The Cowboys have a combined 16 points across their last two games as the season slips away, but Jerry Jones isn’t expecting changes anytime soon at the quarterback position.
With Dak Prescott on the shelf, the Cowboys have leaned on longtime backup Cooper Rush instead of Trey Lance – the 2021 No. 3 overall pick who Jones traded for last year after he was surpassed on the 49ers’ depth chart by Brock Purdy.
So far, Lance’s only cameo in Dallas has been last week when he took over for Rush as they got drubbed by the Eagles. At that point, Rush had thrown for just 45 yards across 23 attempts in the 34-6 loss. Rush aired it out far more in Monday’s 34-10 loss to the Texans, going 32-for-55 for 354 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
With five straight losses and Prescott out, the Cowboys’ season is circling the drain. A trip to the playoffs at this point is an extreme longshot, and seeing what they have in Lance is probably a more prudent long-term move than just repeatedly trotting out Rush.
However, Jones said Tuesday in his weekly appearance on Shan & RJ that Rush is likely to be the starter Sunday when the Cowboys face the Commanders.
“I don’t know that," Jones said about a switch. "I thought Rush actually had improvement last night from the game before. He didn’t have far to get improvement, but I did think he did have improvement. Frankly, there were times in that ballgame that I thought it was really coming to it. We know we’ve got limited time to work with these quarterbacks at this particular time, and I would look for us to stay with the experience.”
While Rush might have the experience, his ceiling is well-established. Even before the season was in a total freefall, once Prescott went down, the Cowboys could have justified turning to Lance – unless, of course, they thought he was woefully ill-prepared for game action.
Jones pushed back on the notion that their comfort with Rush over Lance is a tacit admission that they misevaluated the 24-year-old when they traded for him.
“No. We knew exactly where Trey Lance was when he left San Francisco," Jones said. "He was (the third) pick in the draft, we knew he hadn’t played much football. He has improved dramatically. Unlike (the thought that) you’ve got to get out there and you’ve got to play, we have thought it was just too important for us to have (essentially) a rookie quarterback in these last two ballgames because we need to win and give ourselves every chance we can.
“We hadn’t gotten to the point that we were basically looking to evaluate Trey Lance more, at all. So, that’s where we are. … We really have worked with Trey, we have evaluated Trey, we’ll see what the future brings here the next few weeks. But I’m satisfied with where we are.”
Lance will be a free agent after this season. So, if the Cowboys do want to evaluate him more in game situations, then they are willfully giving themselves less time each time they start Rush.