Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports 2024 could e the last season for a few longer-tenured members of the Dallas Cowboys. The 2024 season has been a disaster for the Dallas Cowboys. Injuries, poor coaching and performance, and off-the-field issues have all plagued Dallas in this abysmal season. With 2024 all but over, the Cowboys will soon turn their attention to 2025 and try to rebound from this embarrassing year. Looking towards the future, the Cowboys have some key players set to hit the open market at season’s end. With that in mind, today we take a look at two current Cowboys who could be playing out their final few weeks in Dallas. Brad Penner-Imagn Images 1) CB Jourdan Lewis Cornerback Jourdan Lewis has been one of the few players on the Cowboys’ roster to exceed expectations this season. Dallas brought the 29-year-old back on a one-year, $2.8M deal last March and it has turned out to be arguably their best move of the offseason. Lewis has put on display quite possibly the best season of his eight-year NFL career. The former third-round pick’s 72.4 coverage grade, via Pro Football Focus, is the second-highest of his career. Lewis has allowed just one touchdown in coverage and has an 83.3 passer rating when targeted in the slot, 13th-best among qualified cornerbacks. With DaRon Bland’s injury struggles and Trevon Diggs’ up-and-down performance, it would make sense for the Cowboys to try to bring Lewis back after this season. However, with the way he has played this year, it’s almost a guarantee he will price himself out of returning to Dallas. Last offseason cornerbacks Chidobe Awuzie, Kenny Moore, and Sean Bunting all signed three-year deals worth $8.5-$12M annually. Lewis may be primarily a slot corner, but he’s as talented and valuable as any of the three mentioned above. With the year he is having, there will be at least one team out there willing to give him a multi-year commitment at a higher price than the Cowboys are willing to offer. Ken Blaze-Imagn Images 2) DE DeMarcus Lawrence It’s hard to believe DeMarcus Lawrence is currently in his eleventh season as a Cowboy. Lawrence is tied with Zack Martin as the longest-tenured player on Dallas’ roster, and it seems almost certain this will be his final year as a Cowboy. The injury bug bit Lawrence once again this season as he was placed on IR after Week 4 with a foot injury. With the current state of the Cowboys and Lawrence’s advanced age, it’s fair to question if he’ll return this year. During his time in Dallas, Lawrence has consistently been one of the Cowboys’ best players. While he may not have always been the level of a pass-rush threat he was during his monster 2017 and 2018 seasons, Lawrence was consistently one of the best edge defenders against the run and played with an intensity and focus few others could match. From 2017 on, Lawrence finished six of eight seasons with a run defense grade of 79 or above. In 2021 and 2023 he finished first and second in the NFL in this category, recording a 92.5 and 92.2 grade respectively. The Cowboys lack edge depth so bringing Lawrence back would be a huge help in beefing that up, but much like Lewis, he’ll almost certainly price himself out of Dallas’ market. Last spring former Cowboy Dorance Armstrong earned himself a three-year, $33M contract in free agency. Even though Lawrence is significantly older than Armstrong, it’s fair to assume a contending team will be willing to give him at least the same amount of money annually ($11M) to join their team. As we’ve seen in recent years, if the contract is above $5-6M a year in free agency the Cowboys are not going to be interested, making Lawrence’s return very unlikely. It’s sad to imagine him playing for another team, but that seems guaranteed to become a reality in 2025.

Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images Do you think the Cowboys can find success against the Texans defense? Previously we broke down the offense for this week’s upcoming game for the Dallas Cowboys. Now we dive back into the position battleground, this time looking at how the defensive positions and special teams stack up against each other. DEFENSIVE LINE It’s become customary to start this article trashing the Cowboys defensive line, and for good reason. This defensive line is allowing the second-most rush yards per game and is one of the primary factors why teams so easily dominate the Cowboys. On top of the rush yards, the defensive line is also allowing the second-most rushing touchdowns and the 28 points allowed per game is the second-worst in the NFL. On the positive side, Micah Parsons came out and dominated from the start last week with two sacks, one a strip sack that almost went for a touchdown. Carl Lawson is finding his groove and registered a sack making it two consecutive games he’s managed to get to the quarterback. Chauncey Golston also needs some recognition for what he did leading the team in pressures last week and even made two very well timed tackles for loss. Houston ranks in the top ten in rush yards allowed and is fourth-best in rushing touchdowns allowed. Adding to their impressive run stopping they have also generated 29 sacks which is sixth-most in the league. Will Anderson Jr. is the guy to watch and his 7.5 sacks this year is fifth-most among defenders and his 11 tackles for loss is second-most. Next to him is Danielle Hunter with 5.5 sacks. Keep an eye on Will Anderson on the practice report this week.Win: Texans Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images