JJT: Jason Garrett must get Cowboys' backup QB situation right in 2016

boozeman

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Jason Garrett must get Cowboys' backup QB situation right in 2016



2:04 PM ET
Jean-Jacques Taylor
ESPN Staff Writer


IRVING, Texas -- Jason Garrett spent his entire 12-year NFL playing career as a backup or third-string quarterback.

You would think that would make him qualified to find and develop a backup quarterback for Tony Romo sometime during the nine seasons he's been with the Dallas Cowboys as offensive coordinator or head coach.

Apparently not.

Garrett has tried to do it through the draft (Stephen McGee) and with undrafted free agents (Dustin Vaughan) and former first-round busts (Brandon Weeden), but he's failed.

The failure to secure and develop an adequate backup to Romo this year destroyed the Cowboys' season. Their backup quarterbacks went 1-11 as starters with 11 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. Now, Garrett would dispute this, arguing that Weeden, Matt Cassel and Kellen Moore put the Cowboys in position to win games in the fourth quarter at various times this season.

Whatever.

Even the best games those players had were marked by turnovers or missed throws in key situations that played a role in the team's loss. Kyle Orton was the last quality backup quarterback the Cowboys had, and they paid handsomely for his services for the two years he was with the team in 2012 and 2013.

"We have to sit back and evaluate what happened this year," Garrett said, "and we'll spend the next couple of weeks doing that with each of the players who had an opportunity to play with us."

In a perfect world, Garrett said he'd like to pair a veteran backup with a young player being groomed as an eventual replacement or starter as the No.3 quarterback.

Kellen Moore, who passed for 435 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions Sunday in the Cowboys' 34-23 loss to Washington, seems like a perfect candidate to be the No. 3 quarterback.

He certainly has flaws, but the game doesn't seem too big for him. In the right situation, there's a role for him.

There will be a lot of older veterans and failed starters such as Johnny Manziel and Robert Griffin III available for the Cowboys to select as their backup. Or they can grab a quarterback in the first three rounds of the draft and make that player their backup if they choose.

Either way, Garrett, offensive coordinator Scott Linehan and quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson can't screw it up again. Not after Romo, who had two back surgeries in 2014, missed 12 games this season. The Cowboys can hope the 36-year-old quarterback starts 16 games, but they can't expect it.

"We have done a good job at different times with the backup quarterback position," Garrett said. "Who are the guys that we had and how did they do for us? I disagree with the assessment that we never did a good job with (the backup quarterbacks).

"It's not an easy position in the salary-cap era to have one of the best quarterbacks in the league as your starter and have a guy who can come in and keep your team going without missing beat if that starter goes down."

================

:lol

I love how Garrett got a little defensive.

Fuck you, Red Pube.

You loved Brad Johnson. I think one win against TB. FAIL

Kitna got you your job. WIN

Orton. One game. Loss. FAIL

Weeden. All losses. FAIL

Cassel. One D-Jax fuck up win. FAIL

Better be smart what you whisper into Jerry's ear, that's all I got to say.
 

marsbennett

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He should have titled it Cowboys have to out score opponents in order to win.
 

VA Cowboy

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I wouldn't put the acquisition of QB's on Garrett, since we all know he really has no say in player personnel. Heck, he really doesn't have much say in who actually starts any given week The problem with no backup QB is the fact we have only drafted 2 QB's in the last 20 years, QC and Stephen McGee.

QC was the result of another dumbass reaction from Jerry jumping on the trend at the time of mobile black QB's. Nothing necessarily wrong with that unless you just opt for any mobile black QB, like we did. And Stephen McGee was basically just your run of the mill mid round QB. Again, nothing wrong with that but you don't usually just strike gold with mid to late round QB's. In order to do so you need to draft one every few years and it'll increase your odds. Only drafting 2 in 20 years will generally cause you to miss. Then you either have to rely on veteran FA's or the unlikeliest scenario, hit big on an undrafted FA. We did that with Romo but that is basically a once in a lifetime occurrence. A team will be hard pressed in 20 years to end up with a 2-3 pro bowl players who were undrafted. The odds you'll find more than one undrafted QB that pans out has got to be astronomical.

