4 Cowboys QBs ranked among all NFL starters, including dead last

K.D. Drummond

February 14, 2021 at 8:00 AM·4 min read

The Dallas Cowboys quarterback situation was not ideal in 2020. after having four consecutive years of the same guy starting every game, four different players sauntered under center to take an opening snap this last season. When Dak Prescott went down with a hideous ankle injury during the club’s Week 5 victory over the New York Giants, it opened up a carousel eerily familiar to the last time Dallas ended up below .500 for the year, 2015.

That season, Tony Romo missed the Week 3 start and though he returned for a short stint midseason, the likes of Brandon Weeden, Matt Cassel, and even current offensive coordinator Kellen Moore all started games on the way to a 4-12 season. This year Andy Dalton, Ben DiNucci, and Garrett Gilbert all started games for Dallas en route to 6-10. Their performance was literally average at best.

But how did they stand up to the rest of the NFL’s starting QBs? NFL.com recently ranked all 59 signal-callers who led their teams out the tunnel in the 2020 season. A panel of four evaluators rated them all, and the average placements came out as follows. Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, and Josh Allen formed the top 5. As for Prescott, his shortened stint placed him at No. 16 overall.

Check out what the group had to say about the Cowboys foursome.

No. 16: Dak Prescott

(AP Photo/Ron Jenkins)

Individual Rank: Bhanpuri: 17 | Blair: 17 | Filice: 16 | Parr: 16 2020 stats: 5 games | 68.0 pct | 1,856 pass yds | 8.4 ypa | 9 pass TD | 4 INT | 93 rush yds | 3 rush TD | 3 fumbles lost Parr: Prescott was on pace to shatter the single-season passing yards record before a gruesome ankle injury robbed him of a chance to make history. The small sample size is probably the only thing keeping him from ending up higher on this list.

Prescott indeed was on a history pace that through four weeks would've had him 1,600 yards above Peyton Manning's storied 2013 campaign. He had to try and engineer insane comebacks in four of his five starts and pulled the feat off twice, but his hero ball did lead to several turnovers that weighed down his overall performance.

No. 25 Andy Dalton

Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

Individual Rank: Bhanpuri: 24 | Blair: 30 | Filice: 24 | Parr: 25 2020 stats: 11 games | 64.9 pct | 2,170 pass yds | 6.5 ypa | 14 pass TD | 8 INT | 114 rush yds | 0 rush TD | 1 fumble lost Bhanpuri: After a rough start to his fill-in role as the Cowboys' QB1, which included expected growing pains and an unexpected battle with COVID-19, Andy Dalton helped steer the wayward Cowboys back into the NFC east race. Dallas went 4-3 from Weeks 11 to 17, when Dalton threw for the sixth most touchdowns (13) and the 11th most yards (1,718). He also posted the14th best passer rating (95.1) among the 30 QBs with at least 120 attempts during that span. Right back in the middle of the pack, where he belongs.

Dalton's signing was heralded as the best back-up QB free agency deal of last offseason, and here he is, the highest-ranked back-up QB who was a free agent. His beginning was putrid, his end was a lot better up until his milk dud Week 17 performance.

No. 51 Garrett Gilbert

(AP Photo/Ron Jenkins)

Individual Rank: Bhanpuri: 52 | Blair: 53 | Filice: 46 | Parr: 53 2020 stats: 1 game | 55.3 pct | 243 pass yds | 6.4 ypa | 1 pass TD | 1 INT | 28 rush yds | 0 rush TD | 0 fumbles lost Blair: Gilbert's decent effort against the Steelers in Week 9 (243 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 72.6 passer rating) might not have meant much for him in 2020, but it could set him up as the Cowboys' second-string QB in 2021, presuming Andy Dalton heads for greener pastures.

Gilly Glocks! Gilbert was poached off the Browns' practice squad and acquitted himself quite well, almost pulling off an upset of the then 9-0 Pittsburgh team. He showed promise after a strong showing in the spring in the now-defunct AAF.

