Dak Prescott one of seven Cowboys limited at practice on Wednesday – Calvin Watkins, Dallas Morning News
Prescott’s injury isn’t a serious one.
FRISCO — Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott joined a list of eight players on the injury report on Wednesday.
Prescott has a sore hip and, along with seven other players, was limited during a walkthrough practice at The Star.
“He’ll go through all of his normal stuff just because it’s a mock tempo,” coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “It’s just slow. He’s just a little sore. I’m a little sore too but for different reasons. Just sleeping shorter. So, but yeah, it’s because it’s just slow, mock, walk-through, he will be fine.”
It’s the first time this season Prescott has been listed on the injury report.
Rush ends Jadeveon Clowney (shoulder/neck) and Dante Fowler (shoulder), safeties Malik Hooker (toe) and Donovan Wilson (elbow/shoulder), guard Tyler Smith (knee) and defensive tackle Solomon Thomas (calf) were limited in practice.
Defensive tackle Perrion Winfrey (back) was a full participant.
Qunnien Williams trade already reshaped Cowboys’ defense in one huge way – Marcus Mosher, The Landry Hat
Qunnien Williams didn’t waste anytime making a difference.
There are a lot of different reasons why the Dallas Cowboys decided to make the trade for Quinnen Williams at the deadline. First and foremost, he’s an incredible player in the prime of his career. And even if the Cowboys don’t make the playoffs this season, he is the type of foundational player the franchise can build a defense around moving forward.
But another factor as to why the Cowboys made this move is that they believed his presence could impact the players around him.
One such player is Osa Odighizuwa, whom the Cowboys paid a ton of money to this offseason. Odighizuwa has always been a solid player, but he’s never played next to a player like Williams, and he’s already unlocking parts of his game.
Cowboys DT Osa Odighizuwa had a career performance in win vs. Raiders
Williams was dominant in his debut with the Cowboys, racking up 1.5 sacks and a career-high five QB hits. But he wasn’t the only defensive tackle for Dallas who had a career day. Odighizuwa led the team in pressures with eight, which was also his personal best, according to Pro Football Focus. He was the team’s highest-graded defender with a grade of 90.6.
Odighizuwa was incredible with Williams on and off the field on Monday, and a big reason why is that he was fresh. Rather than playing 51 snaps like he did in Week 9 against the Cardinals, Odighizuwa played 40 snaps, 34 of which came on passing downs. He wasn’t asked to eat up double teams in the run game and instead could focus solely on getting to Geno Smith.
The game script obviously helped out here as the Cowboys held a double-digit lead for most of the game, but there is no doubt that the heavy rotation at defensive tackle helped Odighizuwa. He no longer has to be “the guy” in the defensive tackle room. Instead, he can fit into his role and be part of a deep rotation of pass rushers.
Tyler Smith on working against Quinnen Williams in practice, finishing plays, more – Tommy Yarrish, DallasCowboys.com
Iron is sharpening iron when Smith takes reps against Williams.
FRISCO, Texas – The Cowboys offensive line had one of their best performances of the season in Week 11 against the Las Vegas Raiders, allowing their second-lowest pressure rate of the year (20.6%).
Part of that equation is Tyler Smith at left guard, who is in the top six among all guards in forfeited pressure rate this season. As the Cowboys face three games in 12 days coming up, he know he’ll have to take care of his body to continue the high level of performance.
“Just adhering to the routine is the most important part, at least for me,” Smith said. “You’ve just got to do what you can with the time that you have. That’s being wise with your time, just understanding that the workload is going to be really high in these couple of weeks so you’ve got to be careful with that. We play a very physical sport, we got a couple of physical teams coming through here these next couple of weeks.”
That’s not to say that the Cowboys didn’t play a physical game on Monday night against the Raiders, especially from Smith’s perspective.
