Your Sunday morning Cowboys news.
Cowboys LB Micah Parsons to return after 4-game absence-Todd Archer, ESPN
The Cowboys will get one of their premier players back in their lineup.
Micah Parsons will make his return to the Dallas Cowboys’ defense Sunday against the Philadelphia, sources told ESPN Saturday.
Parsons missed the past four games with a high left ankle sprain suffered in the fourth quarter of the Cowboys’ Week 4 win against the New York Giants. He was able to take part in three practices during the week on a limited basis and was officially listed as questionable.
Despite the prolonged absence, Parsons still leads the Cowboys in quarterback pressures (21) and is two off the team lead in sacks, currently held by DeMarcus Lawrence with three. Lawrence, with a midfoot sprain, has also missed the past four games.
Asked Wednesday whether he would see a full allotment of snaps if active Sunday, Parsons said, “Once I’m playing, I’m playing. That’s just the competitor in me. I was banged up plenty of times and I’m just like once I’m competing, I’m competing. It’s hard to restrain that.”
The Cowboys, however, are expected to keep a close eye on his work during the game. Parsons played in 85% of the defensive snaps in the first four games of the season. He was credited with 18 tackles, 1 sack, 1 tackle for loss and 1 pass deflection.
Dak Prescott injury update: Cowboys QB likely to undergo season-ending surgery on hamstring – Jordan Dajani, CBS Sports
It’s looking very likely that Dak Prescott’s season is done.
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott suffered a partially torn hamstring in the Week 9 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. He was originally expected to miss several weeks, but now reportedly faces to miss the remainder of the 2024 season.
Prescott is expected to undergo season-ending surgery on his hamstring, with a final decision coming early next week, CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones reports. Prescott was not placed on injured reserve Saturday, which led many to wonder if he would miss more than four weeks, or return in fewer than four weeks. Ultimately, it appears likely Prescott will be turning his attention to 2025.
Cooper Rush will replace Prescott as the Cowboys’ starting quarterback, although head coach Mike McCarthy told CBS Sports’ Tracy Wolfson that there’s a chance we see former No. 3 overall pick Trey Lance in some packages.
This week, NFL Media reported Prescott’s initial diagnosis was a partial avulsion of his hamstring tendon, meaning the hamstring was partially torn off the bone. Cowboys COO Stephen Jones said on 105.3 The Fan, (H/T The Athletic), that Prescott would be placed on injured reserve, but didn’t know if the QB would be sidelined four weeks, six weeks or the entire season.
50% of Cowboys’ cap space, $127 million, won’t see field vs Eagles in Week 10, K.D. Drummond, Cowboys Wire
Money (not) well spent. There’ll be a lot of money on the sidelines when the Cowboys play tomorrow.
The Dallas Cowboys and Jerry Jones have not come close to capitalizing on their investment in 2024. After spending the entire offseason telling fans that they had to protect the books, the financials are kicking their tails on the way to a lost season.
Thanks to a myriad of offseason decisions and untimely injuries, the Cowboys are going to take the field Sunday with barely 50% of their cap space in use against the Philadelphia Eagles.
How much?
$105.7 million worth; over 41% of 2024’s salary cap of $255.4 million..
When combined with their $21 million in available space, that brings the total to $126.7 million of space that won’t be on the field in Week 10.
Led by Dak Prescott’s $40 million and DeMarcus Lawrence’s $20 million cap hits, Dallas has over 20 entries in their ledger of players who will not be able to contribute to the team against the Eagles
Cowboys veterans that could be benched as 2024 season falters – Mark Heaney, Inside the Star
With the Cowboys season on the rocks, is time running out for Elliott?
Last week, Ezekiel Elliott was suspended for a game by the team for “disciplinary” reasons. As it turns out, he had missed three team meetings through the season, and his absence on Fridays before the Falcons game was the “last straw.”
I saw quite a few Cowboys fans, including myself, asking the same question: why is he still on the roster?
At this point, there shouldn’t be any reason that Elliott gets snaps over them, and if he isn’t being helpful in the locker room as a veteran presence, he doesn’t need to be on the roster.
I was a fan of the signing this offseason, but it’s clear that this reunion is just not turning out well. It’s time to move on and start remembering the good times with Zeke.
Cowboys Point/Counterpoint: To tank or not to tank, David Howman & Tom Ryle, Blogging the Boys
Should the team lose if they ultimately want to win?
Tom: Count me in on team tank. Barring a near superhuman performance from Rush, and a lot better play from just about everyone else still healthy enough to take the field, this is as you said a lost cause. I’d even say to just name Trey Lance the starter now. The team needs to see what they have in him, because Prescott just cannot seem to stay healthy. They need to come up with a plan for the future at quarterback, and putting Lance out there to both evaluate and develop would let them know where they stand.
The biggest problem with that is getting Mike McCarthy to go along. That is highly questionable unless he has given up on keeping his job. We all know he is gone, but that doesn’t mean he is ready to give up the fight. It would take a direct order from Jerry Jones. That to me is not nearly as unlikely as McCarthy willingly going in the tank.
David: I agree that McCarthy is never going to willingly accept the role of Tank Commander. Even if Jerry directly instructed him to do so, I believe he’d resign before doing that. That said, they don’t need McCarthy to be in on it. The Cowboys are already doing a good enough job of tanking as is, and keeping Rush under center helps that the most. This defense is going to get better with Micah Parsons coming back, but he’s not going to fix the run defense or keep Trevon Diggs from forgetting how to play man coverage. And the offense already struggled to score in the red zone, and I don’t think Rush fixes that.
Trey Lance probably doesn’t either, but he’s got the athletic upside to where you might get lucky one of these days and get a supernova performance from him. With Rush, we know what we’re getting, and that’s a team that’s good enough to back up the claim that we’re still trying while still ensuring a top 10 draft pick.
