The season is done, and it didn’t end in a way most Dallas Cowboys fans wanted. They lost their final game of the season to the New York Giants and it wasn’t pretty. But how did the Cowboys rookie class perform in their final game of their inaugural season? Let’s jump in and find out.
OG Tyler Booker
(Game stats- Snaps: 55, Pass Blocks: 27, Pressures: 2, Sacks: 0, Penalties: 0)
Booker went the distance at right guard against the Giants, logging all 55 offensive snaps in the 34–17 loss at MetLife Stadium, and this
was one of the few weeks where the rookie’s pass protection visibly wobbled. Head coach Brian Schottenheimer referenced in the breakdown after the game that Cooper Beebe allowed four pressures and Booker two, which he called one of the highest totals Booker has had all year, a clear sign this wasn’t his cleanest outing in protection.
Even so, the damage was limited on the stat sheet. The Giants finished with zero sacks and just one quarterback hit on Dak Prescott and Joe Milton combined, so those three pressures were mostly hurries rather than free shots on the passer. Coming into Week 18, Booker had 23 pressures, six QB hits, three sacks and seven penalties on 604 pass-blocking snaps, so adding three more pressures nudges that total up but doesn’t fundamentally change the profile of a rookie who’s been one of the league’s steadier young guards over the season.
In the run game, the interior with Booker part of the core helped Dallas to 30 rushes for 143 yards, with both Jaydon Blue and Phil Mafah scoring on inside runs, which fits the Cowboys’ offensive line ability to create running lanes between the tackles. Overall, this was a slight step down from Bookers usual standard who’s built his rookie résumé on keeping the pocket clean. But with no sacks surrendered, no glaring one-on-one losses that turned into strip-sacks or drive-killing negatives, and solid work in the running game, it reads fine rather than an off-night from a very good rookie that yet again had a day with no red flags.
DE Donovan Ezeiruaku
(Game stats- Snaps: 23, Total Tackles: 1, Pressures: 1, Sacks: Should be 1, TFL: 0)
Ezeiruaku’s day against the Giants was a snapshot of how quickly a rookie edge rusher’s afternoon can swing from promising to disastrous. On the stat sheet he finished with just one tackle, no sacks, no tackles for loss and no recorded QB hits, a tiny line in a game where the Cowboys still produced four sacks and six quarterback hits on Jaxson Dart but gave up 380 total yards and 34 points.
The cruel part is that his best moment never counted. Late in the second quarter he beat the edge clean and buried Dart for what should have been his third sack of the season, only for a 15-yard tripping flag on Marcus Mbow to wipe the play out. On the field, Jadeveon Clowney was even lobbying Brian Schottenheimer to decline the penalty so the rookie could keep the sack, but the staff took the yards, pushed the Giants back to 1st-and-25 and then saw Kenneth Murray gift them the drive back with an unnecessary roughness flag that helped set up Daniel Bellinger’s touchdown.
In the third quarter things completely unraveled after Dart’s touchdown to Tyrone Tracy Jr.. A midfield scrum broke out and Ezeiruaku ripped the helmet off guard Greg Van Roten, drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and an automatic ejection. In a professional read, it goes down as one of Ezeiruaku’s worst outings with a mostly quiet performance as a rusher on a defense that again leaked yards, and a loss of composure in a fight that got him tossed and put an ugly full stop on what had otherwise been a very encouraging rookie season.
RB Jaydon Blue
(Game stats- Snaps: 33, Rush Attempts: 17, Rush Yards: 64, YPC: 4.0, TD: 1)
Blue was one of the few genuine positives for Dallas against the Giants, and the box score backs that up. He carried 16 times for 64 yards and his first NFL touchdown, plus a long of 27 yards, accounting for over 40% of the Cowboys’ rushing attempts and nearly half of their ground production in the 34–17 loss. The touchdown was a 14-yard burst where he pressed inside, bounced off traffic and finished through contact, showing the vision and leg drive needed to get more playing time next season.
From an efficiency standpoint, Blue recorded four yards per carry on a day when the offense was chasing the game, especially behind a line that was up and down in pass protection and facing loaded boxes once Dak Prescott left and the Cowboys leaned more heavily on the run. There weren’t many obvious negatives beyond the fact he didn’t factor in the passing game and wasn’t in position to change the result once the Giants pulled away. Blue’s performance against New York looks like the clearest on-field argument yet that he deserves a role in the Cowboys’ backfield rotation heading into 2026. It’s whether he can consistent, which for now is the big question.