LINEBACKER So we definitely have a player in DeMarvion Overshown. It was touch and go if he would play this week but McCarthy announced he dodged a bullet and should be good to go. His constant pressure and speed around the field is amazing to watch and he’s been one bright spot on an otherwise disappointing defense. It was good to see Eric Kendricks get back to doing what he does best and led the team in tackles last week and missed zero tackles. Stopping Joe Mixon is key this week so Kendricks will need to be in form again. The Houston linebacker corps enjoys a lot more freedom thanks to the effort of the defensive line. Henry To’oTo’o from Alabama is maybe Houston’s best linebacker and leads the unit in tackles, but Azeez Al-Shaair is the team’s Overshown equivalent that makes himself a nuisance to opposing offense all around the field. Conclusion:With Overshown really coming into his own and getting the good news he won’t be missing anytime that really sways this position battle. Combined, the Dallas linebackers have more sacks and total tackles than their Houston counterparts making this one a win for Dallas. Win: Cowboys Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images DEFENSIVE BACKS Caelen Carson is really showing his limitations and allowed over 100 yards of receiving last week to the Eagles. Donovan Wilson allowed a touchdown and it’s tough to not be frustrated by him this year as he looks to have regressed. With offenses afraid to throw Trevon Diggs way, it’s become an obvious tactic now for quarterbacks to go Carson’s way. Hopefully DaRon Bland is back soon. Houston are allowing the third-fewest total yards on defense, and that’s thanks to the combined efforts of their run stopping combined with the fourth-fewest passing yards. That’s impressive but they do have a chink in their armor. They’ve allowed 21 passing touchdowns this year which is the second-most. Kamari Lassiter is in concussion protocol, Jeff Okudah can’t catch a break and is on injured reserve again and that leaves the right hand side wide open for Dallas to expose. Derek Stingley Jr. is a fantastic cornerback and he will more than likely chase CeeDee Lamb around the park and Jalen Pitre is one of the better slot corners in the league. Conclusion:Houston are allowing a lot of touchdowns through the air but generally they are locking things down throughout the game. Win: Texans Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images SPECIAL TEAMS Brandon Aubrey, do we need to go any further? The only points on the board for Dallas last week came off his boot and he’s one of the most accurate kickers in the league, especially from 50 yards and beyond. Ka’imi Fairbairn leads the league in field goal attempts and is second in field goals made. His field goal success rate of 82% ranks 24th. KaVontae Turpin is inching closer to taking a kickoff return all the way. He made a huge return for nearly 50 yards last week. His average of 16.2 yards on punt returns is the second-most in the league. Steven Sims does the majority of work on punt returns and his average of 6.2 yards per return is third-worst among specialist. In kickoff returns he’s much better and ranks 15th.Win: Cowboys

Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images Do you care at all about any sort of rivalry with the Texans? When a team is on a losing streak, as the Cowboys currently are, it’s easy to become numb to the losses. That said, losing to a bitter rival like the Eagles stings a bit more than usual. To follow it up, the Cowboys now host the Texans, a team that is technically an in-state rival. You’d be hard-pressed to find many fans for either team, though, who consider this a true rivalry. The Texans, founded in 2002, are too new to really have any rivalries. They also play in a different conference, leading to very few matchups with the Cowboys: this Monday’s game will be just the seventh time these teams have met. The only other team to play that few games against the Cowboys is the Ravens, who notched game number seven earlier this season. On top of that, the two franchises have rarely seen success at the same time. The Texans came into existence during the dark ages of Cowboys football, when Chad Hutchinson and Quincy Carter competed against each other for the starting job under center. The Texans found some success under head coach Gary Kubiak right around the time Dallas went through a soft rebuild in Jason Garrett’s first few years as head coach. Then Bill O’Brien helped elevate the team to the Cowboys’ level, meaning both teams routinely made the playoffs only to get knocked out pretty quickly. When O’Brien was let go during the 2020 season, the Texans went into a hard rebuild mode. Longtime Patriots executive Nick Caserio became the general manager ahead of the 2021 season and quickly burned through two head coaches, hiring and firing both David Culley and Lovie Smith after just one year on the job. In that span, Houston went 7-26-1. Then, Caserio hit a home run. He hired 49ers defensive coordinator and former Texans star DeMeco Ryans as his head coach. Ryans brought with him Bobby Slowik, then the 49ers pass game coordinator, as the Texans’ new offensive coordinator. Caserio also made some moves in the draft to select both C.J. Stroud and edge rusher Will Anderson back-to-back. What followed was a rapid turnaround for the Texans. Stroud won Offensive Rookie of the Year, Anderson won Defensive Rookie of the Year, both were named to the Pro Bowl, and Houston won their division at 