The Dallas Cowboys are already going to be in a bind at the quarterback position. With the Covid-19 pandemic scrapping, at the very least, offseason workouts, the challenge facing new head coach Mike McCarthy is going to be severe. New head coaches hired this offseason are already going to be behind the eightball when it comes to implementing their new offenses.
Teams with consistency from 2019’s schemes and plans have a leg up on the competition, simply because there isn’t going to be as steep a learning curve, but more a re-acclimation when on-field activities resume. The Cowboys will have a bit of that luxury, with offensive coordinator Kellen Moore returning, and McCarthy’s plans to use Moore’s verbiage again in 2020. However, the franchise tag placed on QB Dak Prescott has not yet been signed and despite the flowery language used by the front office, there’s a huge question whether or not a long-term deal will be reached.
The longer that takes, the more risk there is with Prescott not being fully immersed in McCarthy’s West Coast offense portion of the playbook. With all of the pitfalls facing the organization in these unchartered waters, that’s yet another potential hazard to swim around. Another? Who else will be learning the Moore-McCarthy hybrid scheme. Dallas doesn’t have a sure backup to Prescott, either.
There’s an old adage in the NFL, if a team loses it’s franchise quarterback for any extended period of time, the season is likely lost anyway. As true as the 2015 Cowboys campaign proved that to be, a few games missed by the starter is not insurmountable if the right backup is in place.
The Cowboys don’t currently have a situation that inspires confidence.
The team tendered restricted free agent Cooper Rush, who has sat behind Prescott for the previous three years. After an impressive exhibition season as a rookie, Rush hasn’t shown much in the last two preseason campaigns.
Dallas does have a third quarterback on the roster, Clayton Thorson, a 2019 fifth-round pick of Philadelphia the team signed in September to the practice squad and is on a futures contract. The Northwestern native has a strong arm, but had accuracy and reading-the-defense issues coming out of college. Whether McCarthy is interested in him at all remains to be seen.
Really, whether there is interest in either of the backups is a question mark. Dallas tendered Rush, originally a UDFA, at the right-of-first-refusal level, indicating they weren’t going to cry over spilled milk if another team signed him to an offer sheet.
So that begs the question, will either be Prescott’s backup in 2020, or will the club look elsewhere?[lawrence-newsletter]