Your Dallas Cowboys are 5-9 and out of playoff contention for this 2010 season. With that in mind, it’s fair to ask if the team is wasting its time starting Jon Kitna for the final two games when it has a young quarterback in Stephen McGee who could use the game experience. Should McGee start at least one of the team’s remaining games? Bill Nichols at the Morning News says he definitely should:
This is all true. Kitna is a known quantity at this point. Why not throw McGee in there and see if he deserves to stick around as the third QB next year? If McGee were to thrive, the Cowboys could then use him as competition for Tony Romo, either a way of pushing Romo to become more consistent, or to outright replace him. Jason Garrett himself said that Romo has several areas he needs to work on going into 2011. No better motivation to get him working on those things that having a young passer on his tail.
However, Garrett isn’t gonna give McGee any starts this season over Kitna, and here’s why. First off, Garrett is still coaching for his job. If McGee comes in and the team starts to shut down (see Joe Webb and the Vikings), that puts Garrett in jeopardy of not being retained. Secondly, Garrett almost certainly can tell from practice whether or not McGee is ready to see field action. If McGee was dazzling in practice, I’m sure Garrett would have considered throwing him in there by now. But he hasn’t seen anything yet that makes him tempted to pull Kitna. So why throw a young passer out there if you know he’s not ready? It’s counterproductive. The Cowboys also remain committed to Romo for the foreseeable future. Unlike some fans, they aren’t too keen on replacing the most accurate QB in team history.
So enjoy Jon Kitna for the next two weeks, Cowboys fans. And then prepare yourselves for 2011, when Tony Romo will be back to amaze and infuriate you in equal measure.
Why not prepare for the future and get an accurate measurement of McGee? Jon Kitna has been exceptional in place of Tony Romo. But nobody knows if McGee can be the Cowboys' future quarterback. He would enter the off-season with zero snaps in two seasons. It would also benefit the Cowboys to see McGee handle the pressure of a real game so they know what they have when the next draft rolls around.
