All year long we’ve looked at the rookie class and given previews and reviews on each player for every game of the season. Now let’s look back the season in its entirety and breakdown each rookie and how
they performed. Let’s continue with seventh-round running back Phil Mafah.
Season stats- Snaps: 10, Rush Attempts: 5, Rush Yards: 18, YPC: 3.6, TD: 1
Mafah’s rookie season was almost entirely in the shadows, but Week 18 at MetLife at least gave him something real to hang his helmet on. He was inactive all year, partly due to injury, until the finale against the Giants. In that game he did exactly what a back in his role is supposed to do, run hard, protect the ball, finish drives. On a small workload he logged five carries for 18 yards and punched in his first NFL touchdown on a short-yardage plunge, plus chipped in as a checkdown option. For a player who spent 17 weeks in sweats on game day, coming out of 2025 with a score on tape still matters.
The Giants game looked like a continuation of what he showed at Clemson as a downhill, no-nonsense power back with enough vision to find the crease without dancing. On his touchdown he got in behind his pads, trusted the interior double team and finished through contact at the goal line. On his other carries he squeezed out tough yards without taking losses, which is exactly what coaches want from a third-string back late in games. He didn’t put the ball on the ground, didn’t blow a protection, and didn’t look out of place in a live NFL game after sitting all year. The sample is tiny, but the traits, size, leg drive, and willingness to hit it north–south all translated.
For 2026, the plan and expectations should be grounded but optimistic. Mafah shouldn’t be penciled in as part of the rotation yet, one game isn’t enough to demand that. But he has clearly put himself in the mix, especially in short yardage and four-minute situations where Dallas wants a heavier back to close games. Realistically, his first goal is to make himself impossible to cut and win a 53-man spot, earn special-teams work, and carve out a defined offensive role.
The coming training camp and preseason will tell us almost everything about whether he’s taken the next step. We’ll watch his reps, how many he gets and in what context, with ball security and efficiency being the goal. If he goes through the summer without fumbles and keeps turning modest blocking into positive yards, he’ll make a strong case to be more than a Week 18 try-out. Given his size/power profile, and how he looked in that Giants game, there’s a very reasonable path for Mafah to be a part of the Cowboys’ backfield picture in 2026.
