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FRISCO, Texas — Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. That is the most popular version of the age-old adage made known by Lt. Col. John Stapp in homage to Edward A. Murphy Jr., a former aerospace engineer, and it continues to ring true decades later in many aspects of life but, in this case, every single aspect of Dallas Cowboys' football.
Entering the 2024 season, there was no shortage of pressure on the organization and its components to finally end the Super Bowl drought (or, at minimum, the NFC Championship Game drought) that now stretches over three decades.
The pressure points included lack of job security for head coach Mike McCarthy and several members of his staff, including Mike Zimmer being granted only a one-year deal in his return as defensive coordinator, and a similar foggy future for cornerstone players like Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb — leading to the latter holding out of training camp to secure his historic deal.
Prescott's would come just a few weeks later.
A free agency headline constituted of being "all in", constituted by owner and general manager Jerry Jones prior to massaging the definition of the phrase to make it more introspective than extrospective, turned into a viral turning of the screws within Dallas ahead of a exceedingly inactive free agency stint in the spring, save for the addition of former All-Pro linebacker Eric Kendricks.
So forth and so on.
You get the idea, because you watched it all unfold alongside me.
And as the Cowboys finally find a gasp of oxygen after drowning during a five-game losing streak, now moving to 5-7 on the season thanks to a harrowing upset over the Commanders in Washington and sweeping the New York Giants to end what amounted to a six-game losing streak at AT&T Stadium that stretched back to the humiliating loss in January to the Green Bay Packers, only five games remain and "outlandish" odds of making the playoffs; but they’ll rightfully continue to fight for many good reasons.
As the season nears its end, I'm left both enjoying the rest of the ride, that is hopefully a fun one, along with mulling everything that went wrong in 2024.
- Self-inflicted wounds of all sorts (e.g., penalties, lack of execution, etc.).
- Injuries.
Let's talk about No. 2 for a moment because, holy sandals of Moses, the injury bug has been diabolically evil in its mission to devour the Cowboys this season, and successful in its efforts.
What's even more mind-boggling about it is the fact that the Cowboys employ/contract with arguably the best conditioning and athletic training staff, and doctors/surgeons, in the country, if not the world (ask Jaylon Smith), but they've been tasked with combatting the impossible in 2024.
At a certain point, football is just gonna flat-out football and, thus far, football is footballing in a way I've never seen football football.
You catch all of that? Good.
I get it. This is the NFL. Every team deals with injury over the course of a 17-game season.
That's basically law.
But what happened to Dallas isn't just the law of football.
It is indeed the law of Murphy.
Take a look at the list of Cowboys who have missed at least one game in 2024 but, be warned, this is not for those with sensitive stomachs, because it is objectively nauseating to see:
Quarterback
- Dak Prescott (hamstring)*
Offensive line
- Tyler Guyton (shoulder/ankle)
- Tyler Smith (shoulder/knee)*
- Zack Martin (back/ankle/shoulder)*
- Chuma Edoga (toe)
- Asim Richards (ankle)
Running back/Fullback
- Hunter Luepke (calf)
Wide receiver
- Brandin Cooks (knee)
- Jake Ferguson (knee/concussion)*
- John Stephens Jr. (knee)
Defensive line/EDGE
- Sam Wiliams (knee)
- DeMarcus Lawrence (foot)*
- Marshawn Kneeland (knee)
- Micah Parsons (ankle)*
- Jordan Phillips (wrist)
Linebacker
- Nick Vigil (foot)
Cornerback
- Trevon Diggs (knee/groin)*
- DaRon Bland (foot)*
- Jourdan Lewis (neck)
- Josh Butler (knee)
- Caelen Carson (shoulder)
- Amani Oruwariye (back)
Safety
- Markquese Bell (shoulder)
- Juanyeh Thomas (concussion/knee)
*denotes All-Pro and/or Pro Bowler
And, as of Thursday morning, you can put Martin on the list of season-ending injuries that have been suffered.
No other team comes close, save for the San Francisco 49ers, and you can clearly see that their season has been equally derailed to this point. And if the lengthy list above, longer than your latest CVS receipt, isn't enough to drive home just how ravaged the Cowboys have been, then translate it into percentages.
Percentage of Roster Lost to Injury*
- 1 game missed: 34%
- 1+> games missed: 30%
- Injured reserve: 21%
*based on 70-man roster (53 active + 17 practice squad)
It's key to note the list is actually longer and the percentages are a bit greater if I were to add in players who were exclusive to the practice squad prior to injury but, to illustrate the true impact of players being lost, I focused solely on those who were a part of the active 53-man roster at some point during the season (e.g., Josh Butler).
And this also isn't qualifying the weight of each injury, and by whom, such as Prescott's season being ended by his torn hamstring or setbacks such as the one that held Bland out much, much longer than originally anticipated.
In all, the injury report following each game reads more and more like a Greek tragedy, Hamlet, maybe, but that's also a testament to the resolve of those who have been available and the coaching staff for never losing the locker room or the willingness to fight, and to go out on their shield.
And so they will continue to do so, never knowing who might be the next victim in the respective contest to come, but you keep going until there is no longer anywhere to steer to.
"The rest is silence."
But count me in for next season hopefully being criminal in breaking Murphy's Law.
