Heading into their final preseason game of 2024, the Dallas Cowboys face a quarterback dilemma: Do they make the highly-athletic but still unpolished Trey Lance the backup to Dak Prescott or do they hand the gig to the proven but limited Cooper Rush?
It's not an easy call and it largely depends on how you look at it. Lance can do many things that Rush can't as he's by far the superior athlete. However, the young QB is inconsistent, particularly when playing within structure.
Based on last weekend's game against the Raiders though, Lance is improving . And with Mike McCarthy insisting on his need for reps, it's looking like he's closing the gap on Rush, who has been treated as QB2 over Trey ever since the Cowboys traded for the latter in 2023.
It's a close race and Lance will likely get more and more looks prior to cutdown day before the Cowboys make a final decision. But one thing that could boost the young quarterback's chances even further is a new NFL rule amendment regarding the emergency quarterback.
Starting in 2023, the league allowed teams to suit up a third quarterback on gameday without him counting toward the active gameday roster limit. However, that quarterback had to be on the 53-man roster. That's changed.
In 2024, the NFL amended it to allow a practice squad quarterback to be elevated an unlimited number of times during the season to be the emergency QB. This player can only take the field if the two top quarterbacks are injured:
By Competition Committee; amends Article XVII, Section 17.3, to expand the Standard Elevation rules to permit clubs to elevate a bona fide Quarterback an unlimited number of times from its practice squad to its Active List to be its Emergency Third Quarterback.
In other words, the Cowboys could keep Rush on the practice squad and elevate him every week of the season to have him be the emergency quarterback. The downside to this would be risking Rush to be poached and signed by another team. While the team could still pay Rush a good amount of money, there's a maximum salary for practice squad players.
It's highly unlikely that such a strategy would work with Lance though, as he'd be almost guaranteed to be stolen away by another NFL team the second he hits waivers.
This particular strategy could be employed by the Cowboys if they remain healthy early on and they want to use one of the 53 spots on the team on another position. For example, if they really wanted to keep Brevyn Spann-ford onboard as a fourth tight end or Julius Wood as a fifth safety, they could go into the season with Rush on the squad.
Ultimately, the Cowboys might still be inclined to keep three QBs on the roster but if it comes down to it, this is a strategy that could be a good solution to the dilemma they face and an additional argument for Lance's case to be QB2.
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