Thursday, March 28, 2024 Mar 28, 2024
48° F Dallas, TX
Advertisement
Football

The Cowboys’ Fake Quarterback Controversy Is Melting My Brain

Somehow, Jerry Jones' half-cocked soundbite keeps gaining strength. That's not Cooper Rush's fault. But it really ought to stop.
By |
Image
Cooper Rush has exceeded every reasonable expectation. He just shouldn't be Dallas' starting quarterback. Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK

Are we really doing this again? 

We’re only six years removed from Dak Prescott emerging from the ether of the NFL draft’s fourth round to unseat Tony Romo as the Cowboys’ starting quarterback. Given that Prescott just turned 29 this summer and is one year into a massive contract extension, I figured we wouldn’t have to endure any public litigation over the position for at least another half-decade. 

Nope! To be fair, this quarterback controversy—if you can call it that—only exists because of Jerry Jones. The Cooper Rush story should be a delightful narrative about an undrafted player who worked and worked until he became a competent NFL quarterback (with his own Cowboys record, too). It should mirror Jason Garrett’s emergence on Thanksgiving day in 1994: a wonderful story about an unproven player that ultimately becomes a footnote in the larger narrative of the team. Alas, Jerry, the salesman, had to push the story to a place no one asked for.  

What’s happened since? Rush laughed it off. Mike McCarthy has rebuked it. Even Jerry has walked back his comments. I cannot emphasize this enough: this is not a real quarterback controversy.

Yet the discourse persists. In all corners of the internet, you can find outrageous Cooper Rush takes. Which compels me to point out that it would be a colossal mistake to replace Prescott with Rush, and that’s no knock on the Cowboys’ backup. In fact, it’s a huge compliment to him that a quarterback controversy even needs to be addressed considering much of this fanbase wanted him replaced in the offseason. In three starts this season, Rush has outplayed Joe Burrow, Daniel Jones, and Carson Wentz in victories that required Rush to make important throws to win the game. He has thrown only one interception, he’s completed 60 percent of his passes, and he has a friendly quarterback rating of 95.9. If Jerry decided to trade Rush for Carson Wentz tomorrow, he would have a mutiny on his hands.

But while Rush passed his NFC East driver’s-permit test, he still isn’t the guy you want driving the car full time. He has yet to throw for over 250 yards or more than two touchdowns in any game this season. His lack of mobility removes a read-option element of the offense that widens Kellen Moore’s playbook. And while Rush is accurate on short and intermediate throws, he lacks the arm strength to consistently push the ball down field. Unsurprisingly, the offense hasn’t come close to the heights seen in the first half of last season.

Meanwhile, Dak is a two-time Pro Bowler coming off a season when he threw for more than 4,400 yards plus 37 touchdowns. He does just about everything at the quarterback position better than Rush. There is no need to overcomplicate this.

So why does this idea continue to percolate? Why did Jerry Jones invite a quarterback controversy into his home and pour it a drink?  Because these hypotheticals are about more than performance. They’re opportunities to paper over past failures. 

When Prescott initially took over as quarterback in 2016, no one thought a rookie was a better quarterback than Tony Romo. When Romo was ready to return to the lineup, the language grounding the support for Dak as the starter was couched in unquantifiable characteristics. He’s a winner. He has the hot hand. He’s a leader. No one could claim Prescott had a firmer grasp of the playbook, or read defenses better, or threw a more accurate ball. All that mattered was Prescott wasn’t covered in the residue of 8-8 seasons and repeated playoff failures. It was an opportunity to start anew and convince yourself that this time, it would be different. That’s how Romo, Dallas’ best quarterback since Troy Aikman, who showed no signs of declining, abruptly vanished from the roster.

Now Prescott sees himself on the other end of the spectrum. Cooper Rush represents another fresh start. Everyone who watched last season’s high-powered offense sputter into mediocrity (plus the latest playoff meltdown) can believe that things can begin anew once more. Squint and you can kind of see the logic. Prescott has weathered several injuries that have caused his running game to all but vanish. Some have questioned whether he can elevate lesser talent given his struggles prior to Amari Cooper’s arrival in 2019. Maybe some other team surrenders a draft bounty to acquire him, and the Cowboys spread around the money saved from no longer paying his deal to beef up the rest of the roster. 

This is stupid. This is offensively stupid. Because the Romo-Dak controversy at least had some merit to it. This team struck gold in the fourth round and could replace its aging, injured quarterback with a rookie who went 11-1 in his first 12 games. Sure. Fine. 

No such upside exists here given Rush’s limitations and his age (he’s only a year younger than Prescott). But there’s no putting this genie back in the bottle. If Prescott struggles for even one game when he returns, the cries for Cooper Rush will grow loud. Trust me, I was in the building when Romo replaced Drew Bledsoe on a Monday night in 2006. We chanted his name for the entire halftime period after Bledsoe threw a bad interception late in the first half. Football fans do this everywhere. But only here does their favorite team’s owner instigate it himself. 

Prescott doesn’t deserve any of this. He’s very good—great, even—in a league where his position determines a team’s fortunes (even if Micah Parsons does his damndest to elevate things on his own). The Cowboys will be much better when he’s back on the field. Which, in addition to stupid, makes all of this unnecessary. This franchise loves a good quarterback controversy. But this team certainly doesn’t need one.

Author

Austin Ngaruiya

Austin Ngaruiya

View Profile
Austin Ngaruiya covers the Cowboys for StrongSide. He is a contributor at Dime Magazine and spends entirely too much time…

Related Articles

Image
Football

What Does Life After Tyron Smith Look Like For the Cowboys?

Dallas' longtime left tackle is expected to leave in free agency. It's the end of an era, and it prompts questions about the next one begins.
Image
Dallas 500

Meet the Dallas 500: Bill Hancock, College Football Playoff

The executive director of the now 12-team College Football Playoff discusses his belief that college athletes are students first, that one time a Final Four game was delayed because they couldn't get to the basketballs, and more.
Advertisement