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    What Happened to Cooper Rush? Examining If the Cowboys QB’s $250,000 Incentive Got Him Benched

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    If Cowboys QB Cooper Rush plays 55% of the offensive snaps this season, he will earn a $250,000 bonus. Will Trey Lance spoil his payday?

    Dallas Cowboys quarterback Cooper Rush has earned a $250,000 incentive based on being on the field for 45% of the team’s offensive snaps. He can earn an additional $250,000 in playtime incentives if he reaches the 55% threshold, but it seems the Cowboys won’t play him enough to get there.

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    Cooper Rush Can Earn $250,000 if He Plays 55% of Snaps

    Entering the preseason, the expectation was that Trey Lance might surpass Rush on the depth chart and become the backup to Dak Prescott. However, that didn’t happen, and now Rush has started 12 games. Entering Week 18, Rush had a chance to secure an additional $250,000 bonus if he played 55% of Dallas’ offensive snaps this season.

    Rush is very close, as he currently sits at 52.3%. Unfortunately for Rush, the Cowboys have decided to bench him and start Trey Lance against the Washington Commanders.

    When asked if he knows how close he is to reaching the $250,000 bonus, Rush laughed and told reporters, “We’re aware.”

    Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy would not divulge his quarterback plans late in the week, but it was reported prior to kickoff that Lance would start.

    Lance believes he has earned the right to show the team he is a capable starter.

    “Yeah, absolutely, no doubt,” Lance said. “I think if you don’t think that about yourself, then you’ve got no chance. And I truly believe that in my heart. I feel like it’s just where you derive your confidence from, what you have your faith in, and I feel like I’ve worked to this point to get to this point and I’m not going to stop until that opportunity comes and I’m able to make the most of it.”

    According to Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas averages 68 offensive snaps per game. If Rush plays all 68 snaps Sunday, he’ll be at 55.1% for the season, which would give him the $500,000 incentive.

    Rush has started all eight games since Prescott had this season cut short by a hamstring injury. With an additional $250,000 on the line, it seems the Cowboys decided to bench Rush in order to save some money and see what they have in Lance.

    This season, Rush ranks 39 of 43 eligible quarterbacks in PFN’s QB+ metric, with a grade of 60.8 (D-). This metric assigns a letter grade to every quarterback performance and factors in a number of stats such as success rate when pressured, third-down conversion rate, pocket production, and clutch performance.

    For Lance, this is his last opportunity to show what he can do before he becomes an unrestricted free agent this offseason, so an impressive showing could help him.

    It remains to be seen if Lance will play the entire game or if the Cowboys will use a dual-QB approach and give Rush some snaps as well.

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