There are huge money implications on Cowboys' pending decision on starting Cooper Rush or Trey Lance ahead of Week 18
Chances are if Dallas Cowboys fans were making the call, Trey Lance would be starting over Cooper Rush in Week 18 when the team hosts the Washington Commanders for their regular season finale. However, head coach Mike McCarthy has consistently told us with actions that he believes Rush is the better quarterback between the two. Now […]
Chances are if Dallas Cowboys fans were making the call, Trey Lance would be starting over Cooper Rush in Week 18 when the team hosts the Washington Commanders for their regular season finale.
However, head coach Mike McCarthy has consistently told us with actions that he believes Rush is the better quarterback between the two. Now that there's nothing to lose and in the heels of one of Rush's worst performances, it seems like Lance has a decent chance of starting. McCarthy has yet to commit to either quarterback leading up to the game.
But it turns out there are huge financial implications to the decision, which specifically affect Rush.
Rush's contract includes playing time incentives which breaks down as follows, per Spotrac. If he plays 45% of the team's offensive snaps, he earns an additional $250,000. Rush has hit that mark at 52.3%.
However, he can secure $250,000 more to total half a million in incentives if he reaches a 55% snap count for the year.
Here's the kicker: It might not look like a huge jump but some simple math tells us that, assuming he plays all offensive snaps in Week 18, Rush needs 65 snaps to reach 55%. Considering only four teams have averaged 65 plays per game this season, that leaves little room for error for Rush.
If the Cowboys play both quarterbacks, he's unlikely to hit the 55% mark.
In other words, the Cowboys would need to stay the course and play Rush all game if they want him to hit his incentives. It seems that Cooper's best shot at making it work out for him is for him to get the start and ball out, taking the decision off of the coaches' hands.
Last time the Cowboys played the Commanders, they used Lance in certain offensive packages. Even that would seriously hurt Rush's chances of hitting his mark. Unless Dallas starts Lance, it'll likely come down to the wire for the backup quarterback to make an extra quarter million dollars on Sunday.