Cooper Rush

Wednesday NFL Transactions: NFC East

Following the 53-man roster cutdown deadline Tuesday, many teams will make slight tweaks to their rosters. In addition to waiver claims, teams can begin constructing their 16-man practice squads today. These CommandersCowboys, Eagles and Giants moves are noted below.

Here are Wednesday’s NFC East transactions, which will continue to be updated throughout the day.

Dallas Cowboys

Signed to practice squad:

New York Giants

Signed:

Released:

Claimed:

Placed on IR:

Signed to practice squad:

Philadelphia Eagles

Claimed: 

Waived:

Signed to practice squad:

Washington Commanders

Released:

Claimed:

Waived:

Placed on IR:

Signed to practice squad:

Cowboys Set 53-Man Roster

The Cowboys got their roster down to 53 players today, and to get there, they cut all their backup QB options, their kicker, and their long snapper:

Released:

Waived:

Waived/injured:

Placed on reserve/NFI:

The Cowboys are currently rolling without a second QB behind Dak Prescott after the team moved on from Cooper Rush, Will Grier, and Ben DiNucci. Rush has the most experience of the group, appearing in 10 career games, including five appearances (one start) with Dallas in 2021. The 28-year-old finished last season having completed 30 of his 47 pass attempts for 422 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception. The Cowboys also aren’t rostering a kicker or long snapper at the moment, something that will certainly change over the next few days.

Special teams ace C.J. Goodwin could also land back on the active roster once the dust settles. Goodwin has spent the past four seasons in Dallas, and he hasn’t missed a game over the past three years. The 32-year-old finished last season with a career-high 10 tackles.

Cowboys To Cut QBs Cooper Rush, Will Grier

For a bit, Dak Prescott will be the only quarterback on the Cowboys’ roster. Dallas is releasing Cooper Rush and waiving Will Grier on Tuesday, Todd Archer of ESPN.com tweets.

This certainly does not mean Prescott Solo will be the Cowboys’ QB plan. In fact, both Rush and Grier are expected back. Rush does not need to clear waivers to return to the Cowboys, though Grier does. The team hopes to have each back soon, Archer adds.

Teams use the annual cutdown deadline to prioritize players they do not feel are certain to pass through waivers. It appears the Cowboys are using the quarterback spot to do this, being confident they can reacquire their backups after today’s cutdown to 53. Rush was already on his second Cowboys stint, having returned after spending time with former HC Jason Garrett with the Giants.

The Cowboys already cut QB Ben DiNucci, parting ways with the third-year veteran Sunday night. It is possible all four arms will be back with Dallas, which can keep 16 players on its practice squad. It will be somewhat interesting to see how the Cowboys reacquire their reserve passers. Rush, Grier and DiNucci were each with the team, with DiNucci on the P-squad, in 2021.

Despite coming into the league as a UDFA, Rush has been Prescott’s primary backup since Tony Romo‘s retirement. Andy Dalton, however, served in that role in 2020 — the only point in which multiple starts were available during the Prescott era, due to his severe ankle injury — and Rush has primarily been a bench option throughout his career.

Rush has thrown 50 career passes. Many of those came last season, when a Prescott minor injury kept him out of a game against the Vikings. Rush led Dallas to a win in Minnesota. He and Grier were vying for the QB2 job during training camp. The latter, a 2019 Panthers third-round pick, arrived in Dallas via waiver claim last year. The West Virginia product has not played in a game since making two starts as a Carolina rookie.

Cowboys Cut Garrett Gilbert, Ben DiNucci

Same as it ever was. Dak Prescott will begin his sixth season as the Cowboys’ starting quarterback, and Cooper Rush is set to be his backup. The Cowboys, however, will part ways with two other quarterbacks — Garrett Gilbert and Ben DiNucci — on roster cutdown day.

Gilbert and DiNucci played roles during Dallas’ dreadful 2020 season, which featured Prescott go down in October and Rush begin the season with Jason Garrett in New York. A year later, the Cowboys have restored their late-2010s status quo.

I just think that he’s shown that he can run the complete offense,” Jerry Jones said of Rush. “Credit to him, he had some tough competition. Those guys didn’t cut him any slack. He’s had a lot of reps – a lot of our quarterbacks have, because of the absence of Dak.”

Rush spent three seasons with the Cowboys, from 2017-19, and will be the only non-Prescott passer on this year’s squad. The Cowboys signed Gilbert off the Browns’ practice squad shortly after Prescott went down. DiNucci arrived in Dallas as a 2020 seventh-round pick. Both quarterbacks ended up making one start apiece last season, one that featured plenty of Andy Dalton, who departed for Chicago in March.

NFC Notes: Cowboys, Giants, Toney, Bears

Most of the talk about Cowboys quarterbacks this offseason has understandably revolved around Dak Prescott, his new contract, and his comeback from a devastating ankle injury. But flying a bit under the radar is the team’s unsettled backup QB situation. Last year the team had an established veteran backup in Andy Dalton, who ended up becoming the starter when Prescott went down. Dalton is off in Chicago now, leaving Dallas with very little on the depth chart. The team currently has only Garrett Gilbert, Cooper Rush, and Ben DiNucci behind Prescott.

Rush has thrown three career passes, and DiNucci (a 2020 seventh-rounder) and Gilbert have each made one start. That’s led to some speculation the Cowboys could add a veteran backup. Barring a bigger name veteran addition, Gilbert is currently the “favorite” to backup Prescott in 2021, Rob Phillips of the team’s official site writes. Phillips frames it as a battle between Gilbert and Rush without even mentioning DiNucci, who was disastrous in his lone 2020 start in primetime against the Eagles. Gilbert almost led Dallas to an upset victory over the Steelers in his one start last year, and was a star in the ill-fated AAF.

