Cooper Rush

Another week of Cooper Rush will be on tap for the Cowboys, who are preparing for one of their highest-profile matchups in recent years. Mike McCarthy said his backup will make another start Sunday night against the Eagles.

Out since suffering a thumb injury in Week 1, Dak Prescott is scheduled to throw for the first time since the injury Wednesday, Todd Archer of ESPN.com tweets. But the seventh-year Dallas starter’s timetable remains up in the air. Prescott had wanted to come back in Week 5, but he is on track to miss a fifth game as a result of this injury.

Jerry Jones said last week Prescott was still having trouble gripping a football. The Cowboys have understandably wanted their Pro Bowl starter to go through at least a week of throwing in practice before returning. With Prescott’s Wednesday session to be on the side, that stage of his return timetable has not yet begun. It opens the door for Rush to attempt to push his starter record to 6-0.

Rush’s unexpected run of success began in a Sunday Night Football cameo, when he quarterbacked the Cowboys to a road win over the Vikings last season. Rush, 28, began his Cowboys career in 2017, when he joined the team as a UDFA. He impressed Jason Garrett‘s coaching staff enough to become Prescott’s primary backup. The Central Michigan alum, however, did not make any starts during his first go-round with the team. Prescott began his career with 70 consecutive starts, taking over after a Tony Romo preseason injury in 2016, and Rush was with the Giants when Dallas’ starter went down with an ankle injury.

The Cowboys circled back to Rush in 2020, after the Giants waived him, and have seen that reinvestment pay off. Rush has completed 61% of his passes (7.1 yards per attempt) and has thrown four TD passes compared to zero INTs. Jones and McCarthy have stressed no quarterback competition exists here, but the Cowboys have seen Rush guide a 4-1 start — one that sets up one of the bigger Cowboys-Eagles matchups this century. Philadelphia enters Sunday’s game as the NFL’s last remaining unbeaten.

As Cooper Rush prepares to make a fourth consecutive start for the Cowboys, the recovery of Dak Prescott continues to receive plenty of attention. The Cowboys’ No. 1 quarterback is facing an uphill battle to play next week, as things currently stand. 

[RELATED: No QB Controversy Between Rush, Prescott]

Prescott would need to make “significant strides” to be available for Dallas’ Week 6 game against the Eagles, per Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. The 29-year-old has been out since the season opener with a thumb injury which required surgery but not an IR stint. A four-to-six week recovery timetable is considered the schedule by which Prescott will be able to return.

That made it surprising when it became known the two-time Pro Bowler was eyeing today’s game against the Rams as the one in which he could suit up. As his ability to grip a football becomes the central issue, the thumb’s level of swelling will go a long way in determining the level of involvement Prescott can have during practice this week.

Pelissero and Rapoport add that Prescott will meet with doctors again on Tuesday to evaluate his progress. If he is able to make it onto the field in time, he could enter a very tight situation with respect to the standings in the NFC East. The Eagles head into today’s action as the league’s only remaining unbeaten team, and the Giants’ come-from-behind win over the Packers in London moved them to 4-1 on the year.

Rush will look to help the Cowboys keep pace today against the defending Super Bowl champions. His perfect record as a starter has led to some calls for a QB change even when Prescott is healthy, though the team has insisted that will not take place. Especially is the former UDFA can register another win, Dallas would be well-positioned to remain cautious with the return of their highest-paid player, something which may not take place until deeper into October.

Jerry Jones stirred the pot recently when he said he’d welcome a quarterback controversy between Dak Prescott and Cooper Rush. However, the Cowboys owner and GM quickly walked back his comments, stating definitively that Rush won’t supplant Prescott as the starter going forward.

[RELATED: Dak Prescott Targeting Week 5 Return]

“No. No,” Jones replied when asked if there was a scenario where the team would opt for Rush over Prescott (per Clarence Hill Jr. of the Dallas Star-Telegram). “As I see it right today.”

Rush has guided the Cowboys to three consecutive victories, and he’ll likely earn another start this weekend as Dak continues to recover from his hand injury. Jones noted that Prescott still can’t grip a football despite having his stitches removed more than a week ago. Considering the team’s public stance that their starter would need a week of practice before returning to the field, Hill opines that Prescott won’t be ready for this weekend’s showdown against the Rams.

The Cowboys never placed the QB on the injured reserve, leading some to believe he’d be able to make a return to the lineup before Week 6. Prescott himself stated that he was eyeing a Week 5 return date. It sounds like that won’t be the case, but that doesn’t bother Jones or the organization. Instead, the team sounds content with Dak making his return on October 16 against the Eagles.

“Well, I know that it’s better, and I know that he’s going to go out there every day and make progress toward being able to grip the ball,” Jones said. “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. And, so, all of those things are on go, and I don’t know that you could make any more progress. There’s some things here about healing that 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 ready to go.”