No. 59: Ben DiNucci

Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Individual Rank: Bhanpuri: 59 | Blair: 59 | Filice: 59 | Parr: 59 2020 stats: 3 games | 53.5 pct | 219 pass yds | 5.1 ypa | 0 pass TD | 0 INT | 22 rush yds | 0 rush TD | 2 fumbles lost Parr: In fairness to DiNucci -- a seventh-round pick out of James Madison -- he should never have been put in position to play as a rookie, but he was (a Week 8 start against the Eagles with Andy Dalton sidelined) and here we are. He finished the season with the fewest yards per attempt of any QB (min. 40 passes). He lost two fumbles against Philly and couldn't lead Dallas on a TD drive. No one deserves to be last, but someone had to be. Sorry, Ben.

Trust us. The sidearm pass captured in the picture above looked nothing like the versions thrown by Mahomes or Matt Stafford. Think Uncle Rico.

https://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/lists/dallas-cowboys-news-february-12-2021-jj-watt-demarcus-lawrence/

Associated Press
Indonesia's new leader calls for collaboration with China before heading to the US
President Prabowo Subianto told the forum that his country wants to be part of China's emergence as not only an economic but also a “civilizational power.” “We must give an example that in this modern age, collaboration — not confrontation — is the way for peace and prosperity,” he said.
AFP
Gunmen kill 10 in central Mexico bar attack
Gunmen in a truck pulled up to a bar in central Mexico and opened fire, killing 10 people, authorities said, in an area that had been spared the worst of the country's raging criminal violence.Authorities said Thursday that the bodies of 11 people, including two minors, were found abandoned in a pickup truck in the state capital Chilpancingo.
Associated Press
Multilateral banks are key to financing the fight against global warming. Here is how they work
As climate change leads to a seemingly endless stream of weather disasters around the world, countries are struggling to adapt to the new reality. Preparing to better withstand hurricanes, floods, heat waves, droughts and wildfires will take hundreds of billions of dollars. Enter climate finance, a general term that means different things to different people but boils down to: paying for projects to adapt to and combat the cause of climate change.
AFP
Egyptians exhume the dead as historic cemetery partially razed
Twenty years after burying him, Egyptian architect Ahmed el-Meligui was forced to exhume his grandfather's remains from a historic Cairo cemetery that is being partially razed to accommodate the growing mega-city.Speaking from his luxury home in west Cairo, Meligui said he had the remains transported in a hearse to be reinterred at a new cemetery in Fayoum province, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) away.
CNN
Still-stunned Democrats begin to squint toward their future
Pick one word to describe Republicans and Donald Trump, the focus group moderator asked, and one word to describe Democrats and Kamala Harris.
Associated Press
California farmers enjoy pistachio boom, with much of it headed to China
In a sprawling plant in the heart of California's farmland, millions of shells rush down a metallic chute and onto a conveyor belt where they are inspected, roasted, packaged and shipped off to groceries around the world. Pistachios are growing fast in California, where farmers have been devoting more land to a crop seen as hardier and more drought-tolerant in a state prone to dramatic swings in precipitation. The crop generated nearly $3 billion last year in California and in the past decade the United States has surpassed Iran to become the world’s top exporter of the nut.
AFP
Syrians, Iraqis archive IS jail crimes in virtual museum
After jihadists jailed him in 2014, Iraqi religious scholar Muhammad al-Attar said he would sometimes pull his prison blanket over his head to cry without other detainees noticing.In his group cell of at least 148 detainees at Mosul's Ahdath prison, at times "there was nothing left but to weep", Attar said.
CBS News
"48 Hours" show schedule
True crime. Real justice. To miss it would be a crime.
AFP
Mauritius votes in election clouded by wire-tapping scandal
Mauritius was voting Sunday in a close-fought parliamentary election, with police at polling stations as the opposition warned about the risk of fraud in a nation touted as one of Africa's most stable and prosperous democracies.Election commissioner Irfan Rahman said everything was being done to ensure the vote proceeded in "calm and serenity", including the deployment of police at polling stations.
NBC News
Trump wins Arizona, flipping a swing state Biden won in 2020
