Dallas Cowboys 'Hero' QB Will Grier Signs With Bill Belichick's Patriots

Will Grier was a "hero for a moment'' with the Dallas Cowboys. Now, in Week 4, he figures to return to Arlington as a newly-minted member of a New England Patriots team playing "Musical Chairs'' at the quarterback position.

FRISCO - Will Grier was a "hero for a moment'' with the Dallas Cowboys in a preseason game at AT&T Stadium. ... and in Week 4, he figures to return to Arlington, now as a newly-minted member of a New England Patriots team that is playing "Musical Chairs'' at the quarterback position.

In the past four weeks, coach Bill Belichick has made a dozen roster transactions with quarterbacks ... with no wins to show for them.

While Mac Jones has been improved as the starter - if on a pop-gun offense - the quarterback carousel behind him has been dizzying. The moves continued late Thursday as the Patriots signed former Cowboys' quarterback Grier off the Cincinnati Bengals' practice squad onto their active roster.

Yes, that means he's jumping ahead of incumbent backups Bailey Zappe and rookie Malik Cunningham.

Grier spent training camp with the Cowboys, but was beaten out of the No. 2 job behind Dak Prescott by veteran Cooper Rush. When the Cowboys traded for former San Francisco 49ers' first-round draft pick Trey Lance, Grier became expendable.

Grier, Dak and Lance of the Cowboys

Before he was released, however, he dazzled in Dallas' preseason finale, completing 29 of 35 passes for 305 yards, rushing for 54 yards and combining for four touchdowns while playing every snap as a lame-duck quarterback. His audition worked, as he was quickly signed to the practice squad of the Bengals.

Thursday's move came as a shock in Cincinnati, where starter Joe Burrow has limped through practice with a calf injury and Jake Browning is now the only other quarterback on its roster.

Grier, 28, who was drafted by the Panthers in the third round in 2019 - you want a crazy carousel? Corral was also a former Panthers' third-round pick - has started only two games in the NFL ... both losses in Carolina. His signing off Cincy's practice squad is just the latest of a litany of seemingly desperate moves by the Patriots - who travel to AT&T Stadium to face the Cowboys on Oct. 1 - to find consistency at the position.