Stephen Jones said the Cowboys are getting a defensive ‘quarterback’ back, and no one is talking about it – Mauricio Rodriguez, A to Z Sports
The Cowboys have really struggled at safety all season. Will getting Malik Hooker back help at all?
Hooker was placed on Injured Reserve in early October after he suffered a toe injury during the Cowboys’
tie to the Green Bay Packers in Week 4. Now, he’s trending toward returning from injury, though it remains unclear if he’ll be ready to go for Week 11. It sounds likely based on Jones’ comments.
“Getting Hooker back is going to be a big deal,” Jones told 105.3 The Fan during an interview Monday. “He’s the quarterback back there, and he’ll make a big difference.”
That’s big praise for Hooker, who specializes on being the defense’s rangy, high safety covering sideline to sideline.
Paired with Revel Jr., Hooker’s return could mean two reinforcements for the Cowboys defense on the secondary. However, it remains if the rookie gets as much playing time as the fanbase would want him to.
Revel is going to be a work in progress because he hasn’t played any football until the last couple of weeks,” Jones added. “We’ll see with him.”
For now, one thing is clear: The Cowboys defense will look different when it takes the field against the Las Vegas Raiders come Nov. 17. Now the question is, will it look better?
Final 8 games could set Cowboys up for solid draft spot – Shane Taylor, Inside The Star
The best thing the Cowboys have going for them may still be their future draft picks, which stand to improve if the team doesn’t play better off the bye.
The Dallas Cowboys start the second half of the season on Monday Night Football again against the Las Vegas Raiders. That is a game they should win just like we thought they should beat the Cardinals at home.
Then they play the Eagles, Chiefs, Lions, Vikings, Chargers and Commanders.
Philly, Kansas City and the Lions are all going to make the playoffs, and teams that will be looking to stay as high up in the standings as possible. The Vikings have looked good and the Chargers are looking better every week.
Dallas is 3-5-1, and the way it looks now, I think they win four more games and finish the season 7-9-1, miss the playoffs and are probably looking at the middle of the pack draft spot, but a lot of teams are going to finish with double-digit wins this year, and Dallas is losing to a lot of the middle of the pack teams, so that will allow them to stay ahead of them in draft position.
Dallas has two first round picks in 2026, a 4th, 5th and 6th. I will be rooting for the Packers to lose as many games as possible so that the pick they have from the Micah Parsons trade is not near the bottom.
Stephen Jones on ‘heartbreaking’ passing of Marshawn Kneeland – Tommy Yarrish, DallasCowboys.com
The NFL world was all thinking of Marshawn Kneeland in week ten, before the Cowboys make an emotional return to the field in week 11.
For the first time on Monday, Cowboys COO/co-owner Stephen Jones spoke on Kneeland’s passing.
“This is very difficult,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan. “I can’t imagine for his family. And then of course, you talk about his extended family, which is his teammates and the Cowboys organization and everybody who cared and loved Marshawn so much.”
Jones said that he received a phone call on Thursday night about the situation, one of the late-night phone calls that universally never are for something good. In his words, the type of call he received was “heartbreaking, tragic, and just the worst thing you can imagine.”
“Any time you get news like that, your heart just, obviously it’s like a hole going through it,” Jones added. “You’re just heartbroken. Certainly hoping that that wasn’t the case… Woke up and was hoping it was a dream, but unfortunately it wasn’t.”
Dating back to last Thursday, when Kneeland passed, and into Sunday’s NFL slate, teams across the league honored him with a moment of silence ahead of kickoff, which was a touching tribute.
“Whenever I’ve personally been involved in losing somebody, it always is good for your heart and soul when people either observe moments of silence or they send notes or whatever their method is of letting them know you’re thinking about you,” Jones said.
Cowboys to design decal, wear shirts to honor Marshawn Kneeland – Todd Archer, ESPN
The Cowboys will honor Kneeland over the next few weeks.
The Dallas Cowboys have several tributes planned to honor teammate Marshawn Kneeland, who died Thursday while the team was on its bye week.
The Cowboys will wear helmet decals for the remainder of the season in remembrance of Kneeland; teammates will come up with the final design. They also will wear special T-shirts before next week’s game against the Raiders and the Nov. 23 game against the Eagles, which will be the Cowboys’ first at AT&T Stadium since Kneeland’s death.
In addition to a moment of silence, the Cowboys will have a video tribute for Kneeland before the Eagles game, as well as other tributes before the contest.
News of the planned tributes comes after the team returned to The Star on Monday for the first time since Kneeland’s death. Internal and external counselors have been made available to the players, coaches and staff.
Rookie draft steal could spark Cowboys’ revamped defense post-bye: ‘You can see it’ – Todd Brock, The Cowboys Wire
Shavon Revel was drafted exactly one round after the Cowboys best rookie defender Donovan Ezeiruaku, and he will be needed when fully healthy.
“Having him out there, having him at practice the last few weeks has been great,” Cowboys secondary/cornerbacks coach David Overstreet told reporters last week. “You see his movement skills are there and starting to come back.”
Revel was tabbed by many to be the steal of the 2025 draft, a first-round talent who had fallen to the third round due to a knee injury 14 months ago. The Cowboys, however, say they want to keep their expectations in check when he finally makes his long-awaited NFL debut, even in a secondary that desperately needs a shot in the arm.
“What I want to see from ‘Von is [to] just go out there and play with the energy that he has and a love for the game he has,” Overstreet explained. “Like, this dude is always on my coattails, asking me stuff. I was like, ‘Von, I’ve got to answer this other person’s question before I can answer yours,’ like that. But that’s what’s so exciting about him, is that his passion and eagerness to be out there, it’s magnetic. And it spills over to everybody.”
The Cowboys are just as eager to find a fix for their pass defense. The unit is currently allowing, on average, 254.4 passing yards per game. Only three teams are giving up more. And the 22 passing touchdowns they’ve permitted are tied for the most in the NFC, but they’ve done it having played one less game than Washington.
