Will Grier had to wait almost a full calendar year to show the Dallas Cowboys what he could do in a game.
He got exactly 32 throws, over two preseason exhibitions.
It remains to be seen if he did enough with them to earn the right to stay.
The former third-round draft pick out of West Virginia has been in the building and on the practice field with the team for over eleven months, but Friday night’s preseason finale against the Seahawks may have been Grier’s last- and best- chance to win the job backing up Dak Prescott in Dallas.
He represented himself well, finishing Friday with 12 completions on 22 attempts for 88 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and even adding 26 rushing yards for good measure in the 27-26 win.
The highlight of his night, though, was delivering an end zone ball that Brandon Smith managed to snare for a balletic toe-tap touchdown. The second-year man out of Iowa showed incredible footwork and control, but Grier’s downright surgical placement of the pass is what made it possible.
I hope it’s understood just how great a catch that was from Brandon Smith, but also THE THROW from Will Grier. Wow. #SEAvsDAL
— Kyle Youmans (@Kyle_Youmans) August 27, 2022
“I’m aggressive and want to try to make those throws,” Grier said afterward, “and he made a huge play.”
With a 6-of-10 night for 98 yards against the Chargers in the week prior as his only other game film with the club, Grier knows that those outside the Cowboys organization didn’t get a long look at what he brings to the table, so making a splash was important.
“I think with a greater sample size,” he explained, “you’d be able to see more. But at the end of the day, I put it all out there, and that’s all I can do.”
Grier has just two starts on his NFL resumé, both coming as a rookie in late 2019 with Carolina. He didn’t play at all in 2020 and was cut at the end of the Panthers’ camp in 2021. The Cowboys claimed him the next day, and he’s been waiting ever since.
A groin injury kept Grier out of the Cowboys’ 2022 preseason opener in Denver, allowing Cooper Rush and Ben DiNucci to take an early lead in the QB2 competition. Both are already known commodities in Dallas, each having previously started a regular-season game for the club.
DiNucci, a seventh-round draft pick in 2020, was thrown into the fire as a rookie on a Sunday night in Philadelphia. It didn’t go particularly well, but the James Madison alum has hung around in Dallas, seemingly as a deep-bench project of sorts for head coach Mike McCarthy.
Rush was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Cowboys in 2017 and has been with the organization since, apart from a short 2020 stint on the Giants’ practice squad. He famously started last Halloween’s game (exactly 364 days after DiNucci’s lone start) and led the team to an improbable primetime win over Minnesota.
While Rush has remained in the running for the backup job this year, the Dallas coaching staff no doubt already knows what it has in him. He was given the start Friday versus Seattle but pulled after one possession to make way for Grier.
“One series is one series. It is what it is,” a seemingly disappointed Rush told reporters Friday night. “You just play the plays and you analyze those plays and just kind of move on. You’re not going to find a great rhythm.”
Now it’s up to the coaches, who will deliberate for the next couple days before making final cuts to get the roster to 53 names by Tuesday.
In what appears to be a one-or-the-other situation between Grier and Rush, it could come down to whether the Cowboys want an aggressive and athletic “gunslinger” (Grier) or a steady and safe “game manager” (Rush) behind their $40 million man.
Which player they could expose to waivers and realistically get back for the practice squad may also be a factor. There may not be much fighting over Rush; it’s thought that Grier would be more likely snatched up by a team looking to upgrade its QB depth.
Friday night’s game at AT&T Stadium, then, may have been Will Grier’s real make-or-break moment as a Cowboy hopeful.
“I thought Will did some really good things,” McCarthy said from the podium after the win. “He struggled early, missed some throws. I think once he settled in, he made some plays, made some plays with his feet. It was just great to get him out there. He was having a really good camp. I thought he had some really good practices before the injury. He definitely gave us a lot to look at and a lot to evaluate.”
Grier would like to have given the coaches a little bit more to look at.
Now he can only hope he gave them enough.
“I thought I played well,” Grier allowed. “I started slow, but overall, played pretty well. Took care of the ball, moved the ball down the field, scored, gave us a chance.”
He may have also just given himself a chance, at the backup job in Dallas.
[listicle id=701051]
[listicle id=701035]
[vertical-gallery id=701012]
[lawrence-newsletter]