IRVING, Texas – The Dallas Cowboys on Monday unveiled
27-year-old Tony Banks as the heir apparent to three-time Super
Bowl winning quarterback Troy Aikman.
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"I still haven't even thought about it as replacing Troy
Aikman," Banks said at a news conference at the Cowboys' Valley
Ranch headquarters. "Once I started knowing what position I wanted
to play and how I was going to play, he's one of the guys I looked
up to."
Last week Banks agreed to a one-year, $500,000 deal with Dallas.
"I look at this opportunity and everybody knows contract-wise
it's a trial basis, a one year basis for both ends," he said.
Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones and Banks' agent, Marvin
Demoff, finalized the salary cap-friendly contract at the NFL
owners meetings in Palm Desert, Calif.
"To get an experienced quarterback like Tony Banks, that really
puts my mind at ease from the standpoint that we have a guy that's
won games in the NFL and has a lot of talent," coach Dave Campo
said.
Banks was cut by the Baltimore Ravens March 1, just before he
would have been due $2.8 million on a four-year, $18.6 million
contract he signed in February 2000.
The Cowboys' offensive coordinator, Jack Reilly, was quarterback
coach in St. Louis when the Rams chose Banks from Michigan State in
the second round of the 1996 draft.
Banks visited the Cowboys on March 6, the day before Aikman was
released. No other free-agent quarterback visited the Valley Ranch
facility.
In his five-year NFL career, Banks has started 61 games. Last
season, he completed 150 of 274 passes (55 percent) for 1,578
yards, eight touchdowns and eight interceptions.
Banks played three seasons in St. Louis before being traded to
Baltimore in 1999, when he threw a career-high 17 touchdown passes.
The Cowboys waived Aikman after 12 seasons for salary cap
reasons and health concerns.
Aikman was due a $7 million bonus and an extension through 2007
if he was still been on the Dallas roster March 8. The 34-year-old
quarterback played in only eight games last year because of two
concussions and a chronic back problem. He had four concussions in
his last 20 starts.
The Cowboys have $23 million counting against their salary cap
this year for players no longer on the roster. That includes at
least $10 million for Aikman.
Before Banks, the only quarterbacks on the Cowboys roster were
Anthony Wright and Clint Stoerner. Wright started and lost the last
two games last season, and Stoerner was 3-for-5 passing in his only
game last season.
Veteran Randall Cunningham was also with Dallas last season, but
he met performance incentives in his contract that made him a free
agent.
"I'd like to make Dallas my home," Banks said. "It's a little
closer to my original home and any place I go I want to finish my
career out."
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