The backup quarterback is always an important- some say the most important- position on any NFL team. For the 2021 Dallas Cowboys, there’s an extra sense of apprehension about who would take the reins should something happen to starter Dak Prescott. Last year’s lesson was a hard one for everyone involved.
The irony, of course, is that Dallas was in a better spot heading into 2020 than in recent memory, having signed veteran Andy Dalton in the spring. Dalton took over for Prescott in Week 5, but didn’t last long. Before Week 7’s game was over, the Cowboys had turned to the backup’s backup, Ben DiNucci. And by Week 9, the backup’s backup’s backup- Garrett Gilbert- was starting under center.
Cooper Rush was re-signed to the Cowboys late last season as an insurance policy. Dalton has since moved on to Chicago. That leaves the Cowboys to anoint a new QB2 behind Prescott.
Team executive vice president Stephen Jones was non-committal when asked on Friday about who had the upper hand in the camp battle. But his answer did offer some clues as to how the organization might be thinking about the backup spot with less than three weeks to opening night.
“I think Gilbert and Cooper have got to continue to work, and they’re fighting for that Number Two spot,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan. “Obviously, Gilbert’s got a little advantage there, but they’re obviously working to hold on to that role there.”
DiNucci was notably absent from Jones’s answer. The second-year passer out of tiny James Madison was thrown into the fire as a rookie, but it’s possible he’s being viewed as little more than a long-term practice-squad project at best right now.
But that doesn’t mean it’s either Gilbert or Rush. Jones hinted that Prescott’s primary backup may well be a quarterback who’s not even in the building at this point.
“As I’ve said time and time again, player acquisition is 365 days a year,” he continued, “and we’re always looking to get better. They’re not only competing against each other, but they’re competing against other people in the NFL, just as other people at other positions on our football team are doing the same thing.”
Saturday’s preseason tilt against the Texans could go a long way in helping the staff decide between Gilbert or Rush… or perhaps prompting them to shop around for the proverbial player to be named later. There will likely be a surprise cut or two in someone else’s camp before long, or a more serviceable passer that the team feels it could land in a trade.
What’s clear is this: the job of backing up Prescott will come with some added pressure this year.
Prescott supposedly healed fully from his catastrophic ankle injury… only to suffer a shoulder strain in training camp. When Week 1 rolls around, Prescott will have been banned from throwing for a fair portion of the team’s offseason work, taken exactly zero snaps in four preseason games, and gone 333 days without seeing live-fire action against an opposing team.
All of which makes the backup quarterback a position of great interest once again in Dallas.
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