Inside Andy Dalton's Cowboys Text To Dak Prescott
FRISCO - One of Andy Dalton's very first acts upon joining the Dallas Cowboys to serve as the No. 2 quarterback?
Contact the No. 1 quarterback.
"I sent him a text, reaching out,'' Dalton said on Wednesday with the dust settled on his one-year, $3 million agreement to "come home'' to Texas. "That's been about it.''
Well, that can't be "it.'' So, I asked Dalton, what exactly was the message send to Prescott? And what was the response?
"I just told him I'm excited to be here, and I'm going to help in any way that I can,'' Dalton said.
And, yes, I asked if Dak’s responded. And, yes, he did, appreciatively. All good.
Dalton made something very clear in his first (virtual) meeting with the DFW media on Wednesday. Much to what I assume is the chagrin of the ignoramuses and the pot-stirrers, he gave the right answer when I asked him about a “QB controversy.” He's here to be Dak Prescott's backup.
"Dak has played really well," Dalton said. "I know the situation I'm coming into. Everybody on the outside might view it that way (as a controversy). Dak's the starter. If he goes down, I'll step in."
Much has been made about the Cowboys' decision to bring in Dalton while they continue to hammer out a contract with Prescott. Dallas has shot down the notion that Dalton was brought in to put pressure on the Dak negotiations. (As if the fact that the Cowboys are willing to pay one of these guys $35 million a year and the other one of them $3 million a year isn’t clarity enough.)
The truth is, Dalton has already busied himself going about the process of wrapping his head around being a backup quarterback for the first time.
"Looking at all the different teams ... With the Cowboys I felt I could come here and help this team win, and help Dak out as much as I can," said Dalton, who had offers from six NFL teams. “This is my first time coming in knowing I'm not going to be the starter. I've been around a lot of great backup quarterbacks. ... It's a different perspective. But I understand ... the role I'm going to play.”
