Jerry Jones responds to idea that Cowboys sat Cooper Rush to avoid paying $250,000 in bonuses

Heading into the final game of the Dallas Cowboys season backup quarterback Cooper Rush had a chance to earn a $250,000 bonus.

As reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Nick Harris, Rush, who had already played 52.5%, was due $250,000 if he played 55% of snaps at quarterback for the Cowboys.

Before the game, it was announced that Trey Lance would get the start, causing some to wonder if the financial incentive played any role in Rush’s benching which team owner Jerry Jones shot down the game.

“I didn’t even know about [Rush’s incentives] until I read about it, so nothing, nothing at all. Those incentives are in there for the team, and we put them in there so that if someone is in his case, as a backup quarterback has to play, they’ve got the financial incentives, but they’re usually put in there because of people representing them, and they should be. So he did really earn some pretty serious incentives this year,” said Jones.

Though Rush fell short of an additional $250,000 bonus, he did earn $250,000 in incentives for playing more than 45% of snaps at quarterback this season.