When Jon Kitna was injured this past season, it became quite apparent that the Dallas Cowboys aren't ready to move forward with Stephen McGee as their backup quarterback.
The Cowboys put in a waiver claim on Kyle Orton before the Kansas City Chiefs won the rights to him, telling us that the Cowboys, who were in the midst of a playoff push, didn't want to send McGee to the wolves if Tony Romo were to be injured.
McGee is great as a No. 3 quarterback, but as a No. 2? Meh, that's where it gets a little shaky.
So the natural solution to this problem would be to draft a quarterback in the late rounds in a few months, but you don't want to invest too much on a potential starting guy when you have a 31-year-old Romo who had arguably his best season statistically in 2011.
Your perfect backup quarterback? Brandon Weeden, who will be in the draft from Oklahoma State.
Weeden's story is well-documented. He had a failed attempt at Major League Baseball before going to Oklahoma State to play football where he ended up leading one of the most potent offenses in the country to a Fiesta Bowl victory over Andrew Luck and Stanford earlier this month.
Weeden is 28 years old, which means he probably has a five- or six-year career ahead of him, and that's a best-case scenario.
Sports Connection
Connecting you to your favorite North Texas sports teams as well as sports news around the globe.
Weeden threw for 4,727 yards in 2011 with 37 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. And yes, it's college football, I'm aware of that.
But the deal with Weeden is, he has the arm to make every throw and make it well in the NFL. He also has the maturity beyond his peers which comes from his advanced age and his prior experience in professional sports.
Will he supplant Romo as the Cowboys starter? That's highly unlikely and it's not even the point of bringing him in, but he'd be a great guy to have as an insurance policy for Romo.
