National Football League

Cowboys put QB Kitna on injured reserve

Published Dec. 14, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

The Dallas Cowboys placed Jon Kitna on injured reserve, ending the quarterback’s 15th NFL season and possibly his career.

The 39-year-old Kitna, in his third season as Tony Romo’s backup, hasn’t been available to play since Nov. 13 because of a back injury. Kitna never appeared in the locker room when it was opened to reporters Wednesday.

“Any time you have one of these injuries, you have to figure out how long it’s going to take before he gets back and count the weeks left in the season,” coach Jason Garrett said. “We were going to give him every chance to come back from that back injury and we tried to do that. As it’s gone on, we’re running out of time and it’s not getting much better.”

Kitna’s most extensive action with Dallas came last season after Romo broke his collarbone. In 10 games, he threw for 2,365 yards with 16 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Kitna played in only three games this season.

Kitna has thrown for 29,745 yards with 169 TDs and 165 interceptions in 141 NFL games with Seattle, Cincinnati, Detroit and Dallas.

The Cowboys also activated receiver Dwayne Harris and replaced him on the practice squad with quarterback Chris Greisen.

Stephen McGee will be the Cowboys’ No. 2 quarterback, as he has been while Kitna was hurt.

“We have a lot of confidence in Stephen,” Garrett said. “We were going to give Jon every chance we could (to come back), but then you get in a certain roster situation and mapping out the math of it and the timetable, we felt we needed to do it this week.”

The Cowboys (7-6), tied for the NFC East lead, play Saturday night at Tampa Bay.