Don’t get me wrong- I admire the way Cooper Rush has played as our backup QB. Being 4-0 in his first 4 starts is nothing to scoff at. He’s been everything he was asked to be and more. And I’m not not a Dak worshipper either. My allegiance is always first and foremost to winning football games, not winning an argument on a football forum.
But I’m amazed at how fast so many of our fans have anointed Cooper Rush as the QB of our future. Four games is an incredibly small sample size to cast your lot with a QB long term.
His arm talent is clearly limited, he’s not very mobile, and the longer he’s expected to lead this offense the harder it will be for him to keep this level of performance going. Defensive coordinators will start figuring out ways to frustrate him the longer there’s tape out there on him.
The Cinderella clock is going to strike midnight soon.
Looking at Cooper Rush’s stats in college, he had impressive numbers- except- he threw way too many picks. He threw 55 interceptions in 4 years at Central Michigan. He never threw less than 11 in a college season. He’s only thrown one in his 4 starts in Big D, but he’s also been lucky a few times where a penalty wiped out an INT or a defender just dropped it.
Rush’s 4 game heroics reminds me a little of an NBA player who flashed briefly as a hero only to come back down to earth. Remember New York Knicks Point Guard Jeremy Lin? He single-handedly led the Knicks to a 7 game winning streak in 2011 and was hailed after that week as the future at PG despite not being drafted and not being that talented. Once defenses figured him out, the days of “Linsanity” were short lived. He played for six other NBA teams before he retired.
Cooper Rush deserves a ton of credit for what he’s done in his four starts. But IMO, he is far from being the long term answer here at QB. We should enjoy Rush’s glory while we can because the clock is ticking.