President-elect Donald Trump has won Arizona, NBC News projects, putting its 11 electoral votes in his column after he narrowly lost the state to President Joe Biden in 2020.
Reuters
Ukraine attacks Moscow with 32 drones, biggest strike on the Russian capital
Ukraine attacked Moscow on Sunday with at least 32 drones, the biggest drone strike on the Russian capital since the start of the war in 2022, forcing flights to be diverted from three of the city's major airports and injuring at least one person. Russian air defences shot down 32 drones flying towards Moscow over the Ramenskoye and Kolomensky districts of the Moscow region, as well as in Domodedovo city, home to one of the city's biggest airports, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. "32 drones flying to Moscow have been destroyed," Sobyanin said.
CNN
‘We barely made it out’: Californians desperately flee their homes amid raging wildfires
Terrie Morin, 60, and her husband Dave were at the barber shop when they heard about a raging wildfire making headway toward their Camarillo home on Wednesday morning.
NBC News
Wildfires rage across the Northeast amid warm, dry conditions
Wind gusts and low humidity are helping to fuel wildfires burning across the Northeast, with cities in the region on high alert Saturday.
Associated Press
AP PHOTOS: Death by water, burial by mud. Images of Spain's floods of the century
Twelve days have passed since catastrophic flash floods carved a muddy scar through eastern Spain, killing over 200 people and soiling the homes of thousands more. Apocalyptic scenes documented by The Associated Press photographers speak to the terrifying power of nature unleashed in all its fury. The wild newborn river caught thousands unaware, tossed cars around like toys and tore down buildings nearest the normally dry canal banks, which themselves were left widened with ragged edges.
Reuters
Two injured in Russian air attack on Odesa, Ukraine officials say
"The enemy has once again launched a massive attack on our region," the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Odesa region said on its social media account. "Garages with cars and property were on fire, residential buildings, shops were damaged." Oleh Kiper, governor of the region on the Black Sea coast, said, without providing further detail, that the attack caused some fires.
Associated Press
Trump has vowed to kill offshore wind in the US. Will he succeed?
Opponents of offshore wind energy projects expect President-elect Donald Trump to kill an industry he has vowed to end on the first day he returns to the White House. Many of the largest offshore wind companies put a brave face on the election results, pledging to work with Trump and Congress to build power projects and ignoring the incoming president's oft-stated hostility to them. In campaign appearances, Trump railed against offshore wind and promised to sign an executive order to block such projects.
AFP
Cuba says it made arrests after protests over hurricane blackout
Cuba's government said Saturday it arrested an unspecified number of people who staged demonstrations when a hurricane left the island without power for the second time in weeks.It came just two weeks after Hurricane Oscar, which left eight dead in the east of the island during a national electricity blackout caused by the failure of the island's biggest power plant and a shortage of fuel.
Reuters
Exclusive-Taliban administration officials to attend UN climate conference in Azerbaijan
Afghan Taliban officials will attend a major United Nations climate conference that starts next week, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said on Sunday, the first time they have attended since the former insurgents took power in 2021. The COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan's capital Baku will be among the highest-profile multilateral events attended by Taliban administration officials since they took control in Kabul after 20 years of fighting NATO-backed forces. The U.N. has not allowed the Taliban to take up Afghanistan's seat at the General Assembly, and Afghanistan's government is not formally recognised by U.N. member states, largely due to the Taliban's restrictions on women's education and freedom of movement.
CNN
US carries out strikes against Houthis in Yemen, defense official says
The US carried out a series of strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen late Saturday evening, according to a US defense official, targeting numerous weapons storage facilities across at least three locations.
NBC News
Every uncalled race left in the fight for control in Washington
With votes still being counted, here's a look at the key races that remain uncalled by the NBC News Decision Desk (read more on how those races are called on NBCNews.com).

Latest Stories