Cowboys owner Jerry Jones downgrades Brandon Weeden to ‘limited’
It only took a fortnight for Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to downgrade Brandon Weeden from the most “gifted passer” in football history to merely a “limited” quarterback who isn’t a difference-maker.
Two days after Weeden completed all seven of his passes to finish off a 20-10 win over the NFC East rival Philadelphia Eagles after starting Cowboys QB Tony Romo went down with a broken collarbone in Week 2, Jones could barely contain himself while raving about his backup in an interview with 105.3 The Fan.
“This quarterback Weeden can drive the ball down field,” Jones said. “He’s a thing of beauty on throwing a football. His passing motion and his arm, frankly, you won’t see a more gifted passer, power, accuracy, the entire aspect of it. If he can basically prepare, be the starting quarterback, come in and execute and keep his head right, then I feel good about Weeden.”
After Weeden’s second start of the season resulted in another loss — this time a 26-20 overtime defeat at the hands of Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints — Jones changed his tune with the Star-Telegram.
“I thought he did real good,” owner Jerry Jones said. “He did good all night long. He took his initial look and threw it. He does some real good things, though it’s not quite apples and oranges when the guy on the other side of the deal is Brees and you’re dealing with a guy who is as limited as Weeden. We got in it even running out of time, or short-handed, in 2-minute or what have you, then these quarterbacks like Brees make a difference.”
While what Jones said may be true — after all, most backup QBs are backups because they’re limited — it’s not much of a confidence-booster for a veteran who’ll line up under center for the next few months.
Weeden hasn’t been all that bad, completing 76.3 percent of his passes (45-of-59) for 551 yards and a pair of scores against one pick this season. His quarterback rating of 108.8 currently ranks sixth behind Aaron Rodgers, Andy Dalton, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Marcus Mariota (Brees is 16th at 94.9).
Weeden finished 16-of-26 for 246 yards and a touchdown in the loss to the Saints, and that’s without All-Pro wide receiver Dez Bryant in the lineup. That’s good enough to win on some Sundays. Running backs Darren McFadden and Joseph Randle didn’t do him any favors, rushing for an average of 2.7 yards on 21 carries in defeat. And the Dallas defense allowed 438 total yards of offense for the second straight week.
Most of all, Brees was just a little better, completing 33-of-41 passes for 359 yards and a pair of TDs, and that’s to be expected. After all, the guy has 400 career passing touchdowns. Weeden has 28 against 29 interceptions, so maybe Jones’ mistake was putting the pressure of being such a gifted passer on him.
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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
