On Sunday, the 2024-25 Dallas Cowboys season will come to a merciful conclusion with a home game vs the NFC East rival Washington Commanders. Dallas recently closed out the road portion of its schedule with a blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, and Cowboys fans wouldn't be blamed for having long since checked out of what has been an excruciating season.
One big question heading into the final week of the campaign is who will be starting at quarterback for the Cowboys. Cooper Rush has been getting that nod ever since Dak Prescott went down with an injury about halfway through the season, but now it appears there is a chance that backup Trey Lance could get the designation against Washington.
“HC Mike McCarthy declined to say who will be his starting QB on Sunday vs. the Washington Commanders,” reported Ari Meirov of The 33rd Team on X, formerly Twitter.
Meirov then added some speculation as to why the Cowboys may be considering a switch.
“For what it’s worth: Cooper Rush has an additional $250K incentive tied to playing 55% of the snaps, and he’s currently at 52.3%. His contract states it can't be rounded up,” reported Meirov.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has long been known as one of the cheapest in the NFL when it comes to both fans and players, so it would certainly be right in line with his reputation to tell McCarthy to sit out a player to avoid paying him the incentive.
A disastrous Cowboys season

Coming into this year, the Cowboys were viewed by many as being on the short list of teams who could compete for a Super Bowl championship in the NFC. Things started promising enough with a blowout road win over the Cleveland Browns to get things started.
However, the following week, Dallas was destroyed at home vs the New Orleans Saints, and things would only go downhill from there, as injuries, poor defense, and general ineptitude sunk the Cowboys' chances of even reaching the playoffs, let alone making a run when they got there.
The good news for the Cowboys is that Prescott will be ready to go for next season barring another injury, and the team still has some solid weapons on both sides of the ball to build around.
In any case, the Cowboys and Commanders are slated to kick things off at 1:00 PM ET from Dallas on Sunday.