LB Shemar James
(Game stats- Snaps: 72, Total Tackles: 15 TFL: 0, Sacks: 0.5)
James closed the season with one of his most productive outings in the loss to the Giants, even if it came in a defensive effort that ultimately wasn’t good enough. He was on the field almost all night, playing 72 defensive snaps land led the Cowboys with 15 total tackles. He also notched a half-sack and one quarterback hit, combining with Osa Odighizuwa to bring Jaxson Dart down for a two-yard loss. This Giants tape looks busy and encouraging, but not transformative from James. He showed he can handle a true starter’s workload, fly around and make plays behind the line on occasion, yet he was also part of a front seven that never really got Dart or the Giants’ ground game under control.
RB Phil Mafah
(Game stats- Snaps: 10, Rush Attempts: 5, Rush Yards: 18, YPC: 3.6, TD: 1)
Mafah’s debut against the Giants was small-sample, high-impact work. He played 10 offensive snaps, all in the second half, and he turned that into five carries for 18 yards and his first NFL touchdown, meaning along with Blue, makes them both the fifth rookie duo in team history to both score a touchdown in a game.
The headline moment came early in the fourth quarter. Mafah finished a goal-line series with a 1-yard plunge off right tackle, trimming the deficit to 24–17 and briefly putting Dallas right back in the game. It wasn’t spectacular in isolation, but it was exactly what the Cowboys drafted him for with decisive downhill play and power. On his other carries he churned out tough, contested yards, averaging 3.6 per rush, and he didn’t put the ball at risk or take any negative runs that killed drives.
Given how little volume he had, this isn’t a game that will spike his advanced grades, but Mafah maximized a limited role, punched in a short-yardage score, ran with the physical profile Dallas expected, and did enough to justify being part of the 2026 backfield conversation rather than just a late-season afterthought.
LB Justin Barron
(Game stats- Snaps: 13, Total Tackles: 0)
*Snap count are all special team snaps*
Barron’s day against the Giants was as limited as it gets from a defensive evaluation standpoint. He didn’t play a single snap on defense, with his entire contribution coming on special teams, where he logged 13 snaps in the kicking game. In that role he did the unglamorous work coaches care about with running lanes, taking on blocks, and fitting his assignments. There were no penalties or obvious busts tied to him, so his performance lands in that neutral zone that’s typical for a young depth safety late in the year.
CB Trikweze Bridges
(Game stats- Snaps: 56, Total Tackles: 5, PD: 0, INT: 0, RTG Allowed: 39.6)
Bridges stepped into a full-time outside role against the Giants and had a busy, if imperfect, afternoon. With Shavon Revel out, he played 56 defensive snaps, starter volume for the first time in weeks, finishing with five total tackles and no passes defensed, interceptions, sacks or forced fumbles. His stat line basically tells the story, he was around the ball a lot, cleaning up on the perimeter and downfield, but he didn’t produce any true impact plays in coverage or as a blitzer. That’s enough on tape to show he belongs on an NFL field, but still clearly in the developmental bucket.
The most telling sequence of his day came early in the third quarter, when Tyrone Tracy Jr. bounced a run outside left for a 15-yard gain before Bridges finally dragged him down, emblematic of how often the Giants’ backs got to the edge or to the second level before a Cowboys linebackers could finish. He also combined on a short-area tackle of Tracy on a checkdown later, again more as the last line than as the guy blowing the play up in the backfield. With Jaxson Dart throwing efficiently and Tracy piling up the yards, New York clearly won the matchup on Bridges’ side often enough to keep drives alive, even if there wasn’t a single glaring bust pinned solely on him.
Overall, this was a learning-on-the-job outing. He handled a heavy snap load without melting down, showed willingness to tackle, but didn’t offer the kind of tight coverage or playmaking that would change the tone of the loss, and it reinforced that he heads into 2026 as a promising but still raw depth corner rather than a locked-in starter.
CB Shavon Revel Jr.
Inactive
OT Ajani Cornelius
Inactive
DT Jay Toia
Inactive
WR Traeshon Holden
Practice squad
TE Rivaldo Fairweather
Practice squad
DB Alijah Clark
Inactive