Now the part that you can pin to Garrett and the staff is developing a QB. Of course you're limited when you don't have much to work with. But the QB's we have brought in, whether rookies or vet FA's, neither Garrett or Wade Wilson did anything to help them develop into decent serviceable QB's. Weeden is definitely one example where despite quality supporting talent he couldn't win here but can just by signing with another team. Overall though the bulk of the blame goes to Jerry and the front office for ignoring the position and relying on someone to just miraculous emerge again like Romo did once upon a time.
 

Jiggyfly

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I wouldn't put the acquisition of QB's on Garrett, since we all know he really has no say in player personnel.
You can look no farther than Escobar to know this is not true and we can count Felix and Roy Williams as other examples of him getting players he wanted.
 

VA Cowboy

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"It's not an easy position in the salary-cap era to have one of the best quarterbacks in the league as your starter and have a guy who can come in and keep your team going without missing beat if that starter goes down."
================
It's not easy when the position is virtually ignored. But you have some teams that draft a Kirk Cousins at the same time they drafted RGIII. Redskins also had Colt McCoy who was serviceable as a backup if someone went down. Also the Patriots, despite having an all-timer like Tom Brady still drafted Jimmy Garoppolo early a few years ago. Packers took Aaron Rogers in the first when they still had Favre.

But Dallas waited over a year after Aikman was gone before they even half-heartily tried finding a replacement. And after lucking into Romo the only QB they've drafted since was McGee in the 4th round 6 years ago. Zero interest in having anyone compete with Romo. Zero interest in developing a young QB as backup. Just some stopgap vets that can't win if needed other than a year or two with Kitna. Far more important most years wasting mid round pick after pick trying to find that perfect special teamer.
 

VA Cowboy

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You can look no farther than Escobar to know this is not true and we can count Felix and Roy Williams as other examples of him getting players he wanted.
So you're saying it's a good thing for Garrett to have no say in personnel. touché.
 

L.T. Fan

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I wouldn't put the acquisition of QB's on Garrett, since we all know he really has no say in player personnel. Heck, he really doesn't have much say in who actually starts any given week The problem with no backup QB is the fact we have only drafted 2 QB's in the last 20 years, QC and Stephen McGee.

QC was the result of another dumbass reaction from Jerry jumping on the trend at the time of mobile black QB's. Nothing necessarily wrong with that unless you just opt for any mobile black QB, like we did. And Stephen McGee was basically just your run of the mill mid round QB. Again, nothing wrong with that but you don't usually just strike gold with mid to late round QB's. In order to do so you need to draft one every few years and it'll increase your odds. Only drafting 2 in 20 years will generally cause you to miss. Then you either have to rely on veteran FA's or the unlikeliest scenario, hit big on an undrafted FA. We did that with Romo but that is basically a once in a lifetime occurrence. A team will be hard pressed in 20 years to end up with a 2-3 pro bowl players who were undrafted. The odds you'll find more than one undrafted QB that pans out has got to be astronomical.

Now the part that you can pin to Garrett and the staff is developing a QB. Of course you're limited when you don't have much to work with. But the QB's we have brought in, whether rookies or vet FA's, neither Garrett or Wade Wilson did anything to help them develop into decent serviceable QB's. Weeden is definitely one example where despite quality supporting talent he couldn't win here but can just by signing with another team. Overall though the bulk of the blame goes to Jerry and the front office for ignoring the position and relying on someone to just miraculous emerge again like Romo did once upon a time.
I think the current director of player personnel can probably make the right choice if they will allow it.
 

BipolarFuk

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Two Tony Romo moments this season convinced Troy Aikman that Cowboys QB call is vital

Two Tony Romo moments this season convinced Troy Aikman that Cowboys QB call is vital

In his weekly talk with The Musers on The Ticket, SportsRadio 1310 AM and 96.7 FM in Dallas, Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback and Fox analyst Troy Aikman discussed the condition of the Dallas Cowboys' quarterback situation. Aikman pointed out that there's plenty of evidence that the Cowboys can't expect Tony Romo to be their reliable go-to guy anymore.

"People want to question how good is the offensive line," Aikman said. "They didn't run the ball as effectively as they did a year ago. There's a lot of reasons for that. But I'll put them pass protecting up against anyone in football every week, if you watch the pocket and the time the quarterbacks have to throw the ball. So last year, Tony didn't get hit much. And this year, Tony didn't get hit much."

