Last year, as Cowboys fans prepared for the Annual Tony Romo Debilitating Injury, a genuine sense of confidence and excitement existed both inside and outside the organization regarding his then-rookie backup, Dak Prescott. This year, with Prescott as the starter, the team believes in Kellen Moore as the primary backup to Prescott -- even if no one else does.
“He’s exceptional,” receiver Cole Beasley recently said about Moore, via Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News. “A lot of guys wrote him off because of his size. They tend to do that in this league. But you can’t just find a gamer that knows how to go out there and play football. . . . He’s one of those guys.”
The guy who runs the Dallas offense agrees.
“He’s like a machine,” Scott Linehan said, via Machota. “He anticipates and sees guys open. He’s extremely accurate. A lot of guys get it done different ways, but guys don’t last long if they can’t hit moving targets on the run. That’s what he does best.”
Linehan added that the Cowboys “have all the confidence in the world” in Moore.
“It might be a little bit different than Dak would do it, but he knows what he can do and he doesn’t let what he can’t do get in his way,” Linehan said.
What the Cowboys can do if Dak goes down in training camp or the preseason or the regular season is call Tony Romo, which many believe they’d do. Fans would revolt if they don’t at least try, because fans simply don’t believe in Moore the way they believed in Prescott.
And for good reason. From the moment Prescott stepped onto the field, he delivered. When Moore started two games in 2015 (appearing in three), he threw six interceptions against four touchdowns.
Of course, he didn’t have Ezekiel Elliott. And Moore did average 7.5 yards per pass, which isn’t bad.
But he’s still not Prescott. More importantly, he’s not Romo. If/when Prescott goes down, Jerry Jones will activate the bat signal not for the next man up, but for the guy who’d be taking a zip line down from the broadcast booth. And possibly suffering his latest debilitating injury when he lands.