FRISCO, TEXAS — The Dallas Cowboys took action on Monday following Dak Prescott’s season-ending injury in Sunday’s win over the Giants. Prescott was setting one passing record after another from week to week playing at a superb level until tragedy struck. He has been the heart and soul of the team and now the Cowboys will move forward with backup Andy Dalton as the starter.
Dallas signed Dalton, a 10-year veteran back in May to a one-year contract and that move extensively paid off for the franchise given the series of unfortunate events. With Dalton moving up as the starter and Ben DiNucci to his primary backup, the Cowboys were left with only two quarterbacks on the depth chart and a third spot to be filled.
Mike McCarthy noted in his Monday press conference that the Cowboys would be adding a third quarterback to round out the depth chart and the team has responded with Garrett Gilbert. Dallas will sign Gilbert off the Browns’ practice squad to the 53-man roster according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.
Gilbert is familiar with the Dallas area, as a former quarterback at SMU and Texas. He started two seasons at SMU followed by a three-year stint with Texas. Gilbert, a sixth-round pick by the then- St. Louis Rams spent most of his professional career assigned to the practice squads of many teams gaining experience in the QB room: Rams (2014), New England Patriots (2014-2015), Detroit Lions (2015), then- Oakland Raiders (2015-2016), and Carolina Panthers (2017-2018).
He had success as the starting quarterback for the Orlando Apollos of the Alliance of American Football (AAF) in 2019 where he led the league in yards.
Mike McCarthy told media, “ Obviously, [a quarterback change] directly affects the progress and success of the football more then any of the other positions. So, I think the fact that you continue on the path of the type of offense that you want to be is important, but, yeah, everybody has to step up. But more importantly it’s all how it’s connected together and you have the cohesiveness needed to continue to perform.”
