IRVING, Texas -- Matt Cassel, the Dallas Cowboys are now turning to you to help keep their season afloat.
According to a source, Brandon Weeden was informed he will no longer be the starter when the Cowboys play again Oct. 25 against the New York Giants. The job now belongs to Cassel, who was acquired by the Cowboys in a trade from the Buffalo Bills on Sept. 22.
It will be the sixth time in Jerry Jones’ tenure as Cowboys owner and general manager that they will start at least three quarterbacks in a season. The last time it happened was in 2010, when Tony Romo was out with a broken collarbone and they turned to Jon Kitna. Stephen McGee started the season finale after Kitna could not play because of a back injury.
This is not the first time a team has turned to Cassel and hoped he could deliver.
In 2008, the New England Patriots lost Tom Brady in the season opener and gave the ball to a quarterback with no career starts at USC. He went 10-5 as the Patriots’ starter with 21 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions.
That team was coming off an undefeated regular season in 2007 and was a win away from perfection. It had Randy Moss and Wes Welker.
“Did a tremendous job,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “He got better every week, won a lot of big games for us down the stretch. We ended up tied for the division lead and lost it on a tiebreaker. Yeah, he did an outstanding job. No question about it.”
That season led to Cassel being traded to the Chiefs, but his first season was disastrous with a 4-12 finish. In 2010, Cassel had his best season, throwing 27 touchdown passes to just seven interceptions as the Chiefs won the AFC West and made the playoffs.
He had a four-game winning streak in 2011 in between losing streaks of three and two games before a hand injury led him to injured reserve. In 2012, the Chiefs finished 2-14 and were 1-8 in his starts.
In 2013, he was traded to the Minnesota Vikings. After sitting behind Christian Ponder in the first three games, he beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 4 with a 248-yard, two-touchdown effort. In Week 13 he came off the bench again and beat the Chicago Bears 23-20 in overtime, directing a final-minute drive that ended in the tying field goal. He finished the year by winning three of his final five starts.
A foot injury ended his 2014 season after just three games. He was traded to the Buffalo Bills last March but could not beat out Tyrod Taylor for the starting spot. He had to take a pay cut to remain with Buffalo and was Taylor’s backup for the first two weeks.
The trade to the Cowboys came quickly, but he was inactive for the first two games he was on the roster. He was Weeden’s backup last week against his former team, the Patriots, but Garrett did not call on him to play.
He threw just 33 passes in his career at USC, backing up Heisman Trophy quarterbacks Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart. He entered the NFL as an afterthought, a seventh-round pick, No. 230 overall, and learned from Brady while the Patriots went with Doug Flutie and Vinny Testaverde as Brady’s backups in 2005 and ’06.
“When we drafted him, we felt he had a lot of potential,” Belichick said. “He had a lot of great qualities, his athleticism, his intelligence, his throwing accuracy and mechanics. He worked very hard on all those things and improved. Then he got an opportunity to play in 2008 and we won 11 games with him as our starting quarterback. He’s the ultimate professional, preparing to play and getting ready to go. When his opportunity came, he took advantage of it and had a really good year for us.”
The Cowboys hope he can take advantage of this opportunity the way he did that opportunity.