The Giants never got to see the version of Cooper Rush that Jason Garrett knew was inside the journeyman quarterback.
Before Rush, 28, outdueled Joe Burrow to lead the Cowboys to a win last week, and before he threw for 325 yards in his first career start last season, he spent 147 days in the Giants organization as a third- or fourth-stringer. Nearly two years to the day after his unremarkable time in New York ended when he was replaced by Clayton Thorson on the practice squad, Rush will start against the Giants on “Monday Night Football.”
It begs the question: Did the Giants miss something special? Especially with one of Rush’s biggest advocates Garrett — the former Cowboys head coach who entrusted the undrafted Rush as his backup quarterback for three seasons during Rush’s first stint in Dallas — on staff as offensive coordinator.
“Other guys can be more impressive in a workout environment — he’s got decent size, decent athletic ability, a decent arm, all of that,” Garrett told The Post, “but what we saw in Dallas right from the start with him was that whenever he went into an 11-on-11 situation, good things happened. He completed passes, moved the team, scored points.”
Therein lies the bulk of the mistake. The OTA practices and preseason games that should’ve featured Rush between when the Giants claimed him off waivers from the Cowboys on May 5, 2020, through when he was released on Sept. 29 that year all were canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions. Many meetings were moved to Zoom and a truncated training camp didn’t leave a lot of reps for evaluating the bottom of a roster.
“The decision-makers with the Giants felt like they weren’t overly impressed with how he played or what his potential was,” said Garrett, an analyst on NBC’s “Football Night in America” and Notre Dame telecasts. “To me, Coop is not someone who wows you physically. Sometimes you get caught up in that. Sometimes those decisions happen.”
Other Giants coaches at the time, including Joe Judge, liked Rush’s makeup, too, sources said. The rest of the NFL is catching on now — three weeks after the Cowboys again put Rush through waivers for any team in the league to steal.
“I see a guy that’s a starting quarterback in this league,” first-year Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale said. “Just watching him and the decisions that he makes, I think he’ll have a long career as a quarterback in this league.”
Daniel Jones, who will start opposite Rush, credits his counterpart as a “big help” learning a new offense in those first few months of the Judge-Garrett era. He’s not alone.
“Cooper knew the system inside and out,” said receiver David Sills, who was a third-stringer trying to make his NFL debut at the time. “A lot of us were just starting to learn it, and he’s over there like ‘The Z [receiver] does this and the F does that.’ ”
The 2020 Giants moved forward with Jones, backed up by Colt McCoy. Thorson was on and off the roster for two years before landing in the USFL. Alex Tanney, who overlapped with Rush in the offseason, is an offensive quality control coach for the Eagles.
“It was a short stint, but I enjoyed it,” Rush told reporters. “I enjoyed being in the room with Daniel, and I’m glad to see he’s playing well.”
Rush returned to the Cowboys about a month after he was cut by the Giants, who went 1-7 with Jones’ backups over the past two seasons. Garrett was let go by the Cowboys in January 2021 and by the Giants in November 2022, and he did not want to discuss either departure.
“Where people have made mistakes on quarterbacks through the years is they get enamored with the wrong things,” Garrett said.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is dreaming of Rush playing so well that he threatens an injured Dak Prescott’s starting job. But Garrett is thinking back to the 2017 Hall of Fame Game, when a rookie led a 75-yard touchdown drive in his first impression as a pro.
“We all looked at each other and said, ‘That was pretty good,’ ” Garrett recalled. “He knows where to go with the ball. His teammates respond to him. He’s poised. The guy that you see is the guy we saw right from the start. That’s why we were drawn to him and made him the backup quarterback.”
Rush quickly worked himself up the Cowboys depth chart for a second time because offensive coordinator Kellen Moore kept many elements of the offense in place after Garrett left Dallas.
“He’s someone who understands the offense,” Garrett said. “It did not surprise me one bit that he had success last year or last week against Cincinnati. He’s at his best when the games start and he has a chance to move the team.”