Things have not been going well for the Dallas Cowboys in 2024. The calendar year started with a chilly, Week 18 road win to clinch the NFC East title in Landover, MD. Nothing good has happened since. The team returned home to be shockingly blown out the water by Green Bay in the wild-card round. The offseason saw free agency malaise, and a failure to bring back their own key guys and no movement for their star players on expiring deals.
When they finally put ink to paper there, injuries began to pile up and a lame-duck coaching staff proved incapable of inspiring the troops. Suffice to say, the Cowboys have earned their 3-7 record. Among the issues for Dallas was runner-up MVP Dak Prescott’s down season, made worse by his season-ending hamstring injury.
Prescott was in the bottom third of NFL quarterback performance this season, but what’s happened since he left has shone a light to how he was keeping things together with duct tape, paper clips and McGyver’s ingenuity.
For his replacement, veteran QB Cooper Rush, is playing like the worst quarterback the NFL has seen in 2024.
Quarterback Adjusted EPA through Week 11
— Ben Baldwin (@rbsdm.com) November 20, 2024 at 9:05 AM
EPA, or Expected Points Added, measures the impact a play has on the likelihood of scoring. With EPA, yardage, field position, and down and distance all weigh in on what the expected net points would be for the situation. As an example, a first and goal at the one-yard line would represent a higher EP than a third and 10 on your own 20 yard line.
EPA is the difference between the Expected Points (EP) at the beginning of the play compared to the end of the play. It measures the plays impact on the score of the game.
Adjusted EPA factors in the quality of opponent.
Based on his play in the last two-plus games, Rush is the NFL’s worst quarterback in 2024. It’s almost like things couldn’t possibly be made worse by putting Trey Lance in the games.