Jones compares Cowboys' QB situation with Broncos originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
It was hard not to feel bad for the Broncos this past week when they were forced to start a practice squad wide receiver at quarterback because all of their primary options at the position were deemed high-risk close contacts for COVID-19 days before kickoff.
But there's at least one person who didn't feel a shred of sympathy for Denver's offense in Week 12. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones saw what the Broncos had to do against the Saints and thought it was comparable to his team's quarterback turnover this season.
“I don’t know that Denver had any more challenge than we did with [Ben] DiNucci or young quarterbacks we’ve had,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas.
Following Dak Prescott's season-ending ankle injury, the Cowboys went through three different starting quarterbacks in four weeks, including Andy Dalton, seventh-round rookie and former James Madison QB Ben DiNucci and former sixth-round pick Garrett Gilbert.
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It's far from an ideal situation for a team that had playoff hopes to begin the year, but there's one thing Dalton, DiNucci and Gilbert have in common that Broncos spot-starter Kendall Hinton doesn't share with them: They're all quarterbacks, and they were all drafted to be quarterbacks.
Hinton played quarterback at Wake Forest, but after he lost his starting job there he switched to wide receiver. He then made it onto Denver's practice squad after going undrafted in the 2020 NFL Draft. When Drew Lock, Brett Rypien and Jeff Driskel were all ruled out on Sunday, it was either Hinton at quarterback or an entire game of underprepared wildcat formation.
The Cowboys may own one of the most undesirable quarterback situations in the league this year through no fault of their own, but they can't yet say that they didn't have an actual NFL quarterback under center for one of their games. The Broncos own that title in a COVID-stricken 2020 season.
