Training camp for the Dallas Cowboys has arrived, and it’s now time to get a good look at what type of players will be donning the star this season. The team has a lot of good players, but the question will be, do they have enough good players, and are those good players spread out across the roster?
Recently, former Cowboys’ coach Jimmy Johnson sat down with the media and was asked about the most important thing this year for them to be successful, and here is what he said...
The biggest thing for
ADthe Cowboys - it’s a big thing for any team - is to stay healthy. I think it’s probably more important for the Cowboys to stay healthy for a couple reasons,” Johnson explained. “No. 1, they’re top-heavy salary wise. And so their 53-man roster may not be quite as talented at the bottom the as some of these other teams.”
The Cowboys were decimated by injuries last year, and relying on their depth is always going to be important. That raises the question: do they have enough depth? When injuries rear their ugly head, how well will this Cowboys team be able to handle them? While there are still many questions that remain to be answered, let’s run through each position group and get a sense of how we feel about the team’s depth.
QUARTERBACK
All eyes will be on Joe Milton III to see if he has what it takes to be a viable replacement should Dak Prescott miss games. This is the most important depth piece for the Cowboys, not just because of the significance of the position, but because Prescott will be 32 next week and has missed an average of 6.5 games over the last five seasons. A good showing from Milton will be huge for this football team heading into the new season.
RUNNING BACK
From most important to least important. And that is not because running back doesn’t matter. It does. But it’s because there isn’t a huge difference between the team’s RB1 and RB4. In fact, we’re not even sure where everyone fits in. It’s believed that Javonte Williams is first up to be the lead dog, but we’ll be pulling for anyone to step up and prove themselves worthy, whether it’s Jaydon Blue, Miles Sanders, or Phil Mafah.
WIDE RECEIVER
The trade for George Pickens makes us feel better about this position group, so now we’ll just sit back and see how the rest of the depth unfolds. Injuries happen, so it would be nice to see one of their numerous options take a nice step forward. Will Jalen Tolbert build off his best year as a pro? Will Jonathan Mingo prove to the masses that he was worth that fourth-round pick? Honestly, we’re not picky. Jalen Brooks, Ryan Flournoy, or new free agent Parris Campbell are all options. And let’s not forget that KaVontae Turpin is a receiver weapon as long as he stays out of trouble and drives the speed limit.
TIGHT END
The team has some intriguing undrafted free agent options battling it out for the last tight end spots. Incumbents like Brevyn Spann-Ford, John Stephens Jr., and Princeton Fant now have two new guys, Rivaldo Fairweather and Tyler Neville, in the mix. As much as the team’s new offensive coordinator, Klayton Adams, loves to use tight ends, it should be interesting to see how all that plays out. But they also need someone like Luke Schoonmaker or possibly Spann-Ford to take a step forward and be capable of filling Jake Ferguson’s shoes should he get hurt. It’s worth noting that Schoonmaker started to look good in the short stints when he filled in for Ferguson last season.
OFFENSIVE LINE
The Cowboys are loaded with depth here. Brock Hoffman and T.J. Bass, who were once forced into starting roles, join veteran guard Robert Jones as interior line reserves. Jones started all 17 games for the Dolphins last year. The Cowboys don’t have a lot of depth at tackle, but they do have Asim Richards, who is entering his third year and already has 220 offensive snaps in his career. Not that we want to jinx it, but the team appears to be sitting in good shape along the offensive line.
DEFENSIVE LINE
The team is stacked with great edge rushing options, which is nice considering how hard this group was hit last year. It’s going to be tough for new defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus to figure out playing time because he has so many good options available. Moving inside is a different story. Free agent Solomon Thomas brings some nice 3-tech depth, but they don’t have much at nose. Mazi Smith and the rookie Jay Toia are the only defensive players they have on the roster over 310 pounds, and like a broken record, this could once again be an area of concern for the Cowboys.
LINEBACKER
There are a lot of questions with this position group as we’re not even sure how the starters will shake out. Kenneth Murray Jr., Marist Liufau, and Jack Sanborn will be in the mix, but if the team has to rely on Damone Clark or the rookie Shemar James early or often, that could be a big problem.
CORNERBACK
Yikes. This one is scary without even getting to the depth, and that is because the group is already banged up. Trevon Diggs, Shavon Revel Jr., and Josh Butler are all recovering from knee injuries. This means DaRon Bland, Kaiir Elam, and Israel Mukuamu are the team’s top options at the moment. If they get hurt before they get healthy, this could be a giant mess.
SAFETY
The team has some good depth here. Malik Hooker and Donovan Wilson provide quality veteran presence in the secondary, but they also have Markquese Bell and Juanyeh Thomas. And there’s been some buzz about rookie undrafted free agent Alijah Clark, who could make things interesting as well. The Cowboys are great at safety, but their backups are solid, and there might not be much of a difference between them.
Looking at all the positions, here is the list of the “next men up” for each area with colors indicating if they are sitting pretty (green), okay or unknown (yellow), or in deep trouble (red).
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This tells us that on offense, there aren’t any glaring concerns, but there are some unknowns. Defensively, they are sitting in good shape for most of the positions, but have a couple of big weak spots. Things will change after training camp, which will give us a better sense of things, but how do you feel about their depth right now?
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