As the Dallas Cowboys get ready to square off against the Philadelphia Eagles later today at Lincoln Financial Field, there is another game going on behind the scenes. The Cowboys season is over at the conclusion of the last regular season game, and the players are playing for pride.
With so many players out with injury, it’s evaluation time for the coaches. Now is the time for them to put their best foot forward and be coaches to players with lesser talent than what is usually on the field. As for the players, it’s time to put a good game on film for a chance to return to the Cowboys in 2025 or as an audition for their next team.
The Cowboys have a whopping 25 players on expiring deals, and there isn’t enough pie to bring each of them back. It’s time to focus on positions without a long-term plan and begin strategizing for free agency and the 2025 NFL Draft. Here are the positions I believe are not necessity, and can be placed on the back burner for 2025:
- Quarterback (Dak Prescott)
- Left Tackle (Tyler Guyton)
- Left Guard (Tyler Smith)
- Center (Cooper Beebe)
- Cornerback (Trevon Diggs, DaRon Bland,)
That’s a short list, and it means the Cowboys have a lot of work to do this offseason to make sure a competitive team takes the field next year. Here are three positions I believe require the most evaluation over the final two regular season games.
Right Guard
All-Pro and future Hall of Fame RG Zack Martin may be done as a member of the Dallas Cowboys. Martin was sidelined halfway through the season with a bum ankle, and as far as we know, that ankle is the reason he looked like a shell of himself for most of the season.
Martin looked like another player out there on the field. He was committing penalties and getting beaten badly for sacks and penetration into the offensive backfield like we have never seen from him before. Needing surgery on your ankle will do that to you.
On top of the surgery, Martin turns 35 next season, and there is no guarantee he will return to the team. With a Hall of Fame resume like his, you’d think the ankle injury would earn him some grace to show us that the injured season was a fluke. If the Cowboys don’t think so, they have a couple of options.
Brock Hoffman and T.J. Bass have both played well at right guard this season when called upon, and if Martin should retire or be released, the competition would be between the two. The Cowboys seem to like Hoffman over Bass, but more playing time could change that.
Wide Receiver
The wide receiver depth chart in Dallas is a jumbled mess after All-Pro CeeDee Lamb, and now that he’s been excused from the final two games to nurse a shoulder injury, it will be even more difficult to evaulate.
Here is a list of the rest of the wide receivers who have gotten playing time this season:
- Brandin Cooks
- Jalen Tolbert
- KaVontae Turpin
- Jalen Brooks
- Ryan Flournoy
- Jonathan Mingo
We might see Jalen Cropper get called up from the practice squad, but that is the entire list to evaluate. I feel that KaVontae Turpin is the only player on that list who can count on his job being safe in 2025. After that, it’s a guessing game.
Cooks is on an expiring contract. Tolbert has not lived up to his draft status, but should be safe because he is still on a rookie contract. Brooks, Flournoy, and Mingo are all lumped together in a group who needs to step up and show what they can do with the starters down.
Linebacker
Linebacker was a weak spot for the Cowboys in 2023, and they actually addressed it this offseason by bringing in veteran LB Eric Kendricks to lead the defense. An injury to DeMarvion Overshown and an unexpected regression from Damone Clark has left questions at the position.
Rookie 3rd round pick Marist Liufau has been a pleasant surprise in place of Overshown, and has even shown the ability to wear the green dot in Kendricks’ absence. Kendricks signed a one-year contract last offseason, so he isn’t on the team in 2025 unless he agrees to come back.
Throwing a wrench in all of this evaluation is the fact that DC Mike Zimmer is also on just a one year deal. How can he be expected to evaluate unless he knows he’s coming back? Linebacker will be a position that will need to be addressed in both free agency and the draft, or the Cowboys risk being thin at the position like in 2023.