On George Pickens’ 37-yard touchdown in the second quarter, Smith made a diving effort to delay Maxx Crosby from getting to Dak Prescott, giving him the extra half second he needed to step up and complete the pass to Pickens. It’s plays like those that remind Smith the importance of not only playing physically every snap, but finishing on every snap too.
“That’s huge for me,” Smith said of the play. “It really just, when I see it, I just think about finishing plays. You never know [if] that block that springs a half second or the running back picks up a blitzer or a guy getting his head across on a reach block, those are the small details that can be part of those huge plays. It’s all 11 of us coming together to make that happen, so I think that definitely just keeps my head on a swivel and lets me know that I got to finish every play, you never know what can happen.”
Cowboys can use Bengals as cautionary tale while still re-signing George Pickens – Reid D Hanson, Cowboys Wire
Will the Cowboys do what it takes to keep George Pickens?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know George Pickens is having a helluva season in 2025. You also probably know he’s set to become a free agent this coming March. For the Dallas Cowboys it’s setting up to be a real “will they/won’t they” situation for the offseason while providing excitement, dread and debate amongst the fanbase.
The side of the affirmative argues Pickens is a special player who takes the Cowboys offense to new heights. Smart teams don’t just let special players walk out the doorand with Dak Prescott already in the winter of his career, Dallas is as win-now as they’ve ever been.
The other side of the argument is one about pie. The Cowboys front office firmly believes any dollar spent on one side of the ball is a dollar that can’t be spent on the other side of the ball. This accrual-denying doctrine of theirs implies if they disproportionally spend in one area, a different area must suffer. This argument sparks the national discussion that overinvesting on offense would mean underinvesting on defense, which could spell doom. Case in point: the Cincinnati Bengals.
While multiple teams have successfully double-dipped at the wide receiver position over the years, the Bengals are the most financially comparable example of disproportionate spending. They serve as the cautionary tale in this regard because for as good as their offense is, their defense is all that and more on the other side of the spectrum.
Based on defensive DVOA, the Bengals are currently swimming is historically bad waters. For as dreadful as the Cowboys defense has looked this season, the Bengals defense takes that dreadfulness to new depths by ranking last in the NFL in yards, EPA, success rate, as well as DVOA. It’s a problem that has no quick cure since much of their money is tied up on the other side of the ball. It’s a situation the Cowboys do not want to find themselves in.
Caelen Carson carving his way forward for Cowboys: ‘I feel like I’m back’ – Patrik Walker, DallasCowboys.com
Caelen Carson has put together back-to-back good performances.
FRISCO, Texas — Caelen Carson was nicknamed Seat Belt by his collegiate teammates at Wake Forest for his ability to strap wide receivers, and that moniker held strong in his rookie debut for the Dallas Cowboys when, due to injury at the position, he was tasked with lining up against a still-capable Amari Cooper in Cleveland.
That impressive outing was followed by early rounds of adversity for the former fifth-round pick, a shoulder injury severely impacting his playing ability when he was on the field, leading to overthinking and poor film, before the Cowboys opted to shut him down for the season to allow for rehab.
He’d return to deliver a strong training camp but a hyperextended knee landed him back on IR where he’d ultimately miss six games to start the 2025 season before clawing his way back for another chance to show what he can do.
“I feel good [now],” Carson told DallasCowboys.com going into the Week 12 matchup against two of the best receivers in football. “Just seeing all my hard work pay off, because I feel like the last month and a half has been a turning point for me. I’m really just locking in with myself, and telling myself what I’m gonna do every day and how I’m gonna approach the situation coming back from IR.”
Activated from IR in mid-October, Carson quickly impressed defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus and head coach Brian Schottenheimer, earning the right to start against Geno Smith and the Las Vegas Raiders — where he had one of the best outings of any Cowboys’ defensive player, in a game where there were quite a few.
“Caelen Carson, I talked about him very passionately yesterday because I really think he deserves it,” said Schottenheimer. “He’s been through a lot, and he played really well last game. … He earned that playing time, and there’s more on the way.”
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