According to ESPN’s Todd Archer, Dallas’ backup quarterback, Cooper Rush, was caught in a weather delay at Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport last month. Rush was on his way to Las Vegas to visit the Raiders.
Word had it that the Cincinnati Bengals were also thinking of speaking with him. But Mother Nature had other ideas.
While Rush was waiting, his agent let him know the Cowboys had made an offer to keep him on the team.
The offer wasn’t good enough, so Rush continued to wait to board his flight.
Then Dallas made a second offer.
This one was good enough to send Rush back to his Dallas home to think it over. The next day, Cooper Rush signed a two-year deal to remain as Dak Prescott’s backup.
A fortunate storm for Dallas
Had Rush continued on to Vegas, who knows what kind of an offer the Raiders might have made him. Possibly more than the reported max of $6 million with a $1.25 million signing bonus.
Or maybe the Bengals would have come in with a better offer as well.
In six starts for an injured Prescott, Rush is a solid 5-1.
Aside from the disaster in Philadelphia, where the entire team was trying too hard to make a statement, Rush was everything Dallas needed.
Against the Eagles, he tried to force passes instead of doing what he’d done the previous four games and taken what the defense gave him. Even then, the Cowboys almost rallied for the win.
He is exactly the kind of player any team would want as their backup.
By keeping Rush, Dallas didn’t have to worry about either signing a proven vet or relying on a rookie if Prescott goes down again.
But what about beyond the next two seasons?
If the Cowboys were to lose Prescott for the long term, or if Prescott regresses again this season, is Rush the guy who could get them to the Super Bowl?
If he isn’t then Dallas will need to look to the draft, this year or next, to find that guy.
What if Rush had left in free agency?
That is a question the Cowboys’ front office should be thinking about long and hard as they approach the draft.
If Rush had been lured away by the Raiders or Bengals they would have been scrambling. Was there a vet out there they’d be comfortable signing for a year or two?
More likely, they’d have ended up doing what they did seven years ago. Take a mid-round quarterback they just drafted and pray that lightning strikes twice.
They drafted Dak Prescott in the fourth round in 2016 to learn under Tony Romo. Only to have Romo get hurt in the preseason and be forced to throw Prescott into the fire in his rookie season.
They got away with it then. They don’t have to worry about it this year — unless Dallas gets hit with the 49ers’ quarterback injury plague of 2022.
But nearly losing Rush should serve as a wake-up call to take a long, hard look at the next two quarterback classes with an eye on the future.
And as an insurance policy — in case 2016 rears up and repeats itself in 2023 or 2024 — drafting a quarterback and having him hold a clipboard for a year or two wouldn’t be a bad thing.
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