Matt Cassel Brings Desperately Needed Starting Experience to Dallas Cowboys

There could be similarities between the 2013 Green Bay Packers and the 2015 Dallas Cowboys.

Both teams lost Pro Bowl passers to fractured collarbones, and both teams then had to sift through the quarterback free-agent market, which is always a vast collection of smoldering rubble. When the Packers lost Aaron Rodgers to his fractured clavicle in 2013, a 33-year-old Seneca Wallace was his immediate replacement.

The task ahead was the same as it is now for the Tony Romo-less Cowboys: play merely average football to stay atop a crumbling division until the regular starter retakes his rightful throne.

And in an effort to leap over that low bar, Dallas completed a trade Tuesday with the Buffalo Bills for Matt Cassel, as NFL Network's Ian Rapoport first reported. Later, his colleague Albert Breer shared the trade terms:

Hold on just a second before faces meet palms, and eyes roll. The Cowboys didn't acquire Cassel in hopes of him becoming an instant hero. Those don’t exist in late September on the free-agent or trade market, especially not at quarterback.

Here’s all the information you really need to comprehend how desperate times become after an early-season quarterback injury: According to Mike Fisher of 105.3 The Fan, the Cowboys also kicked the tires on Matt Flynn, Josh Johnson, Christian Ponder and McLeod Bethel-Thompson during workouts Tuesday. All four combined to attempt 60 passes in 2014, which is both awful and misleading, because two—Johnson and Bethel-Thompson—didn’t throw any.

So if it wasn’t already clear when the likes of Josh McCown and Brian Hoyer are hotly pursued commodities each March as free agency opens, signing a quarterback off the street is a search for any shred of competence.

That means a team in dire need quickly looks beyond the various flaws to address one central question: Which quarterback gives us the most experience?

That’s what brought the Cowboys to Cassel. He’s more safety net than savior and more hopeful game manager than game-winner. CBS Sports added some humor to the Cassel trade:

The Cowboys placed Romo on the short-term injured reserve, which means he won’t be eligible to play until Week 11. There’s a quick turnaround after that with Dallas hosting the Carolina Panthers on Thanksgiving Day, so he could be held out until Week 13.

At minimum, the Cowboys will play without a quarterback who averaged 8.5 yards per attempt in 2014—which led all quarterbacks who took at least 25 percent of their team’s snaps, per Pro Football Focus—for seven games.

Replacing a quarterback of that caliber isn’t possible. There are about eight people on the planet who can play the position at an elite level, and Romo is one of them.

The next logical step when a premier passer breaks something is to maximize your chances to get even mediocre play. In that sense, Cassel functions as a lottery ticket, just as Brandon Weeden does.

Weeden became a football cliche as the next-man up when Romo suffered his injury during a win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. He brings familiarity, which is a warm, cozy blanket for coaches as they evaluate a quarterback depth chart.

Owner Jerry Jones expressed his confidence in Weeden to 105.3 The Fan, saying, "Certainly we think Weeden has really progressed. As [Cowboys quarterbacks coach] Wade Wilson said, he’s just not the same guy that we had last year. He’s progressed that much. He said that before we had this issue with Tony. I think we all feel good about what we got."

He’s in his second season as Romo’s backup and knows the Cowboys offense well. But familiarity alone doesn’t translate to effectiveness. In fact, with Weeden, we’re mostly familiar with wobbling footballs, many of which land in opposing hands.

Please recall his time with the Cleveland Browns and the pool of tears he left behind.

Year	Starts	Comp %	Yards/game	Yards/attempt	TDS	INTs	Rating
2012	15	57.4	225.7	6.5	14	17	72.6
2013	5	52.8	216.5	6.5	9	9	70.3

Of course, playing the same game with Cassel also leads to depression. In three starts for the Minnesota Vikings in 2014, he completed only 57.7 percent of his passes while averaging a lowly 6.0 yards per attempt.

But experience is a valued commodity when you’re running to break a glass case and smash every panic button within reach. Having it means that as a quarterback, you’ve weathered NFL pass rushes and seen the many exotic coverages defenses use to create confusion. Maybe you’ve reacted poorly and/or disastrously. But you’ve seen them, which counts for something.

Experience being awful is still experience, and as Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News notes, a backup should ideally fall under either the ever popular grizzled veteran category, or the also abundant spry yet untested category. Weeden is lost somewhere in the middle.

"Either your back-up needs to be a veteran with a lot of starts under his belt, or a kid you're developing," Sherrington wrote while arguing that the Cowboys need to draft a developmental quarterback. "Weeden doesn't really fit either model."

Cassel has seen plenty over his 71 NFL starts and 90 game appearances, and for a brief time he was even somewhat adequate with the New England Patriots and then later with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Weeden, meanwhile, has logged only 21 career starts. That difference matters when a team is left to limp along while looking at its quarterback depth chart and choosing between awful or slightly more awful. ESPN Stats & Info provided stats that illustrate just how "awful" the situation is:

The gimping effort would be easier for the Cowboys if wide receiver Dez Bryant were healthy. But alas, he’s out as well, though the season still isn’t lost yet.

They can plow ahead with their power-running attack fueled by an offensive line that sent three lane-opening brutes to the Pro Bowl in 2014. And they can find sweet solace in an NFC East that’s crumbling around them, with the Philadelphia Eagles suddenly looking like they should be relegated to a different league and the New York Giants unable to stay out of their own way.

The Cowboys need to cling, claw and be the scrappiest bunch of heart-filled football warriors ever until Romo and Bryant return. Part of that mission requires having a quarterback who can minimize his mistakes while maybe connecting on the odd key throw.

Both Weeden and Cassel could be that guy. Or maybe they’ll both flame out quickly, repeating the history we know well. At least now there are two dice-rolling options, along with a tiny bit of security through experience.