The Dallas Cowboys won’t have starting quarterback Dak Prescott for the rest of 2024 after he was placed on injured reserve after Week 11. Prescott will undergo surgery for a hamstring avulsion, with estimates of about three months for a recovery timeline.
In his place is longtime veteran backup Cooper Rush. Below we take a look at Rush’s contract situation as he prepares to start the rest of the 2024 season.
Cooper Rush’s Contract and 2024 Salary
This is technically Rush’s second stint on the Cowboys roster. He signed with Dallas as an undrafted free agent out of Central Michigan and was on the roster for three seasons.
Rush was actually briefly released by the Cowboys in the 2020 offseason after the team signed Andy Dalton and spent time on the New York Giants roster that offseason. Rush returned to the Cowboys in Oct. 2020 (following Prescott’s season-ending ankle injury that year) and has been on the roster ever since.
To make room on their roster for Andy Dalton, the Cowboys waived QB Cooper Rush.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 4, 2020
Before the 2023 season, Rush re-signed with Dallas on a two-year, $5 million contract. For the 2024 season, Rush has a $2.875 million cap hit, which accounts for just over 1% of the salary cap.
That contract means that this is the final year of his deal and he is scheduled to hit unrestricted free agency. With a potential nine-game audition as a starter, if he starts every game the rest of the way, Rush has an opportunity to lock in a significant backup QB contract with a strong finish to 2024.
Rush’s Net Worth and Career Earnings
Rush’s net worth is reportedly around $7 million.
That’s a relatively impressive total for a backup quarterback who originally went undrafted. According to Spotrac, Rush has made a total of roughly $9 million in salary over his NFL career.
His next deal could exceed that on an annual basis if Rush can prove worthy of being in the high-end backup or low-end starter tier. For a point of comparison, Sam Darnold signed a one-year, $10 million contract with the Minnesota Vikings last offseason as an expected backup to J.J. McCarthy. The Las Vegas Raiders gave Gardner Minshew II an even richer deal, signing the journeyman to a two-year, $25 million deal with $15 million guaranteed.
Rush is unlikely to command a starting job barring a miraculous finish to the 2024 season, but it’s not a stretch to imagine him exceeding his career earnings in the next year or two of his upcoming deal. Before this season, Rush’s most notable stretch came in 2022, when he went 4-1 as a starter after Prescott suffered a broken thumb on his throwing hand.