ARLINGTON, Texas – Well, that's that.
Preseason is done, the 26-19 loss to the Chargers here Saturday afternoon of no matter.
Now the pressure is on, two weeks to prepare for the season opener at Cleveland, Sunday, Sept. 8.
The roster cuts from 90 to 53 must be finalized by 3 p.m. Tuesday, then holding their breath a day hoping for desired released players to clear waivers to begin constructing a 16-man practice squad.
And for these 2024 Dallas Cowboys trying to become in the first NFC East defending champion to repeat since the Eagles from 2001-04, some things are settled, and some things have become unsettled.
Welcome to the NFL, where best-laid plans become jumbled with one misstep, so to speak.
Here is what we know is settled after 31 days in Oxnard, Calif., a total of 19 practices in training camp, including walk-throughs and two scrimmages with the Rams, as well as three preseason games.
Rookie first-round draft choice Tyler Guyton is your starting left offensive tackle. The Cowboys didn't even want to chance him playing one snap here in the final preseason game to insure health.
Rookie third-round draft choice Cooper Beebe is your starting center, having won the battle with Brock Hoffman. The Cowboys didn't even want this collegiate guard transitioning to center to chance getting injured by taking one meaningless snap in this preseason game against the Chargers.
Last year's first-round draft choice, the highly scrutinized Mazi Smith, is your starting nose tackle on defense, no matter having signed 10-year veteran Jordan Phillips and being on the precipice of bringing in 14-year veteran Linval Joseph. Making sure Mazi didn't incur some sort of injury, the guy who's had to prove himself worthy this training camp and in one preseason game, did not play even one snap.
The handwringing can stop over the backup quarterback position, still belonging to seven-year veteran Cooper Rush despite playing only 15 preseason snaps. The young Trey Lance played an overwhelming 213 of them, showing a combination of promise once again after completing 33 of 49 passes for 323 yards and a touchdown. But at the same time, proving not ready for primetime on Saturday, getting intercepted an astonishing five times, the final one overthrowing a wide open receiver near the end zone that possibly would have tied the game in the final seconds.
All leaving the disappointed Lance saying, "My confidence isn't going anywhere. This sucks," and resigning again to his third QB status.
And for sure the committee at running back is nearly set, once again Ezekiel Elliott and Rico Dowdle not playing in this game, their status set in stone. And on top of that, working to preserve his health, the Cowboys did not play fullback Hunter Luepke a single snap either. That's three. There is room for at least one more at the adult table, maybe two – depending on how things shake out at tight end – and thinking Deuce Vaughn and Royce Freeman have the lead there.
Unsettled?
Why, for sure this one had to make you cringe when learning All-Pro cornerback and last year's NFL interception leader DaRon Bland suffered a stress fracture of his fifth metatarsal in the final padded practice of training camp this past Wednesday. He will be out six to eight weeks, needing foot surgery to accelerate his recovery. Six means he's missing at least four games. If eight is enough, means likely not returning until after the Oct. 20 bye. That would be six games.
Here is some personal insight on fractured fifth metatarsals. Doc told me if I needed to make a living playing football, they would have done surgery to accelerate recovery and have me back in maybe four to six weeks. But says since you're not even close to being a professional athlete, you're in a boot, crutches and grounded from playing tennis for three months.
This injury puts the Cowboys in triple jeopardy. First, they must find a third corner. Second, understand the first corner, Trevon Diggs, is returning from having torn his ACL early last season. The former NFL interception leader from 2021 will be playing his first game snaps in just less than one year come Sept. 8, having played not a one in the preseason. And we know the old saying about that cautionary tale of the first year returning from torn ACLs.
And third, chances are the guy who is being considered the team's fourth corner behind Bland, Diggs and Jourdan Lewis will now be the third, but who is the fourth? Who becomes the guy one injury away from having to become the third corner in the interim? And look back no further for how problematic that can become than last season's playoff game when Stephon Gilmore suffered a shoulder injury in the season finale in need of eventual surgery. And because the Cowboys didn't trust their fourth corner Nahshon Wright to become the third, they decided to harness up Gilmore and play more zone than man.
How'd that turn out? Green Bay's Jordan Love, making his NFL playoff debut, went 16 for 21 (76.2 percent) for 272 yards, three touchdowns and a QB rating of 157.2, just 1.1 points from perfection.
So here we go, knowing re-signing Gilmore no longer is an option, the veteran inking a one-year deal this past week with the Vikings for a $7 million base and a chance to potentially earn $10 million, much too rich for the Cowboys' salary cap blood. At first blush, since the Cowboys didn't chance him playing in this final preseason game, fifth-round draft choice Caelen Carson, who had an impressive training camp, will be the initial choice to start in Bland's place.
The last time the Cowboys started a rookie corner in a season opener would have been Diggs in 2020, but Diggs was a second-round pick. Before that, second-round pick Chidobe Awuzie didn't start but played 38 snaps as the third corner in the 2017 opener.
OK, fine, at this point start Carson. But who is the next man up, the guy the Cowboys would need to rely on if one of the top three corners is injured?
Well, TBD. No clear-cut answer at this point, and let's not exclude scouring the waiver wire come 3:01 p.m. Tuesday after 31 other teams each release 37 players. And don't rule out making a trade for a more veteran player, and they sort of already have, swapping Wright for Minnesota's Andrew Booth, the Vikings' 2022 second-round draft choice who had only started two of 23 games the past two seasons in Minnesota while playing 256 snaps.
Since the trade, Booth has played 87 preseason snaps at corner for the Cowboys with mixed results, having been hit for two long touchdown passes in the past two preseason games.
The other likely in-house suspects besides Booth would be Josh Butler, Eric Scott, Kemon Hall and Josh DeBerry. Hall is the only one of the four to previously have played in an NFL regular-season game. The former University of North Texas all-conference corner since coming into the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2019 has appeared in just 18 games with 16 of those being for the Chargers in 2021 and two more in 2022 primarily on special teams.
That would be a big ask.
Or maybe the Cowboys can trade a future late-round draft choice for a corner with moderate experience who some team is planning on releasing anyway.
As Cowboys VP of player personnel Will McClay told us on our Countdown To Kickoff pregame show Saturday, "We stay within, but we also pay attention to the waiver wire. We feel good about the kid Carson. We feel good about the guys who already have been here, but we're always looking to improve. … We're looking at other teams as well."
No doubt.
But dang it, just when the Cowboys were planning on having two Pro Bowl, All-Pro and NFL single-season interception-leading corners manning the edges together for the first time since the 1960s, plus having the scrappy veteran Lewis in the slot, this happens. And just when this roster was settling in.
First losing defensive end Sam Williams for the season.
Now Bland temporarily.
This is worrisome.