Here’s more from around the NFC as we kickoff the new week and continue to await training camps:

  • Elsewhere in the NFC East, it sounds like the Giants are scheming up various ways to get Kadarius Toney involved as a rookie. New York has Kenny Golladay, Sterling Shepard, and Darius Slayton already at receiver, so it might be hard for the 20th overall pick of this past draft to get heavy targets right away. That doesn’t mean Toney won’t get touches. The Giants are “motivated to get the ball in his hands, whether it’s out of the backfield, on jet sweeps, screen passes or maybe in the Wildcat formation,” Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com writes. Raanan writes they want him to be a year-one factor, and that “they believe the best way to make that happen is to tap into his versatility.” In other words, use him as a gadget player. The Florida product should be fun to watch.
  • Heading down to the NFC South, Buccaneers receiver Antonio Brown may have just had his probation terminated early to close his previous criminal case, but he still has civil case headaches to deal with. In addition to a lawsuit from a truck driver alleging assault that came in mid-May, Brown was apparently hit with another lawsuit later that month. This time, it’s from a sports marketing company alleging that Brown didn’t pay them commission on $2MM in earnings they got him, Matt Baker of the Tampa Bay Times reports. The company, KCB Marketing, is seeking over $100K in damages.

NFL Reserve/Futures Contracts: 1/5/21

We’ll keep track of the latest reserve/futures deals here:

Carolina Panthers 

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Houston Texans

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New York Giants

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

San Francisco 49ers

Minor NFL Transactions: 11/7/20

Here are Saturday’s minor moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Houston Texans

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Kansas City Chiefs

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

New York Giants

Pittsburgh Steelers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

Washington Football Team

Cowboys To Bench Ben DiNucci

After his rough outing against the Eagles, the Cowboys will bench quarterback Ben DiNucci, as Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. Instead, the Cowboys will allow Cooper Rush and Garrett Gilbert to compete for the top job in practice.

The Cowboys entered the season with one of the best starter/backup situations in the league. Then came Dak Prescott‘s injury, followed by Andy Dalton‘s concussion and COVID-19 diagnosis. That led the Cowboys to DiNucci, who is not quite ready for primetime.

A former UDFA out of Central Michigan, Rush spent three seasons with the Cowboys, spent a bit of time with the Giants, then returned to Dallas in late October. Rush has appeared in five games for the Cowboys, exclusively in a mop-up role. Gilbert, meanwhile, has no NFL starts to his credit — his only first-string pro experience came with the Orlando Apollos, a team in the now-defunct Alliance of American Football.

Between the two, whoever emerges as the better option in practice this week will be the Cowboys’ starter against the Steelers on Sunday afternoon.

Cowboys To Bring Back QB Cooper Rush

After cutting Cooper Rush in May, the Cowboys have seen their quarterback situation change considerably. As a result, they are bringing back Dak Prescott‘s previous backup.

Rush is on tap to join the Cowboys’ practice squad, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). COVID-19 testing protocols will prevent Rush from practicing with the Cowboys ahead of their Week 8 game against the Eagles.

The Cowboys tendered Rush as a restricted free agent in March but waived him after signing Andy Dalton. With Dalton having suffered a concussion, the Cowboys would be down to third-stringer Ben DiNucci if the veteran passer cannot clear concussion protocol this week. Garrett Gilbert would reside as DiNucci’s backup were that to be the case.

Previously, the Cowboys were thought to not be on the lookout for an outside quarterback, per Rapoport (on Twitter). But Rush is not exactly an outsider, even though he has yet to play in Mike McCarthy‘s system. With Kellen Moore still in place as offensive coordinator, Rush’s acclimation process will not take nearly as long as it would had he signed elsewhere.

A former UDFA out of Central Michigan, Rush spent three seasons with the Cowboys. He landed with the Giants via waiver claim but was cut in late September. Rush played in five games for the Cowboys, exclusively in a mop-up role, but will be back to help the franchise out in a dire time for its quarterback depth chart.

Giants Add Alfred Morris To Practice Squad

Alfred Morris has resurfaced on the NFL radar. The eight-year veteran running back agreed to join the Giants’ practice squad, Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle tweets.

The Giants added Morris and quarterback Clayton Thorson to its taxi squad. Morris has been out of the NFL since the Cardinals released him in November 2019. To make room on their 16-man P-squad, the Giants cut running back Rod Smith and quarterback Cooper Rush.

This will bring a former Jason Garrett charge to New York. The Giants OC coached the former Pro Bowler in two seasons in Dallas. Morris served as Ezekiel Elliott‘s backup/suspension fill-in from 2016-17 but is certainly best known for his time in Washington.

Morris, now 31, strung together three straight 1,000-yard seasons with Washington and made the Pro Bowl in 2013 and ’14. He averaged 4.8 yards per carry with the 2017 Cowboys and gained 428 yards as a 49er in 2018. He played in one Cardinals game.

The Giants are down Saquon Barkley for the season, leaving them with Wayne Gallman, offseason addition Dion Lewis and recent signing Devonta Freeman. They rank last in the NFL in rushing, having gained just 170 yards (3.2 per carry) in three games.

Thorson spent time on the Cowboys’ practice squad in Garrett’s final season, playing behind Rush — who resided on Dallas’ active roster. The Giants brought Smith back earlier this month.