10-7. They went on to beat the Browns in the Wild Card round of the playoffs before losing to the Ravens. Coming into this year, expectations were sky high in Houston. Stroud was being hailed as the future of the NFL, and an offseason trade for Stefon Diggs was meant to supercharge the offense. So far, the Texans haven’t quite lived up to the hype, though they’re still doing well. Coming into this game, the Texans are 6-4 but have lost two straight. Both games, a loss on the road to the Jets and then at home to the Lions, saw Houston get up big and then let their foot off the gas. Another point of concern is that five of their six wins have been decided by six points or less. While that doesn’t change their record, it does suggest that the Texans are only a few plays away from having a drastically different (read: worse) record. Making matters worse is all the injuries this team has endured. Nico Collins, their top receiver from last year, hasn’t played since Week 5, although he was just activated from the injured reserve. However, Diggs went on the injured reserve two weeks ago with a torn ACL, ending his year. Top rusher Joe Mixon missed three games earlier in the year but is back in action now. Meanwhile, Anderson missed last week after suffering an injury early in Week 9 and his status for this game is uncertain. Of course, it all pales in comparison to the Cowboys’ injuries. Their defense has been decimated by injuries all year, and just when Micah Parsons was set to return they lost Dak Prescott for the year. Not that the team was playing all that well with their high-priced quarterback, but the loss effectively ended their season. Now, the Cowboys are sitting at 3-6 with exceedingly little in the way of hope for the rest of the year. If last week’s game was any indication, Cooper Rush isn’t going to recreate the magic he had in 2022, when he went 4-1 as a starter. Trey Lance didn’t inspire much confidence either. This game comes at a perfect time for the Texans, who need to get back on track after losing two straight. They have yet to lose three consecutive games under Ryans, and it seems unlikely they’ll do so against a heavily undermanned Cowboys team that seems to know their coaches are toast once the season is over. Unsurprisingly, the Texans are 7.5 point favorites, the second-largest spread this week. That may be too conservative a number, given what the Texans have proven to be capable of when they’re firing on all cylinders. There’s not much hope to go around this week in Dallas, but the various mock draft machines are just getting warmed up in Cowboys nation.

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images The latest Dallas Cowboys headlines heading into the weekend. Science Lab: Cowboys face daunting playoff odds – Patrik Walker, DallasCowboys.com It is no surprise that at 3-6, the Cowboys’ playoff chances are pretty grim. As noted, the Cowboys are 3-6 on the season and with eight games remaining, it’s not simply about getting back to winning games. Oh no no no, dear friend. This is now about trying to win each and every one of the contests from now through the Week 18 regular season finale which, as fate would have it, is at AT&T Stadium, where they aren’t faring well. That said, do they need to win all of the final eight? Mathematically, no, but there is a very clear and definitive Mendoza Line here. Chance of Making Playoffs, Per Win Tally Current status (3-6 record): 3% chance Win 5 of the final 8 games (8-9 record): <1% chance Win 6 of the final 8 (9-8 record): 11% chance —————— Mendoza Line —————— Win 7 of the final 8 (10-7 record): 66% chance Win 8 of the final 8 (11-6 record): 99% chance If the Cowboys lose to the Texans in Week 11, yes, their odds of making the playoffs drop from three percent (3%) to one percent (1%) but, if they somehow shock the world in primetime, their odds will obviously improve. Hell, they’d double, but that just means they’ll go to a resounding six percent (6%). Yay? Mike McCarthy says Rico Dowdle is Cowboys’ lead back, ending RB by committee experiment – Shawn McFarland, Dallas Morning News The running back by committee experiment is over. Rico Dowdle is the clear RB1. “He’s the lead back,” McCarthy said. “I thought he had a really good first half [against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday], and I think that’s really illustrated by the attempts. Rico needs to touch the ball.” Congratulations on the promotion, Rico, even if there’s no surprise.“If you’ve paid attention to the games the last couple of weeks,” Dowdle said, “we’ve been kind of trending in that direction.” Dowdle has led the Cowboys in carries in six of the eight games he’s played this season, though the gap has widened of late. His 24 combined carries in the Cowboys’ last two games against the Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles are four times as many as the next-closest ball carrier. Ezekiel Elliott — who didn’t play in Dallas’ loss to the Falcons due to a team discipline issue — still has the second-most carries in that stretch with six. He rushed for 75 yards on 12 carries against the Falcons two weeks ago and rushed for 53 yards on 12 carries vs. the Eagles on Sunday. The latter performance generated a season-best 73.8 offensive grade, according to Pro Football Focus. The 26-year-old averaged 5.3 yards per carry and totaled 128 yards in his 24 combined carries against the Falcons and Eagles. No Cowboys lead back has had a more efficient singular week since Tony Pollard (6.1 yards per carry) vs. the