The Dallas Cowboys have played two preseason games to date. Neither of these contests featured prominent players from their roster. Dallas did open things up a bit more in their second outing against the Baltimore Ravens, but in their exhibition debut against the Los Angeles Rams there were a number of players who were given the night off.
Varying opinions have been offered about this line of thought and whether or not it is the disposition that the head coach should be using. Brian Schottenheimer is in his inaugural flight as the Cowboys’ skipper, but the team at large has shown a reluctance towards playing significant players in the preseason for some time now.
This has felt particularly true since Tony Romo suffered an injury during the preseason almost a decade ago. You will recall that Romo re-injured his back and was forced to miss significant time. An ankle injury to his backup just before that, a backup named Kellen Moore, someone whose name will come up again in today’s discussion, meant that then-rookie Dak Prescott was thrust into the starting role, and the rest, as they say, is history.
The Cowboys have never confirmed any idea that they have been shy about working starters in the preseason ever since Romo’s ill-fated injury in Seattle, so making any guesses that this is the reason would be assuming. But anyone who has watched this team in recent memory knows that they keep the franchise quarterback, the most valuable player on any NFL team, on the shelf until the games officially count in the standings.
As it relates to this current moment in time, they are somewhat of an outlier in that sense.
There are some unique details in the conversation that we are having today so please understand that we are attempting to do just that – have a conversation.
A thought struck me as I was watching the Chicago Bears and Buffalo Bills play on Sunday night as Caleb Williams was shining for the former. The internet was chatting about Williams thriving under new head coach Ben Johnson and that’s when things sort of clicked and I raced to build my mental drawing board.
This NFL season there are seven teams with new head coaches: Cowboys (Brain Schottenheimer), Bears (Ben Johnson), New York Jets (Aaron Glenn), New England Patriots (Mike Vrabel), Jacksonville Jaguars (Liam Cohen), Las Vegas Raiders (Pete Carroll) and New Orleans Saints (the aforementioned Kellen Moore).
Each new gaffer took over a team with different details surrounding it. Ben Johnson’s situation is different than Mike Vrabel’s and Liam Cohen’s is unique unto those. You get the picture.
But what stood about these seven teams, coaches, and the franchise quarterbacks that play for them on their new squads is that the Cowboys are the only one of them whose franchise quarterback has not seen a single second of play-time in the preseason.
Caleb Williaims played as noted. Justin Fields, formerly of Chicago incidentally, played as well and did...