Cooper Rush is still haunting the Dallas Cowboys, even while suiting up in a different uniform, in a different conference.
Rush, who needs to keep playing if the Cowboys are to get a fifth-round compensatory pick, was demoted to the Baltimore Ravens' QB3 after two ineffective spot starts filling in for the injured Lamar Jackson. Tyler Huntley, who spent time with the Cleveland Browns as a preseason body this summer before returning to the Ravens for his third stint in Baltimore, was promoted to primary backup.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh admitted that Rush wasn't even solidly QB2 against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 6.
“My plan was to play both throughout the course of the game,” Harbaugh said in his postgame press conference on October 12. “As we went through the game, as you feel the game, when you make a change, it wasn’t going to be necessarily a change. It was going to be Cooper then Tyler; it could have been Tyler, then Cooper again. It could have been any one of those things.
“[With] the way the first half went, it didn’t seem to be a moment to bring him out. [During the] second half, we had a drive going, and then we turned it over. So, I think you could say that, maybe, but I don’t necessarily think there was an obvious moment to do that. But the plan all along was to play both quarterbacks.”
Cooper Rush About to Make Cowboys Keep Paying
Falling behind Huntley on the depth chart is never a good thing. It had the Browns fanbase freaked out when Huntley replaced Shedeur Sanders in the team's preseason game against Los Angeles. That was a different situation, though. Everyone knew Sanders was going to make the Browns roster and was simply being brought along slowly.
Rush may have played his last NFL game against the Rams.
The Ravens have no reason to keep him. Certainly, his four interceptions and 29.5 QBR won't attract much attention.
If/when Baltimore cuts the cord, Dallas will be on the hook for it. Rush's eight-year career with the Cowboys ended with a whimper before, but now his NFL career will end with one last jab at the team that gave him a chance in 2017 as an UDFA and then did so again after a brief stint behind enemy lines.