{"id":182645,"date":"2026-02-27T07:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T07:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/182645\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T07:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T07:30:14","slug":"top-backup-qb-options-behind-dak-prescott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/182645\/","title":{"rendered":"Top backup QB options behind Dak Prescott"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(Note: The content provided is based on opinions and\/or perspective of the DallasCowboys.com editorial staff and not the Cowboys football staff or organization.)<\/p>\n<p>FRISCO, TX \u2014 This is going to be a column that&#8217;s fairly succinct, and that&#8217;s because, thankfully, the Dallas Cowboys do not have a problem at starting quarterback. Dak Prescott is back to full health and delivered 17 regular season starts in 2025, going on to have a record-setting season that included two 1,000-yard receivers, inclusive of a career year from George Pickens.<\/p>\n<p>Things aren&#8217;t exactly settled behind him on the depth chart, though.<\/p>\n<p>From a free agency standpoint, there are three quarterbacks secured on contracts through 2026, With Will Grier re-signed on another one-year deal, he and Joe Milton III are both locked in at the moment. That means the question is a simple one for the Cowboys: do they want to add a veteran to stoke the fires of competition in training camp?<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to this year&#8217;s <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallascowboys.com\/news\/open-market\/2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Open Market series<\/a> (full series is inside the link).<\/p>\n<p>\n  What&#8217;s Here<\/p>\n<p>Joe Milton III: Acquired via trade with the New England Patriots in 2025, Milton has an undeniable cannon for an arm and the mobility and size to make him a bit of a nightmare to tackle in space. It is also true, however, that he needs more development in being consistently accurate on soft touch throws and, as such, there&#8217;s as much of a chance he&#8217;s capable of winning a game or two in the absence of Prescott as there is he&#8217;d cost the Cowboys a game or two. The potential is definitely there, but refinement is needed.<\/p>\n<p>Will Grier: Unlike Milton, Grier has been in the league since 2019, a chunk of that combined time spent with the Cowboys, and that means he knows the ropes of how to compete for the seat behind Prescott. It&#8217;s why Dallas opted to bring him back after they realized the Trey Lance experiment wasn&#8217;t going to end well, and kept him around despite trading for Milton. Grier has shown what he can do in preseason, but hasn&#8217;t been given that chance in a regular season game for the Cowboys; and that lack of stripes in September through December\/January still lends to some inexperience.<\/p>\n<p>Note: These players will be unrestricted on March 11, barring a newly-signed deal with their incumbent team prior to that date. (Market value, when available, provided by Spotrac)<\/p>\n<p>Marcus Mariota: Truth be told, there&#8217;s only one viable option I view for the Cowboys that combines veteran experience without being too far up the age hill while also commanding a fairly reasonable salary. He&#8217;s 32 years old but has 82 starts and 104 games under his belt, and also provides the skill set Dallas is clearly looking for in a backup quarterback: mobile with some arm talent.<\/p>\n<p>They could definitely do worse than the former Heisman Trophy winner and second-overall pick who some would view as an upgrade behind Prescott. (Market value: $4.8M annually)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Note: The content provided is based on opinions and\/or perspective of the DallasCowboys.com editorial staff and not the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,49365,1090,65000,68300,6349],"class_list":["post-182645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-featured-offseason-2026","tag-news-all-news","tag-news-free-agency-tracker","tag-news-open-market","tag-news-patrik-walker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}