Yet Aikman cited two red flags that have to make Cowboys fans concerned going forward. The first became apparent when he spoke with Romo following his opener with the Giants.
The Fox stats crew told Aikman that the Dallas starter had only hit the ground three times against New York.

"So when we talked to Tony the next week," Aikman explained, "I said, 'You must feel like you didn't play last week. You barely got touched.' He said, 'Yeah, but at the end of the game I took a late hit in the back' and immediately said his back went back to where it was a year ago, in terms of how he had to manage it. So he was back to, 'OK, well how do I handle this this week?' And I thought that was very telling for a guy who's gotten a little bit older."

Aikman's second moment that struck him came upon Romo's return from an eight-week stint on injured reserve.

"He hadn't done anything in eight weeks except rehab and try to get healthier and all that. Hs first week back before that Miami Dolphins game, he didn't practice on Wednesday. And I thought, that's really strange that you'd be off for two months and yet you can't make it through an entire week of practice. I understand last year when he gets hit on a weekly basis, but to not have played in a game for two months and not be able to make it through a full week of practice, I thought that was kind of telling."

With that evidence from this season, Aikman said the Cowboys can't approach signing a backup quarterback lightly considering the condition of Romo.

"Can he go through next year and 16 games and be fine? Yeah, you don't ever know," Aikman said. "But if you just look at what's happened and be realistic about it, I think you're going to have to be able to rely on a backup. And most teams are, for at least a game or two. And with Tony, based on history, it's more probable than not that he's going to miss some time."
 

Cowboysrock55

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In his weekly talk with The Musers on The Ticket, SportsRadio 1310 AM and 96.7 FM in Dallas, Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback and Fox analyst Troy Aikman discussed the condition of the Dallas Cowboys' quarterback situation. Aikman pointed out that there's plenty of evidence that the Cowboys can't expect Tony Romo to be their reliable go-to guy anymore.

"People want to question how good is the offensive line," Aikman said. "They didn't run the ball as effectively as they did a year ago. There's a lot of reasons for that. But I'll put them pass protecting up against anyone in football every week, if you watch the pocket and the time the quarterbacks have to throw the ball. So last year, Tony didn't get hit much. And this year, Tony didn't get hit much."

Yet Aikman cited two red flags that have to make Cowboys fans concerned going forward. The first became apparent when he spoke with Romo following his opener with the Giants.
The Fox stats crew told Aikman that the Dallas starter had only hit the ground three times against New York.

"So when we talked to Tony the next week," Aikman explained, "I said, 'You must feel like you didn't play last week. You barely got touched.' He said, 'Yeah, but at the end of the game I took a late hit in the back' and immediately said his back went back to where it was a year ago, in terms of how he had to manage it. So he was back to, 'OK, well how do I handle this this week?' And I thought that was very telling for a guy who's gotten a little bit older."

Aikman's second moment that struck him came upon Romo's return from an eight-week stint on injured reserve.

"He hadn't done anything in eight weeks except rehab and try to get healthier and all that. Hs first week back before that Miami Dolphins game, he didn't practice on Wednesday. And I thought, that's really strange that you'd be off for two months and yet you can't make it through an entire week of practice. I understand last year when he gets hit on a weekly basis, but to not have played in a game for two months and not be able to make it through a full week of practice, I thought that was kind of telling."

With that evidence from this season, Aikman said the Cowboys can't approach signing a backup quarterback lightly considering the condition of Romo.

"Can he go through next year and 16 games and be fine? Yeah, you don't ever know," Aikman said. "But if you just look at what's happened and be realistic about it, I think you're going to have to be able to rely on a backup. And most teams are, for at least a game or two. And with Tony, based on history, it's more probable than not that he's going to miss some time."
Absolutely all of this. We basically have the best protection in football and Romo still couldn't survive average hits. We need to go into next year knowing that Romo could be done at any moment.
 

ravidubey

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Absolutely all of this. We basically have the best protection in football and Romo still couldn't survive average hits. We need to go into next year knowing that Romo could be done at any moment.
His bones have always been brittle and he's never been what you'd call a workout warrior. The kid seems to have become too fragile.
 
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