Malik Davis reflects on first career 100 yard game: ‘It’s a great feeling’ – Tommy Yarrish, DallasCowboys.com
With Javonte Williams set to hit free agency, Malik Davis is about to become an even more important name to remember in the Cowboys backfield.
Then Davis re-signed with the Cowboys a day before their first
preseason game, and there was something different.
“He was a different person,” Schottenheimer said. “The way he approached everything from the preparation, from the professionalism, everything was different. And that’s the power of being on the outside looking in, and the day he came back and walked into Oxnard and I saw him, I knew it was different.”
Sure enough, less than a day after arriving in Oxnard for training camp, Davis played against the Rams and wound up leading the team in rushing with 63 yards on seven carries.
Fast forward to the regular season, and despite being waived and re-signed to the practice squad twice and being named to the active roster twice as well, Davis has carved himself a role as the Cowboys’ second option at running back behind Javonte Williams, where he’s second on the team with 250 yards and two touchdowns on 52 carries in 10 games.
On Christmas against the Commanders, all of the gymnastics and uncertainty paid off. With Williams nursing a shoulder injury, the Cowboys leaned on Davis to get the job done on the ground against Washington, who was slowly but sure climbing back into the game. Davis responded by posting his first-career 100 yard rushing game with 103 yards on 20 carries.
“When you go out and you’re able to show the work you’ve been putting in, it’s very fulfilling. It always feels good.” Davis said.
The approach that Davis has taken is simple: Prove himself not to the people, but to his peers, teammates and coaches.
The son of one of the most iconic Cowboys ever is declaring for the NFL Draft, and he could help fill a team need in Dallas – Mauricio Rodriguez, A to Z Sports
If the Cowboys do look to the draft to add talent at RB, they could do something very cool.
With Javonte Williams set for free agency after a career year, the future is blurry for the Dallas Cowboys running back position. So it’s only likely that make additions to the room at some point in the offseason. Well, they’ll have the option to add the son of one of the most iconic players in team history.
That’s because Texas A&M running back EJ Smith IV, the son of Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith, announced on social media he is declaring for the 2026 NFL Draft. And if the Cowboys are interested, they should have a strong chance of landing his services.
Cowboys could likely land EJ Smith IV if they want to
Despite the direct relationship to Emmitt Smith, EJ’s draft stock isn’t considered to be very high. According to the consensus board, he currently ranks as the 707th best prospect in the 2026 class.
That doesn’t mean Smith IV isn’t worth taking a shot on. He’ll arrive at the NFL with plenty of experience under his belt after spending four years at Stanford before closing his collegiate career with the Aggies.
Smith was a four-star prospect coming out of high school and was a 2020 Under Armour All-America Bowl participant.
Despite drafting multiple running backs in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Cowboys barely saw the rookies take the field. And with Williams being a pending free agent, I wouldn’t be surprised if the front offices seeks additional young RB options next spring. The team has had success targeting UDFA running backs, and you can bet Jerry Jones will be intrigued with the idea of bringing in the son of Emmitt.
How would you rate Brian Schottenhiemer’s 1st season as head coach? – Shane Taylor, Inside The Star
One question Cowboys fans will have months to ponder after Sunday afternoon’s season finale.
Two weeks before the season started, Jerry Jones decided to trade his best defensive player, so he had to start the year without Micah Parsons. I think he handled that really well.
In terms of how he handled that, being a leader of men and holding a sinking ship together from the start was impressive.
I truly thought that they would win maybe five games, and that was with a healthy Dak Prescott, and as we know, they have one of the best offenses in football, they just can’t stop a parked car in a school zone.
I feel like it is very hard to give him anything above a 6 and that is the rating that I am going to settle with.
When they beat the Eagles and Chiefs in those back-to-back games, it made things a bit exciting, yet the defense was just not good enough, and at times the offense did not adjust in the second half as you saw other teams do against Dallas.
He has a lot to build on going into next year, but I would like Jerry to allow him to build the staff if Matt Eberflus gets let go.
