Cowboys QB DiNucci on Rookie Season: ‘That Wasn’t Me’

Dallas Cowboys reserve quarterback Ben DiNucci is out to prove that he deserves a roster spot this summer

After multiple injuries at the quarterback position for the Dallas Cowboys last season, former Jams Madison quarterback Ben DiNucci was thrown onto the field and had to step up as the offensive leader for America’s Team. 

It didn’t quite work out.

“I feel like it wasn’t me out there,” DiNucci said about his play on the field last season, particularly in his start in an ugly loss at Philadelphia.

While he might not have blown Cowboys Nation away in the 1.5 games he played last season, at this moment and time, DiNucci enters his second NFL year still holding a spot on Dallas’ roster, and will give it his all to keep it that way.

“It’ll be nice to have preseason this year,” he said, “ just to kind of be able to get back in the flow of games, play in games and get out there and show what I can do.”

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As the 2020 seventh-round pick prepared for last season, he said one word described it: ‘weird.”

DiNucci experienced his first “normal” mandatory minicamp this offseason and he said it made him feel more comfortable as he goes into training camp later in July - especially compared to the work allowed last summer, all limited due to COVID.

“It’s a lot better when you’ve got guys around to bounce things off each other,” DiNucci said. “It’s nice to be in the building and see faces and get out and practice a little bit.”

While last season did not end the way DiNucci and the Cowboys wanted it to, he is ready to improve in what it takes to be a quarterback in the NFL as this season approaches.

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“I felt like I got a little more comfortable every quarter,” said DiNucci, who joins Garrett Gilbert and Cooper Rush in a fight for work behind starter Dak Prescott. “Just some things, when the check-down is there, take the check-down, a positive play is a good play, no negative plays, just throwing the ball out of bounds when guys aren’t open. Just things that come with playing. And that’s all stuff that I’ll be able to work out in the preseason.”