One of the biggest surprises from a disappointing 2025 season was seeing second-year wide receiver Ryan Flournoy take on a bigger role in the Cowboys offense. Flournoy, a 2024 sixth-round pick out of Southeast Missouri, played in 11 games his rookie year as a role player, but stepped into a much bigger role last season as a key contributor.
Flournoy was waived in August, but was thankfully not claimed by another team and signed back to the Cowboys practice squad. Flournoy was signed to the active
roster on September 9th and immediately started making an impact on offense when called upon.
With CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, and Jake Ferguson getting a majority of the work from the Cowboys’ receivers, it was impressive to see Flournoy post two 100-yard receiving games throughout the season, and he really blossomed into the teams WR3 towards the end of the season, where he averaged 35 receiving yards and caught two touchdowns over the final five games of the 2025 regular season.
In an offense that possesses two dynamic weapons, it sometimes hard for the role players to stand out, but Flournoy has impressed in limited opportunities, and he’s carrying over a hot end to the 2025 season with a hot start to the Cowboys 2026 OTA practices. It seems to be a common theme every offseason for a Cowboys receiver to really shine over the course of an entire offseason, but struggle to carry offseason success into the regular season. Being that we’ve already seen Flournoy have success in the NFL during the regular season, year three for Flournoy is already picking up some buzz from Cowboys’ beat writers and analysts around the NFL.
With Jalen Tolbert now in Miami and KaVontae Turpin struggling as a receiver the last season or two, Ryan Flournoy is penciled in as the Cowboys WR3, and while some may be writing that in with a pencil, early indications say that should be written in with a permanent marker.
How many yards and TDs do you think Flournoy will get in 2026?
