Dak Prescott cannot grip a football, according to Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, but as soon as he is healthy enough to play, Cooper Rush will be headed back to the bench – regardless of how many wins he has racked up.
Rush will reportedly make his fourth straight start since Prescott suffered a fracture near his right thumb in the fourth quarter of the Cowboys’ 19-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the season opener.
Jones said during an interview with 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday that Prescott’s surgically repaired thumb is improving but he cannot grip a football “well enough to play.”
So that means Rush will get the call against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.
The Cowboys have won all three games with Rush under center, and although just less than two weeks ago Jones said he would welcome a quarterback controversy between the two because that meant the team was winning, he walked back on that idea Tuesday.
Jones was asked when Prescott is deemed healthy, would the Cowboys stick with Rush if he continues to pile up victories.
"No. No. As I see it right today," Jones said.
The undrafted Rush has completed 55 of 89 passes (61.8 percent) for 673 yards while throwing four touchdowns and no interceptions in those three consecutive victories.
With Sunday’s 25-10 win over the Washington Commanders, Rush became the first quarterback in franchise history to win his first four career starts.
Jones admitted that he never thought the Cowboys would have beaten the Cincinnati Bengals, New York Giants and Commanders in the last three weeks.
“No. No, I did not,” he said.
Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said on Monday that Prescott would need to put in an entire week of practice before he could play, and Jones remains hopeful he will be back practicing before long.
"I don't know that you could ask for better news technically, physically in how it's responding, how it's healing so to speak," Jones said.
"So all of those things are on go and I don't know that as we bid bye to each day if considering the injury, considering the location of the injury, I don't know that you could make any more progress.
"There's some things here about healing that again I often say only the man upstairs knows how that works, but he'll have a big week and he'll be hard on himself getting it ready to go."
Panthers bench struggling quarterback Young
The Carolina Panthers are making a quarterback change following their 0-2 start, benching 2023 No. 1 overall draft pick Bryce Young in favour of veteran Andy Dalton for Sunday’s road matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders.
Young has struggled mightily in his NFL career after Carolina acquired the top overall selection in the 2023 NFL Draft from the Chicago Bears and used it to pick the 2021 Heisman Trophy winner out of the University of Alabama.
The 23-year-old Young has gone 2-16 in 18 starts while completing 59.3 percent of his pass attempts and throwing for 3,122 yards with 11 touchdowns and 13 interceptions for a passer rating of 70.9.
Since the beginning of the 2023 season, Young’s completion percentage is the worst among qualifying quarterbacks and his passer rating ranks second-to-last.
The decision by first-year Panthers coach Dave Canales to switch quarterbacks comes after Young posted a 44.1 rating and passed for 245 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions in a pair of losses to open 2024.
Carolina has been outscored 73-13 and scored just one touchdown on a three-yard run by Young in Week 1.
Dalton started in Week 3 last season with Young out due to an ankle injury and threw for 361 yards with two touchdowns in a 37-27 loss at the Seattle Seahawks.
Six weeks shy of his 37th birthday, Dalton ranks 26th in NFL history with 38,511 passing yards and 28th with 246 touchdowns through the air.
Chiefs running back Pacheco headed to injured reserve with fractured fibula
The Kansas City Chiefs will place leading rusher Isiah Pacheco on injured reserve due to a fractured fibula sustained in Sunday’s 26-25 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.
Pacheco’s right foot got trapped underneath him, and he was bent backwards while being tackled. He exited in the final minute of the game and was seen in a walking boot with crutches leaving the stadium.
A seventh-round pick in 2022, Pacheco rushed for 135 yards and a touchdown and caught seven passes for 54 yards in helping the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs win their first two games.
Pacheco led Kansas City with 830 rushing yards and five TDs on the ground as a rookie in 2022 and did so again last season with 935 rushing yards and seven rushing scores.
Carson Steele and Samaje Perine are expected to lead the way in Kansas City’s backfield with Pacheco sidelined.
'A long time coming' - Rodgers relishes first Jets win
Aaron Rodgers says his first win with the New York Jets has been "a long time coming" after their comeback victory over the Tennessee Titans.
The 40-year-old’s first season in New York ended in the fourth snap of the first game as he tore his left Achilles tendon.
Returning to action in 2024, he began the year with a 32-19 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Monday, but finally managed to get off the mark with the Jets on Sunday as they beat the Titans 24-17.
Rodgers threw for 176 yards and two touchdowns, with one of those to 20-year-old Braelon Allen, making it a score between the NFL's oldest and youngest players.
And the quarterback was pleased to avoid the first 0-2 of his 20-year career.
"It was great. It was a long time coming," he said.
"These are kind of the games you look back on late in the season, and you're thankful you won these, because if we want to be a great team, we have to win in these type of environments against a team like that."
The Jets made a slow start to the game but rallied in the third quarter to take the lead, only to be pegged back at 17-17 going into the fourth.
However, Allen once again found his way to the end zone after a 20-yard run to make sure the Jets would be heading home with the win.
Rodgers admitted he was not happy with the first-half performance, but credited the team for staying patient to get it over the line.
"A lot of times people freak out," Rodgers added. "You have to be a calming force in there.
"I felt like the whole game we were frustrated at times, but we never got on each other. I was frustrated not getting [Garrett Wilson] balls. Didn't run the ball very well the first 2 1/2 quarters.
"We stayed confident. The defense came up with some really big plays to keep it a one-score game."
The Jets are back in action on Thursday against the New England Patriots.
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