The Dallas Cowboys have played six games so far this season and have two wins to show for their work. Technically speaking you could say 2.5 given the tie from a few weeks back.
Understanding that ties are rare we can note that the Cowboys are in fairly uncharted waters at the moment. They are now the 15th team in franchise history to have two or fewer wins through the first six games of the season. None of the previous 14 made the playoffs.
Obviously this team’s story is still being written, but what we saw on Sunday in Carolina suggests that the genre of the story is more horror than rom-com.
Here is our stock report from the brutal loss.
Stock Up: George Pickens
The Cowboys have a superstar on their hands in George Pickens. It is a shame that his performance did not end in a win. It deserved one.
On Sunday, Pickens caught a touchdown for the fifth game in a row and as it was his sixth one overall he set a new career high for a season (the Pittsburgh Steelers have to feel some type of way about letting him go). If there is any negative associated with what we are seeing from him it is that all of these statistical accolades will serve as ammunition for him and his representation in contract negotiations next spring.
Stock Up: Jake Ferguson (on the season as a whole)
Sunday specifically wasn’t a massive day for Jake Ferguson, but he caught a touchdown for the third game in a row. It is funny to consider that he was experiencing quite the drought before that. This is easily the best season of Ferguson’s career to date and that it is happening right after Dallas gave him an extension is great to see (imagine if we had this feeling with Pickens!).
Stock Up: Donovan Ezeiruaku
During the sequence where Xavier Legette had a lateral that is difficult to explain even with the Panthers having won, Donovan Ezeiruaku had a fantastic punch out against Rico Dowdle.
The play was undone by a penalty, and while we aren’t here to celebrate something that technically didn’t happen, it was pretty cool nonetheless. Ezeiruaku had an enormous amount of hype during training camp and we have yet to see that translate. This could be representative of the fact that it is starting to take legitimate root.
Stock Up: Whoever the defensive coordinator is in 2026
This is said somewhat in jest, but we are going to be so grateful for whoever is the new defensive coordinator. Consider that last time we felt the way we do the Cowboys swapped out Mike Nolan for Dan Quinn. We have reached this point with this situation.
Stock Down: Matt Eberflus
Ah… the situation.
I am a big fan of Matt Eberflus. I celebrated his return as he had a lot of success as the Cowboys linebackers coach before leaving the team in 2018. His stint as a head coach did not go well, but it was assumed the experience would at least help from a leadership aspect (kind of like Dan Quinn just along this specific line of thought).
None of that has taken hold. We are witnessing a historically bad defense that has now made both Caleb Williams and Bryce Young look mighty. It is awkward to call for someone to be fired, but it is also difficult for the Cowboys to justify not making a move of some kind. Maybe this week will bring the classic “moving from the field to the booth” Hail Mary.
It will always be important to note that Eberflus lost his best defensive player the week before the season began, but equally so it should be said that the offensive line has been missing all sorts of players and both Klayton Adams and Conor Riley are able to survive. That is not a full excuse.
Stock Down: Kenneth Murray
The coaching is obviously bad on the Cowboys defense, but wow the talent is hardly making things better. Matt Eberflus was known for his work with Cowboys linebackers specifically, and given Kenneth Murray’s first-round pedigree, it wasn’t the biggest of reaches to think that maybe Dallas could be on the precipice of getting lucky.
No luck. Only pain. Murray is playing like one of the worst linebackers in the NFL at the moment and is an extreme liability in both the run and pass. He was part of the miscommunication (if we want to call it that) when Bryce Young found Hunter Renfrow on Carolina’s fourth-down conversion on what was their game-winning drive. Speed, a lack of it in this instance, is what wins and loses games and it is showing up in the heart of the Cowboys defense with Kenneth Murray.
Stock Down: Donovan Wilson
There was a sense of “is this really happening” with safety play when Dan Quinn was the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator. Those of us who have been around for a while vividly remember when the safety position was a serious point of weakness and Donovan Wilson has done more than enough to take us back in time without needing 1.21 gigawatts to power the DeLorean.
Any time that Donovan Wilson is in coverage it is a win for the opposing offense. He had a heroic interception against the Giants when Russell Wilson threw up an arm punt, and was also gifted one in this game. But just about every moment outside of that has been grim. He is seriously weighing down the team at this moment in the passing game.
Stock Down: Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland
It is certainly not a good thing that the Cowboys have so many members of their secondary on this list. But facts are facts and right now both Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland are hurting the collective cause.
Some of this may be scheme and what Eberflus is asking them to do. But the Cowboys’ top two cornerbacks are constantly playing so far off of their man and are getting gashed while in zone defense. To some degree Diggs and Bland can only do so much with regards to their own athleticism and within the scope of what is humanly possible, but they are getting worked pretty regularly right now.
Stock Down: Javonte Williams (in this game specifically)
We have been treated to such spectacular performances from Javonte Williams early on this season. At some point the bill was going to come due, so to speak, and he was not going to light things on fire. This was a pedestrian game for him. It isn’t worth freaking out about with regards to the season as a whole. It happens.
Static Stock: Brian Schottenheimer
For the most part Brian Schottenheimer had a great day. Offensively he was really successful early on and even showed the proper level of aggression on the 4th-and-4 in the first half that Dallas converted before Dak Prescott found Jake Ferguson for the score.
He is listed as a static stock because of what wound up being the final offensive possession of the game. The Cowboys went three and out when things were most critical and all three passes were behind the line of scrimmage (we can certainly blame Prescott here a bit as well). George Pickens wasn’t even targeted once.
It is unfair to expect the offense to be perfect (or anyone to be perfect). They are human and will make mistakes and this is why football is the ultimate team sport as the other side of the ball has to lift you up.
But that is not possible with this team. The defense is so porous that if the offense has a moment where they appear to be mortal, then the overall group is going to sink further into the quicksand that the defense has trapped them in. They are imbalanced. It stinks.
See More:
