FRISCO, Texas – Come spend a 2024 season Dallas Cowboys day with me, this one Thursday, the first full practice preparing for this upcoming Monday Night Football affair with the Cincinnati Bengals at AT&T Stadium.
Oh, the constant reminders of the trials and tribulations few want to recognize about this 65th season in a franchise's rich history that began back in 1960 on an 0-11-1 false start.
Here we go, walking through the Training Table at The Star, the five-star, and no pun intended, cafeteria where the players and employees alike eat. On my way back to my desk, and from behind hear this clickity-clack, clickity-clack of Dak Prescott making his way with a big ol' brace on his surgically repaired leg. The one with the partially torn hamstring tendon detaching from his pelvic bone. He's on crutches, having missed the past four games and now will miss the final five.
Says he'll be on these crutches for another couple of weeks, needing to keep the pressure off his leg, ending a season for the second time in five years.
A few minutes earlier while in the locker room, there is perennial All-Pro right guard Zack Martin, the nine-time Pro Bowler having turned 34 on Nov. 20, boldly and respectfully standing there in front of his locker, explaining just why he will be having season-ending, potentially career-ending surgery on his right ankle that has been bothering him since training camp. A torn ligament and bone spurs will be repaired this coming Thursday by local Dallas foot specialist Dr. Eugene Curry, who surgically repaired Dak's ankle and compound fracture back in 2020, not to mention doing wonders with my torn Achilles that year too.
"I mean, it's tough, right?" and that right there was hard enough to hear Zack say. "I mean, anytime you pour everything you have into something and then come up short on it, and have to do stuff like this, it sucks, right? Guys in this locker room, we put a lot of time into this, and yeah, it's a shitty situation."
Then come take a look at Thursday's injury report. Seventeen players are listed, though at least the final six are designated as fully practicing but having something, while the five others did not practice at all. And no matter the reason, you hate to see guys like Jourdan Lewis out there with no helmet, and CeeDee Lamb watching, with Tyler Guyton and DeMarcus Lawrence still rehabbing, the veteran defensive end not yet ready to begin practicing, still on injured reserve where Dak is and Zack is heading.
Think about this, if we can pause our day for a moment. The NFL allows teams to return to the active roster eight players a year who are placed on injured reserve for the mandatory four weeks. The Cowboys already have used up five of those return-to-play designations: DaRon Bland, Brandin Cooks, Marshawn Kneeland, Chuma Edoga and the long-forgotten Jordan Phillips. They will soon, maybe even by Monday, use one on cornerback Amani Oruwariye, having started his 21-day return-to-practice window this week. That's six.
And soon they hope to use a seventh on Lawrence, who has only played four games this season. That then is seven. Only one more possible return left, if needed.
A wise man, when considering this uncharacteristic season, tells me something he heard a long time ago: "Football is a stupid sport, but you can't be stupid to play it."
Now, no one feels sorry for you in this NFL. And for sure not the fans. They are bottom line, giving no quarter to the fact the Cowboys just had to put former practice-squad cornerback Josh Butler, elevated to the 53-man roster and actually starting, on injured reserve with a torn ACL; special teams ace and backup safety Marquese Bell on IR; and backup swing tackle Asim Richards, who had been spelling a struggling Guyton at times, on IR, too, all within the past couple of weeks.
And on top of all this – all of it – beware the Bengal. They are up next. Don't slough off this team with a 4-8 record, as if the 5-7 Cowboys are something to shout about just because they've put together a two-game winning streak in the midst of all this injury chaos, having gone 2-2 over the past four games with backup quarterback Cooper Rush now starting for the remainder of the season.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones knows what he's talking about with his team still two games below .500 yet these "playoff" possibilities starting to pop up like sugar plums this holiday season. He said, "We've got to really play even better than we played the last two games. But what's encouraging is that we can, and first, it starts and stops with our thoughts about Cincinnati. They're a lot better team than their record indicates they are, and they're outstanding at the key position, quarterback."
Here is what Jerry knows. The Bengals have lost seven of their eight games by no more one score. They have lost three of those seven games by a grand total of five points. They already, with five games to play, have topped 33 points scored six times. That's serious stuff.
And here is the wildest stat that you might consider make-believe: Of the other 31 teams in the NFL this year scoring at least 33 points in a game, they are 53-1, and that includes the Cowboys adding their 2-0 mark. But the Bengals, of the six times they have scored at least 33 points, they are 2-4.
Indeed, a strange game.
Jerry knows this, too, about the Bengals. They have Joe Burrow at quarterback. Burrow leads the NFL in passing attempts, completions, yards passing and touchdown passes with 13 of his 30 scoring throws going to Ja'Marr Chase, the NFL's leader in TD receptions.
The Bengals average 28 points a game. By comparison, the Cowboys average 20.
Leave it to Micah Parsons to always hit the nail right on the head when lending perspective into this national-TV matchup on Monday night. He was asked how important he must be in making Burrow uncomfortable in the pocket, all knowing Parsons has registered 5 ½ sacks in his four-game return from injury, which spurred the Cowboys on to a four-game total of 16, tied for the NFL's most during this last four-game period.
"I am going to be extremely important," Micah said. "I got to do my job at an extremely high level. I got to be the best player on the field. If Joe Burrow, his record is opposite (8-4), he'd be the leader running for MVP. You know what I'm saying? So I still think he should be the MVP.
"I mean, he's leading in passing yards, passing touchdowns this year. He's having Joe Burrow LSU (season). I think that's what a healthy Joe Burrow looks like. So in those terms of we've got our hands tied on one of the best offenses in the NFL, and we've been playing like a really good defense, but we got to prove that on Monday night. This is going to be, I think, the greatest challenge of them all, outside of the Eagles."
Micah speaks the truth.
Look, this was all Thursday, leaving Monday four full days away.
No one around here ever, ever, wants to say, "What in the world is next?" because "next" for the Cowboys this season has been the most unpredictable reality TV show going, outdistancing the wildest of fictional imaginations, too.
Was tough enough for those of us in the locker room with red blood running through our veins watching Zack, this year's Cowboys Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year nominee, dealing with his football mortality in front of us all. Just to see crusty media members shaking his hand at the end, knowing at 34, after 11 seasons in the NFL and in the final year of his contract, this could be it for the big guy who has played and started now 162 games in his 11-year NFL career.
Zack says this is not the time to have those discussions about his football future, that "I think those decisions will be a little clearer when I get my body healthy and see what the future holds for me."
For him, yep.
And you know what? On this day for the injury-riddled season of the 2024 Cowboys, their immediate future, starting with the Bengals on Monday, is up in the air, too, Jones saying, "Let's get this Cincinnati group. They are better than their record."
We'll see, but better stay tuned.
