Kellen Clemens

[Boltjolt]

Kellen Clemons flat sucks. Can Mettenberger be worse? If someone wants to give us a pick for Clemons, ship his ass out.

[6025]

Give him a full week of practice and a game plan with the starters, I think Clemens would be better then we saw today. A cleaner pocket would certainly help his throwing high (so he can really step into his throws). But he is not going to be able to win games as a starter unless our D gets a lot better.

Mettzengberger is similar to Charlie Whitehurst. Gives everyone the warm fuzzies in practice because he throws a great looking ball and prepares like a pro. Get him in a game, and he has all kinds of trouble vs a defense, which is kinda the point. No one would trade for him, because everyone knows we aren't going to carry 3 QB.

To me, the bigger issue is that the Cowboys need to appease their fan base and are vulnerable to making a bad trade. Not bad enough to give up a good pick, but to give up something.

I watched a little of the Cowboys game and their rookie Dak Prescott looked better than Clemons today.

[Steve]

I didn't see any of him today, but I was watching him on NFL.com earlier in the week/late last week when they had coverage of Cowboys camp, and he missed 8 straight while the cowboys QB where throwing 7 vs air.

The thing you have to ask yourself is what kinds of passes did Prescott complete. Are they all check downs and quick passes, or did he go downfield? I didn't see any of it, so I have no idea. The other thing that factors in, who was he throwing to, and where they running against 1st D, or 2nd/3rd ....

[TTK]

Mettenburger makes Whitehurst look like Joe Montana.

[6025]

I didn't see any of him today, but I was watching him on NFL.com earlier in the week/late last week when they had coverage of Cowboys camp, and he missed 8 straight while the cowboys QB where throwing 7 vs air.

The thing you have to ask yourself is what kinds of passes did Prescott complete. Are they all check downs and quick passes, or did he go downfield? I didn't see any of it, so I have no idea. The other thing that factors in, who was he throwing to, and where they running against 1st D, or 2nd/3rd ....

Of course you'd have to watch the whole game to get a good analysis on him (I only watched one series before switching between the Chargers and the LLWS) but he looked pretty darn good on the one long TD pass.

LOS ANGELES -- So maybe the Dallas Cowboys don't need a veteran backup quarterback after all.

After Kellen Moore suffered a broken fibula on Aug. 2 that will keep him out three to four months, the Cowboys talked about signing free agent Nick Foles or trading for Josh McCown. After seeing Foles join the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cleveland Browns' asking price for McCown too high, the Cowboys decided to slow down the search.


Dak Prescott completed 10 of 12 passes for 139 yards and threw touchdown passes to Dez Bryant and Terrance Williams in the first half. AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill
Maybe they will put it off altogether after what they saw from Dak Prescott in Saturday's 28-24 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

With Tony Romo sitting out, Prescott completed 10 of 12 passes for 139 yards and threw touchdown passes of 10 and 32 yards to Dez Bryant and Terrance Williams, respectively, in the first half of action. Prescott's only incompletions came on drops.

He also outplayed the No. 1 pick in the draft, Jared Goff, who came into the game in the second quarter for the Rams and threw an interception. Goff completed just four of nine passes for 38 yards and was sacked once.

Oh, and Prescott did all this in front of 89,140 fans in the first NFL game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum since 1994 and a national television audience on ESPN.

[Steve]

I just watched the NFL rewind of the game, and he did look good for a rookie. But his best plays were with Dallas game planning the for him, with a lot of vets around him so that everyone was on the same page.

The positive he had was every pass was very, very catchable. The 2 incompletions were to his TE Swain, who dropped them in the open field with no one around him. He even completed a couple more short passes that are not on the stat sheet, but got called back.

The thing that makes me leary is that Dallas wanted him to enjoy some success, so they were running the ball behind their starters. All his passes were against very vanilla coverages, on down and distances that had the Rams playing off. And many of them were play action and misdirection. Those are the sort of plays the other team doesn't study in preseason, so just because they are there now, doesn't mean a defense is going to play you like that. When the starters went out, and Prescott was being forced to do more, he looked like a rookie. He kept completing passes, but when they got a couple in a row, they called quick short stuff that had no hope of being completed downfield or getting the 1st down. They were protecting him. They wanted to get Prescott some confidence. But I don't think you get a good feel for him overall because he wasn't asked to make any tough throws.

Our QB didn't get any help. We threw them in, asked them to run the offense and when they needed to try and throw into 3rd down defenses on 3rd and long, our guys took shots at the Titans. We only watered down the offense to a preseason level, we didn't spoon feed them like Dallas did. The flip side of that, we have a much better idea of how they will really perform, although I am not sure I like the answer much.

[Boltjolt]

Bottom line is we Clemons is horse shit. We have to be able to get a better backup somehow. Could of got one this offseason. Its not like Clemons has done anything worthy of sticking with him. He sucks.

[Steve]

That's just it, there really aren't better backups out there. I would go so far to say he is one of the top 10 backups in the league, although all that really says is there really aren't more than 2 or 3 backups who are any good.

We either bite the bullet and develop one, or live with Clemons.

Dak Prescott may look good, but if you spoonfeed a QB in preseason, there is no hope he would do anything in the regular season. Just clamp down on the short stuff, and double cover Dez Bryant, adn there is not much that Dallas can do to an NFL defense if you can stop their running game.

[6025]

That's just it, there really aren't better backups out there. I would go so far to say he is one of the top 10 backups in the league, although all that really says is there really aren't more than 2 or 3 backups who are any good.

We either bite the bullet and develop one, or live with Clemons.

Dak Prescott may look good, but if you spoonfeed a QB in preseason, there is no hope he would do anything in the regular season. Just clamp down on the short stuff, and double cover Dez Bryant, adn there is not much that Dallas can do to an NFL defense if you can stop their running game.

Back to your original question - is Clemons that much of an upgrade from Dak in regards to replacing an injured Romo to salvage the Cowboys season? Or are they royally screwed playoffs-wise if Romo goes down with either QB? If the answer to the second question is "yes", is it worth it to Dallas to give up a draft choice for Clemons or should they just begin the process of developing Dak?

[Steve]

It is not worth it in the football sense. Dallas trading for a backup isn't about playing football, it is about marketing.

Fans and sportwriters think that their QB play cost them last year. But it had little, if nothing to do with their losses. Dallas didn't turn the ball over that much last year. They had zero weapons on offense with Dez Bryant being fat and out of shape. They just discovered that the real magic was that there defense 2 years ago, with all the turnovers they forced, and that doesn't happen every year.

If they add Tom Brady as their backup, it isn't going to make them a great team. Their coaches know that. I bet even Jerry knows that. But he also is smart enough to keep his fan base happy, and that is what a trade is about. They aren't a playoff caliber team because they are pretty weak defense, and even their offense is only OK. They got lucky a couple of years ago, and their fans think it is something they can repeat. Maybe they can, but it's unlikely.

[6025]

If that's the goal I don't think Clemens isn't the right guy, he's not gonna generate any excitement for them, Dak is already doing that.

[TTK]

Clemens stinks but you aren't really going to find anyone better. Most teams don't even have one good QB.

If Rivers gets hurt, maybe they can bring Fouts out of retirement.