9 more coaches the Cowboys should consider to fix their defense in 2026 – David Howman, Blogging The Boys
The most obvious area where Schottenheimer’s staff will look different in year two is on defense, with Dallas likely looking for a new coordinator.
Wink Martindale
Not too long ago, Don “Wink” Martindale was the bell of the coaching ball. His ascension to defensive coordinator with the Ravens ushered in a new era of defensive dominance for Baltimore, perfectly pairing with the explosive emergence of Lamar Jackson on offense.
The gruff, aggressive mastermind eventually left for the Giants, partially due to disagreements with head coach John Harbaugh. There, he crafted a defense that routinely punched above its weight in his first year on Brian Daboll’s staff, during which the Giants surprised everyone with a playoff run.
But the personalities of Daboll and Martindale were like oil and water. The rocky relationship came to a head when Daboll fired Martindale’s top defensive assistants without informing him first, which led to Martindale cursing him out and resigning on the spot.
That led Martindale back to school, running the defense at Michigan following Jim Harbaugh’s departure for the NFL. The Wolverines finished both years inside the top 25 in the nation in both scoring and yards allowed. But with a new head coach coming to Ann Arbor, and reportedly bringing in a new defensive coordinator, Martindale appears to be available.
Martindale was known for being one of the most blitz-happy coaches in the league, routinely finishing at or near the top in blitz rate every year. While the approach didn’t always work against certain quarterbacks, his defenses were always a challenge for whoever they faced that week.
Clint Hurtt
If Schottenheimer decides he wants to pursue a recreation of the Legion of Boom, Clint Hurtt would be one way to go. We highlighted Ken Norton Jr. in the last list of candidates, and Hurtt brings a similar profile. Currently the defensive line coach for the Eagles, Hurtt spent seven seasons with the Seahawks, overlapping with Schottenheimer’s run there.
Hurtt came to Seattle as the defensive line coach in 2017 after serving under Vic Fangio with the Bears. When Seattle moved on from the aforementioned Norton, and as Pete Carroll sought to integrate some of the two-high safety schemes of Fangio, Hurtt was promoted to coordinator for the first time in his career.
Hurtt inherited a defense that had lost pretty much all of the key players from the Legion of Boom and they were in the midst of a rebuild on the fly. Hurtt didn’t lead a turnaround, and the Seahawks were actually 31st in EPA/play over the two years he led the defense, but Seattle was short on defensive talent as well.
When Carroll stepped down after the 2023 season, Hurtt went to Philadelphia to reunite with Fangio, where he’s helped maintain the franchise’s run of elite defensive linemen. Hiring Hurtt would be risky, for sure, but he would also offer some familiarity for Schottenheimer as well as bringing over the Fangio style scheme that’s taken the league by storm.
Mediocre Cowboys can set rare NFL record if they do Week 18 correctly – K.D. Drummond, The Cowboys Wire
You have to dig deep to find things to watch for between two eliminated teams in the Cowboys and Giants this Sunday.
But when the two teams meet, the Cowboys will be in pursuit of a long-standing NFL record. Reddit former r/NFL user JPAnalyst uncovered a hard-to-believe stat that is absolutely true and will be worth watching, even though the likelihood is slim.
Entering the contest with a record of 7-8-1, The Cowboys have a rare shot to finish .500 in a season with 17 games. Ties are rare in the first place, but a tie while also finishing with an even win-loss record has only happened one other time. The 2022 Washington Commanders are the only team that has accomplished said feat since the league moved to 17 games in 2021.
But if the Commanders have done it, that clearly isn’t the feat the Cowboys can become the first ever to accomplish.
No, for the Cowboys to earn their place in mediocre team history, they’ll need to win by a specific margin: 23 points.
Dallas enters Week 18 with a -23 point differential. Only once in the history of the league has a team finished .500 with a net point differential of zero. That occurred way back in 1984, when Sam Wyche’s Cincinnati Bengals pulled it off.
