The Dallas Cowboys have played two preseason games to date. Neither of these contests featured prominent players from their roster. Dallas did open things up a bit more in their second outing against the Baltimore Ravens, but in their exhibition debut against the Los Angeles Rams there were a number of players who were given the night off.
Varying opinions have been offered about this line of thought and whether or not it is the disposition that the head coach should be using. Brian Schottenheimer
is in his inaugural flight as the Cowboys’ skipper, but the team at large has shown a reluctance towards playing significant players in the preseason for some time now.
This has felt particularly true since Tony Romo suffered an injury during the preseason almost a decade ago. You will recall that Romo re-injured his back and was forced to miss significant time. An ankle injury to his backup just before that, a backup named Kellen Moore, someone whose name will come up again in today’s discussion, meant that then-rookie Dak Prescott was thrust into the starting role, and the rest, as they say, is history.
The Cowboys have never confirmed any idea that they have been shy about working starters in the preseason ever since Romo’s ill-fated injury in Seattle, so making any guesses that this is the reason would be assuming. But anyone who has watched this team in recent memory knows that they keep the franchise quarterback, the most valuable player on any NFL team, on the shelf until the games officially count in the standings.
As it relates to this current moment in time, they are somewhat of an outlier in that sense.
There are some unique details in the conversation that we are having today so please understand that we are attempting to do just that – have a conversation.
A thought struck me as I was watching the Chicago Bears and Buffalo Bills play on Sunday night as Caleb Williams was shining for the former. The internet was chatting about Williams thriving under new head coach Ben Johnson and that’s when things sort of clicked and I raced to build my mental drawing board.
This NFL season there are seven teams with new head coaches: Cowboys (Brain Schottenheimer), Bears (Ben Johnson), New York Jets (Aaron Glenn), New England Patriots (Mike Vrabel), Jacksonville Jaguars (Liam Cohen), Las Vegas Raiders (Pete Carroll) and New Orleans Saints (the aforementioned Kellen Moore).
Each new gaffer took over a team with different details surrounding it. Ben Johnson’s situation is different than Mike Vrabel’s and Liam Cohen’s is unique unto those. You get the picture.
But what stood about these seven teams, coaches, and the franchise quarterbacks that play for them on their new squads is that the Cowboys are the only one of them whose franchise quarterback has not seen a single second of play-time in the preseason.
Caleb Williaims played as noted. Justin Fields, formerly of Chicago incidentally, played as well and did so despite an injury scare early on in training camp. Drake Maye saw work for New England and Trevor Lawrence got involved for Jacksonville. Geno Smith played for the Raiders, amazingly in Seattle where he just was in his career, and the Saints are the most unique in this conversation as they have the least-established franchise quarterback of the group in question. It remains to be seen who will win the job in New Orleans between Tyler Shough and Spencer Rattler, but they have each seen work in the preseason so the overall box is checked.
As you know, Dak Prescott has not played for the Cowboys. But as mentioned, each situation is different. Prescott is coming back from a hamstring injury that caused him to miss over half of last season and he is significantly older and longer in the NFL tooth than these other quarterbacks. You may find those to be excuses, but it doesn’t change the fact that they are objectively true data points. As noted, we wanted to include any and every kind of context in this discussion.
I was curious for the perspective of those who know these other teams and quarterback situations well as they might be able to provide context for what is going on with the other six clubs in the way we are with the Cowboys. In order to get the full picture I reached out to people who cover each of these teams to try and get the 4-1-1. These were the two questions that I asked them, obviously tailored to each team and situation:
1. Are (each specific team’s) fans happy that (the franchise quarterback in question) played?
2. Do you think it was worth it for him to?
Allow me to offer my sincere thanks to the six gentlemen who took time to respond.
Aaron Leming, Windy City Gridiron (Chicago Bears)
1. Absolutely. In fact, most fans were under the strong impression that Caleb Williams and the starting offense should have played in their preseason opener against Miami. We all know it was an up-and-down rookie season for Williams, but fans’ concerns grew with an uneven start to camp. In the first week, the entire offense looked bad. Later, it came out that they were only a few installs into a 12-part process. Ben Johnson’s plan this whole time has been to overload his plate with everything, coach him hard, and then dial back on what hasn’t worked after those installs were finished. Although preseason doesn’t mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, the first team offense playing two series on Sunday was, at the very least, a much-needed sigh of relief for this fanbase to acknowledge that Johnson knows what he’s doing and the process is “working”.