Washington Commanders on Nov. 11, 2023. “You have to get him the ball,” McCarthy said. “That’s my focus to continue to get him opportunities.” How bad is Cowboys’ offense? Worst start in McCarthy’s career – Todd Archer, ESPN This Cowboys’ offense is one of the worst in Mike McCarthy’s coaching career. The Cowboys are averaging 19.7 points per game and 4.9 yards per play, have converted 35.9% of their third-down opportunities and have scored touchdowns on 41.7% of their red zone trips. A quarterback guru, McCarthy’s QBs this season — Dak Prescott, Cooper Rush and Trey Lance — have a combined 43.3 Total QBR. Those are all the worst marks through nine games for a McCarthy-led offense during his head-coaching career… …Has the lack of offensive success made McCarthy question his system? “I believe in the process,” McCarthy said. “I know a lot’s made of scheme and so forth. Your system of football has to fit your players. You’ve got to give these guys the opportunity. And every team’s built a little differently — what year you’re in, where your players are. This is not a ‘we need to go change’ [situation]. We need to be better at the things we’re committed to.” Through nine games last season, the Cowboys were averaging 29.9 points per game, partially aided by defensive scores and special teams touchdowns (second most in the NFL). They averaged 379.1 yards per game (fourth best). They converted 47.2% of their third-down tries and scored touchdowns on 20 of 39 red zone trips. Troy Aikman reveals what he anticipates from Cowboys’ Dak Prescott after hamstring surgery – SportsDay Staff, Dallas Morning News Troy Aikman talked to the media about potential the long-term impact Dak Prescott’s injury may leave. “We talked about it last week that I had a hamstring injury like so many people have in their careers. Missed two games and came back from that and it never really was an issue the rest of my career. But nothing as severe as what he’s had where the hamstring pulls from the bone and you have to have surgery,” Aikman said. “How much has the ankle, I guess, after that surgery, which was obviously a major injury, how much has that affected him in the years that have followed with his ability to scramble and run? It doesn’t look like it when he’s done it, but we all know that he hasn’t run as much. “I doubt that that’s had as much to do with it as, like we talked about, as him just becoming a more experienced quarterback. I would think this would affect him in some degree. Again, it’s just me guessing. I have no idea. It sounds like it’s pretty severe.” With Prescott out, the Cowboys will continue to turn to the backup quarterbacks in their ranks. Although both Cooper Rush and Trey Lance got playing time in a 34-6 loss to Philadelphia, Mike McCarthy

Geoff Burke-Imagn Images Who wins tonight… Washington or Philadelphia? The Washington Commanders play the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday Night Football. FanDuel has the Eagles as 3.5-point favorites over the Commanders. Final score prediction: Eagles 31 – Commanders 30. Check out FanDuel for all of your NFL betting needs. This is an open thread for game chat.

Photo by Mario Hommes/DeFodi Images via Getty Images Things are going so bad in Dallas, they can’t even get ahead of the Giants in the 2025 draft order. The chasm between winners and losers in the NFC East grew wider in Week 10. But even if you’re fully invested in the Cowboys’ 2025 draft positioning, disappointment is still coming thanks to one of our division rivals. No matter how bad things are getting in Dallas, the New York Giants keep finding ways to be a little worse. Before America’s Team suffered another humiliation against the Eagles last Sunday afternoon, the Giants lost to the Panthers that morning in Germany. QB Daniel Jones’ two interceptions helped keep Carolina in the game long enough for it to get to overtime, where they finally won with a field goal. That’s what Cowboys fans are reduced to at this point; rooting for the Giants to win so that we can get a better draft pick next April. The Commanders’ loss to Pittsburgh last week didn’t even matter as there’s no realistic chance of Dallas catching them, or anyone else, in terms of a division win or other postseason goals. The focus has moved to the future and even that can’t come without frustration thanks to the G-Men. Current NFC East Standings Philadelphia Eagles 7-2 (2-0, 4-2 vs NFC) Washington Commanders 7-3 (2-0 in division, 5-1) Dallas Cowboys 3-6 (1-1, 1-5) New York Giants 2-8 (0-4, 1-6) Further illustrating the divide that Philadelphia and Washington have established from their hapless division rivals, their big game tonight on Thursday Night Football feels irrelevant to Dallas and New York. Even if the Commanders take a second straight loss, they’ll still be in the NFC wild card playoff picture. Meanwhile, the Eagles are starting to look like the team with the best shot at stopping the Detroit Lions from getting to the Super Bowl. The Cowboys have to wait until Monday night for another likely defeat from the Houston Texans. About the only positive you can say, at least for Jerry Jones’ sake, is that the sun won’t be an issue in the primetime game. Even in failure, Dallas can’t get ahead of New York in the 2025 draft order this week. But it would shorten the gap as the Giants are on a bye, reducing their loss-column cushion. By the time we get to the Thanksgiving game between them, it could become a fascinating display of two teams trying not to be obvious about tanking.