Who knew what the Dallas Cowboys were truly thinking when Head Coach Jason Garrett decided that the Cowboys were going to bench their quarterback in Brandon Weeden in order to start Matt Cassel in his place? Possible options include, let's start a quarterback that has only been on our team for three weeks, we never really trusted Weeden to start games if Tony Romo got hurt, and Matt Cassel is just so good.
But none of those options are really that great. So why is Dallas deciding to go with a journeyman quarterback that has been benched in every place he has ever played? Including being traded this off-season by the Minnesota Vikings, and then being cut by the Buffalo Bills.
It's not because Weeden has been completely awful. He has posted a higher completion percentage than he has anywhere else in his career, with a sparkling 72.4% completion rate. He also has only thrown only two interceptions in the four games he has played in so far, so clearly he isn't a turnover machine. Yes, he also only has two touchdowns, but it's tough to put your backup quarterback on the field with no elite talent at wide receiver. Let's face it, without Dez Bryant, there is no one on the Cowboys roster that anyone is particularly worried about double covering. Terrence Williams is not all that spectacular, but he has been doing his thing on crossing routes, and Jason Witten is absolutely solid as a blocker and as a pass catcher, but neither of them are the type of player to give opposing Defensive Coordinator's nightmares.
Was Weeden especially poor against the New England Patriots? Well, going up against the defending Super Bowl Champions, it is not expected for Bill Belichick to take it easy on anyone. Plus, they still have a solid roster where their biggest weakness may be at cornerback, but there was no Bryant to exploit that weakness.
This writer has very few reasons for why Cassel would be a better starter over Weeden. If anything, it would be based off his historically good seasons in 2008 with the Patriots and then in 2010 with the Kansas City Chiefs. Between those two seasons he had thrown for 48 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. But those were before Weeden had even entered the league. Since 2012, Cassel has thrown a total of 20 touchdowns and 25 interceptions. He simply isn't the efficient quarterback that he used to be a few years ago.
If you look at Cassel's last three games with the Vikings, they are quite a bit worse than Weeden's last four games. Cassel threw a very low 57.7% completion rate. He only had 425 yards and was averaging a mere 6 yards per attempt. Also, he had three touchdowns and four interceptions.
The other key thing in this situation is that the Cowboys best passing catching running back, an always reliable check down for quarterbacks that are in pressure, Lance Dunbar, is out for the season after tearing his ACL as well. So, Weeden would have then been throwing the ball to either Joseph Randle or Darren McFadden out of the backfield, and neither running back is well known for their catching ability.
It just seems like this is a major rush due to Weeden's 0-3 record in games started, and let's face it, the Patriots are 4-0, and the Atlanta Falcons are 5-0, so those wouldn't have been any easy games for any backup quarterback to win. The one that got away in this situation was the Sunday Night match-up against the New Orleans Saints, which ended because of defensive injuries in overtime. Because a linebacker getting his first snap of the game was unable to cover C.J. Spiller out of the backfield as he ran a wheel route and went untouched 80 yards for a touchdown. That game should not be pinned on Brandon Weeden.
Also, if any team should get used to needing to play their backup quarterback, the Cowboys should be ready. Tony Romo has missed games in several different seasons and while not likely to be considered to be injury prone, he has gotten hurt several times and any injury could impact somewhere he had been hurt before to cause a re-injury.
But Cassel is getting the start anyway after the bye week in week seven. That is when they will travel to Metlife Stadium to take on the New York Giants in a rematch of the season opener. A game that Tony Romo was barely able to engineer a fourth quarter comeback to lead Dallas to their original 1-0 start to the season. So, Cassel is going to have a rough start because after that he gets to face the Legion of Boom secondary of the Seattle Seahawks. This writer thinks Weeden should stay prepared because it is highly likely that he may end up starting another game for the Cowboys before Tony Romo is able to return from injury, and it is indeed quite unfair that the media circus and attention of the Dallas Cowboys seemed to have the impact to get Weeden benched when he is the better man for the job in Dallas.