Cowboys Shift QB to Injured Reserve Before First Playoff Game

Getty Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones (right).

The Dallas Cowboys made a move at quarterback prior to their NFC Wild Card Round home showdown with the San Francisco 49ers.

On Monday, January 10, the Cowboys sent quarterback Will Grier to injured reserve, the team announced. It’s unclear as of this writing what led to Grier’s placement on the injured list.

Grier was acquired off waivers from the Carolina Panthers in September 2021. The former Gators product — a 2019 third-round draft pick — spent the regular season as Dallas’ deactivated third QB behind Dak Prescott and Cooper Rush, although he’s viewed as a developmental project for the coaching staff.

“Going through the quarterback position … Will, we thought, was the best prospect out there,” head coach Mike McCarthy said in early September. “Obviously remember when he came out of West Virginia, you know [quarterbacks coach] Doug [Nussmeier] actually coached him at Florida … for a year … so I had a chance to study him when he was at Carolina two years ago so we felt like through the personnel department and the coaching staff, we felt like we had really good information on him and we thought he’d be a great fit for us.”

Grier, 26, is under contract through the 2022 season. Assuming he’s retained by the Cowboys, he will count $1,020,408 against the 2022 salary cap, the cost of his base salary, per Spotrac.com.

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DiNucci Slated to Take Grier’s Spot

Prescott and Rush are locked atop the depth chart as the only signal-callers left on the 53-man active roster. Taking over for Grier as the nominal third-stringer is likely to be sophomore Ben DiNucci, who currently resides on the practice squad.

“Cowboys have placed QB Will Grier on injured reserve, they announced. This leaves practice-squad QB Ben DiNucci as the new No. 3 behind Dak Prescott and Cooper Rush,” reported Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News.

DiNucci has not appeared in a game this year following his disastrous 2020 showing, which prompted Dallas to install Rush as Prescott’s direct backup and resulted in Grier’s acquisition. That shouldn’t change versus San Francisco.

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Parsons, Tyron Return from COVID List

On Wednesday, January 12, as the team began full-scale preparations for its first postseason tilt, the Cowboys activated linebacker Micah Parsons and left tackle Tyron Smith from the Reserve/COVID-19 list. The club restored cornerback Anthony Brown from the COVID list on January 10, while safety Jayron Kearse was activated from the list on January 13 with a one-day roster exemption for Thursday, meaning he won’t count toward the official roster until January 14.

“Head coach Mike McCarthy said the team plans to be smart with Kearse’s practice reps Thursday as they build toward” Sunday’s game, according to the team’s official update.

The presence of both Parsons and Smith is crucial to Dallas’ chances of advancing to the Divisional Round. The former will be paramount in slowing the 49ers’ rushing attack, which ranks seventh in the NFL, while the latter will help combat San Francisco’s swarming pass rush, which totaled the fifth-most sacks (48.0) in the league this season.

In response to a question about the 49ers playing “bully ball,” Parsons said in a January 12 media conference: “I’m from Harrisburg where the bullies get bullied. … There’s a bully in every gym, there’s a bully everywhere you go, but at one point, it’s going to take someone to stand up and, you know, and fight, and I ain’t ever backed down from a challenge.”