The Cowboys drafted Mike White in the fifth round in 2018. That came two years after they took Dak Prescott in the fourth round.
But in the 14 drafts before taking Prescott, the Cowboys selected only one quarterback, not counting Isaiah Stanback.
Expect the Cowboys to take one this year.
It has nothing to do with Prescott’s contract situation. It has everything to do with Mike McCarthy’s history of developing quarterbacks.
“We like to be developing a young quarterback,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said on a conference call Tuesday. “That’s always great. We’d like to have one that would develop to the level that would be somebody you could trade and built asset that way. Mike . . . wants a certain number of quarterbacks in the building, ideally, to be working with. One of the things Mike brings is, frankly, a really good background developing quarterbacks and working with quarterbacks and a very astute coaching perspective of what makes a good quarterback for what we hope to be his team for years to come.
“I’m looking forward to following quarterbacks with Mike as coach. All of that weighs into: Let’s make sure we have somebody here -- or somebodies -- who are getting those snaps that are precious. Whether they’re in preseason, practice or whether it could be in a ball game, make sure they’re going to someone who’s got the future in mind along with doing what we need to do to win the ball game should we not have Dak in there [because of injury].”
In the 13 years McCarthy coached the Packers, Green Bay drafted five quarterbacks despite having Brett Favre and then Aaron Rodgers. They made Brian Brohm a second-round selection in 2008.
“To state the obvious, the quarterback position is the most important,” McCarthy said. “Obviously, we have a lot of love there, great love for Dak. But if you go back to [former Packers General Manager] Ron Wolf in the early ‘90s and what was established -- the ability to keep the most important position in football and develop that room, that quarterback room -- you can see the value not only it has for your football team if the starter is injured but also the value it can bring to your football team as those younger quarterbacks move on.”
Prescott has never missed a game in his career.
The Cowboys have Cooper Rush as their backup. Rush, 26, has gotten 26 career snaps in five games in three years, going 1-for-3.
The Cowboys have posted some video interviews they have had with prospects, and one of those was with Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts.
“At the end of the day, I don’t think drafting a quarterback has anything to do with Dak,” executive vice president Stephen Jones said. “He’s going to be our starting quarterback. . . . As Jerry said, Mike has been the head coach for many, many years of an organization that really I think is the template of how to do quarterbacks the right way. We’ve had a lot of conversations about it and certainly if you can develop these quarterbacks, they’re great assets for an organization in terms of trade pieces if you develop them and they have success, which obviously they did up in Green Bay and did it well. Certainly, it’s a situation we’ve looked at in the past in terms of drafting them and I think Mike’s going to have a great influence on us here in terms of what we may do going forward at the quarterback position.”