Poll: Who should be QB2 for the Cowboys be in 2019?

We didn’t realize it at the time, but things were great from a pun perspective when the quarterback depth chart for the Cowboys behind Dak Prescott read Cooper Rush and Kellen Moore. We had RushMoore, for crying out loud (I regret nothing).

Kellen Moore has since followed the path that almost every quarterback ever for America’s Team has taken, he’s become a coach for the team. Kellen is in fact the team’s offensive coordinator during his second year wearing a polo on the sidelines, Jason Garrett is obviously the team’s head coach, and Jon Kitna joined the staff this offseason to coach the quarterbacks. All we’re missing is Gary Hogeboom and we’ll have a real party.

There are indeed three former quarterbacks above the team’s current three, six altogether working for one cause. While the ultimate goal is obviously to win games a lot of things go into all of that, and one of the things we need to determine before the regular season hits is who is going to be backing up Dak Prescott.

Jon Kitna didn’t go into a whole lot of detail when he discussed this issue with the mothership, but reality is that QB2 is going to be a big thing to watch through training camp and the preseason. Who should it be?

The case for Cooper Rush

Despite entering his third season as a full-fledged member of the Cowboys roster, Cooper Rush isn’t even the most successful undrafted free agent ever to play quarterback for America’s Team (shout out Tony Romo obviously). Still though what Cooper has done over two years is worth being proud of as far as average backup quarterbacks go.

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Rush initially battled his way onto the team as an UDFA, so much so that he kind of forced Kellen Moore into the coaching profession that he now occupies. He has three career attempts in spot duty (one completion for two yards!) so he’s still raw as far as real-time experience goes.

Still though, Cooper has been around the block. He does literally have twice the amount of experience that Mike White does in the NFL, but we’re talking about two years to one. 2019 is a contract year for Cooper, many have floated out the idea of trading him should another team be truly interested.

The reality here is that White was drafted a year ago for a reason by the Cowboys, and that happened in spite of the rookie season that Cooper Rush put forth. The only true benefit to Cooper Rush is that he has a bit more experience than Mike White, but the overall debate is such an unknown that it’s hard to even measure this to a great degree.

The case for Mike White

Mike White hasn’t ever had a stellar preseason like Cooper did in 2017, but he was drafted while Rush was not. White was a very promising prospect coming out of Western Kentucky last year and there are a lot of reasons to like his game.

The case for White is simply that he’s a better prospect than Cooper Rush and that they’re both young enough that that particular detail still matters. He seemingly has more potential and is theoretically a push as far as the current talent goes which overall is a package that gives him the slight edge. Plus, White is under contract through 2021 which is two more seasons than Rush. That’s another pro in his column.

White’s most impressive season at Western Kentucky was inarguably his 2016 campaign when he had a 67.3% completion percentage, over 4,300 yards through the air, and 37 passing touchdowns. All of those numbers dipped a bit the following season (touchdowns dropped by a margin of 11), but the fact remains that there’s a very good quarterback in there somewhere.

We’re talking about a lone year of NFL knowledge separating Cooper Rush (2) and Mike White (1), and the guy they’re backing up only has their total number of years experience. The quarterback room is a very young one. Incredibly young.

So much of who ultimately holds the clipboard next to Kellen Moore every Sunday is going to come down to training camp and preseason as mentioned, but who do you think it should be? State your case.