After three straight seasons with a 12-5 record, the Dallas Cowboys ended the 2024 season 7-10, missing the NFL Playoffs for the first time since Mike McCarthy’s first year with the team in 2020.
Leading the Cowboys to a 3-4 record, quarterback Dak Prescott suffered a hamstring injury in Week 9 against the Atlanta Falcons, leaving him out for the rest of the year. This made way for Cooper Rush to take over the starting job.
In eight starts, Rush led Dallas to a 4-4 record and even had them winning four out of five games at one point. The 8th-year quarterback finished with 1,844 passing yards, 12 touchdowns and five interceptions.
Now, the Cowboys enter the offseason with a need at the quarterback position. Prescott remains under contract through the 2028 season after signing a four-year, $240 million extension. Rush and 3rd stringer Trey Lance, on the other hand, are free agents.
In an interview with Dallas Morning News, Cowboys COO and co-owner Stephen Jones, the son of Jerry, spoke about his backup QB of eight years, mentioning Dallas will have to be “cheap” if they want to bring Rush back.
“You know how much we think of Cooper,” Stephen Jones said. “We just don’t know what he’s going to cost. When we’re paying Dak what we’re paying him, unfortunately, we do have to go cheap there.”
Stephen Jones also spoke on Lance, who he doesn’t expect to be back in Dallas in 2025.
“We took a shot a Trey and wanted to do that,” Jones added. “We think the world of Trey. But us having Dak signed up for the long-term, I think he’s probably going to be looking for something different.”
With Lance potentially on his way out, it appears Stephen Jones and the Cowboys may look at a quarterback in the upcoming 2025 NFL draft.
“You know, I think one of our goals is to get a young quarterback in the draft,” Stephen Jones continued. “I don’t know where that’s going to be. That’s why we gave a [fourth-round pick] for Trey. It seems like all the quarterbacks, even guys we have in the fourth round, go in the first. They always go so much higher than what you think.”
With Prescott’s heavy contract, it appears the Cowboys’ quarterback room could look pretty different come training camp.