worse, they don’t make the postseason at all.
In that case, Prescott may not be the only player packing his bags for good.
Welcome to Survivor: Dallas Cowboys Starting Quarterback, gentlemen. Game on.
And good luck.