2. I do. Because of the history of quarterbacks in Chicago, Williams’ rookie season was met with plenty of panic around the city. No matter how mentally strong someone is, these are the types of things that can weigh on a person’s mind. Especially someone as young as Caleb. It’s been far from an easy road since Johnson took over as head coach. There’s been a lot of tough love, and Williams has experienced plenty of ups and downs along the way. I believe that their ability to go out, string together a 93-yard touchdown drive, and “confirm” their process was not only needed for the fans, but also for the psyche of this offense.
Jake Asman, Jake Asman Show (New York Jets)
- I think fans are happy Fields played because Aaron Glenn has stressed having a physical camp all summer and the jets have had live tackling drills and have gone out of their way to try to have a physical training camp so not playing Fields because they are afraid of injuries would be a huge contraction to everything they tried to establish.
- I definitely think it was worth playing Fields because the team needs the reps. It’s a brand new coaching staff and they have a first time play caller in Tanner Engstrand so those reps are super valuable.
Bernd Buchmasser, Pats Pulpit (New England Patriots)
- Maye played a pair of series in both preseason games so far, totaling 29 snaps and 15 dropbacks. Given that he is still adapting to life in what is a notoriously complex Josh McDaniels offense, it makes sense to give him as many opportunities as possible even if it means exposing him to preseason hits behind what remains a work-in-progress offensive line. So, from that perspective there has been no serious backlash to Vrabel’s handling of his young QB. Had Maye gotten banged up or repeatedly shown that the snaps would have been detrimental to his confidence – it helped that both Washington and Minnesota rested its top-level defenders – the mood might be different, but overall I’d classify this as a “no harm, no foul” situation.
- Yes, I would say so. It all comes back to the experience mentioned above. Maye mentioned after the Vikings game that the operation and communication are different in a live-game setting than in practice, and that getting a few reps in helps his understand of what to still keep working on before the start of the season (he used a particular delay of game penalty vs. Minnesota as his example). Were they his snaps of the highest quality as far as competition is concerned? Not really, but at this point in the process it’s all about building internal trust and confidence – and it looks like the two preseason games so far have helped him do that.
JP Acosta, SB Nation (Jacksonville Jaguars)
- I think they’re happy. It’s been extremely limited and the starting OL has played in front of him, so I think the fans have liked the process behind it.
- I think so, largely because it’s a new offense. I want him to get some live reps against teams with different helmets than them, especially because I don’t think they’ve done joint practices this year.
Bill Williamson, Silver And Black Pride (Las Vegas Raiders)
- He’s not Gardner Minshew. They happy.
- Yea, he threw bullets. Don’t expect him to play next week. Nice primer for the season.
Nic Jennings, Canal Street Chronicles (New Orleans Saints)
I think for the first two preseason games, fans were happy with the choices at quarterback.
Spencer Rattler had a strong offseason and looked like he was firmly grasping the starting role ahead of the preseason opener, so Saints fans were definitely pleased to see him start against the Chargers.
Following that performance, fans felt Tyler Shough flashed a higher ceiling and deserved the opportunity to start in Week 2 of the preseason, so he took the field first against the Jaguars. I’d say that was well-received.
Ultimately, I still feel Rattler has outplayed Shough through two games and deserves the start in Week 3 against the Broncos to prove he’s got what it takes to lead the charge.
That said, both quarterbacks have received valuable reps this preseason, and there are no real complaints with how the Saints are handling the QB competition.
Ultimately these answers all make a lot of sense relative to the specific circumstances surrounding each quarterback, team and new head coach. Dak Prescott is not as green as the majority of players here and as noted is coming off of a serious injury, but the perspectives certainly make you think a little. I should also add that in bouncing this back and forth with the great Dave Halprin, he raised an additional point of context with the Cowboys in that Dak already has an established history with Brian Schottenheimer. Again, context.
The answer that stood out most to me was Bernd’s in that he classified New England’s situation as no harm and no foul. This is ultimately where I stand with the Cowboys right now. The purpose in conducting this exercise was truly to gather information with an open mind to help mold an opinion and I leave it feeling like not playing Dak at all has been a mistake.
This is mostly about general activity needed for the most important people on the team to have under their belt. It would be silly to say that two possessions in the preseason will make a huge difference (which is not what I’m saying), but to that point if they are that insignificant then why won’t the Cowboys consider using them? At least to this point.
What’s more is the Cowboys were the only team in the NFL who had their first-round pick serve as a healthy scratch during the first week of the preseason (obviously first-rounders who are injured did not participate). They are clearly not afraid to be an outlier int his overall sense, but Brian Schottenheimer said on Monday that Dak Prescott will not play in the preseason finale so we officially know that they will be the only one here.
None of this seems like the biggest deal in the world to me, but I do find it interesting.
What do you all think?
