At long last, the preseason has ended, and the next football we’ll see in Dallas will be the real deal. Before that, however, they must cut down to create the 2025 Cowboys 53-man roster, and they have to be smart in doing so.
There will be NFL teams that make critical mistakes as they release and waive players over the next two weeks; Dallas does not have the team to absorb that kind of mistake.
With a lack of depth and overall expectations, this Cowboys team will need everything they can get if they want to compete for the playoffs.
That means they’ll need a close to flawless process, roster-wise, heading into Week 1.
Let’s discuss the three mistakes Dallas must avoid making as the 53-man roster gets set. Remember, it’s not always the big moves that decide seasons; it is often the “what ifs” that stem from this exact period.
1. Cutting Rookie Running Back, Phil Mafah
The tea leaves seem to suggest the Cowboys will cut rookie running back Phil Mafah in favor of veteran Miles Sanders. That would be a huge mistake.
We also know that Javonte Williams seems to be a lock. In what world do you need both Williams and Sanders when you can instead keep the young, promising rookie you drafted just four months ago?
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1959085025779167396
Letting a duo of Williams-Sanders carry the load is flat-out redundant and flat.
Dallas has two rookies in Jaydon Blue and Mafah, who can complement each other perfectly. It should be the two of them, plus one veteran who can lead the room to start the season.
The Cowboys 53-man roster takes a hit if the former Clemson Tiger is left behind.
2. Giving Will Grier the QB2 Nod Over Joe Milton
After last night’s improved performance, there is zero reason to give veteran quarterback Will Grier the QB2 job over Joe Milton.
There had been some concern about him, but the former Wolverine and Volunteer showed the kind of improvement we needed to see.
Milton reached preseason highs in QBR, completion percentage, and rushing yards against Atlanta. It was also his first turnover-free outing and his first multi-touchdown performance. That’s the kind of performance we’ve been waiting for.
It’s not a knock on Grier; he is a fine veteran presence to have, who knows the locker room well. Rather, it’s about the Cowboys getting a return on their Milton investment.
You don’t trade picks for QB3s, and you don’t overcome a potential injury to Dak Prescott with Grier. Joe Milton deserves the QB2 role.
3. Not Retaining Recent Defensive Line Signings
The surprise impact made by veteran defensive linemen James Houston and Perrion Winfrey has been among the top stories of the preseason. It would be smart not to throw that out the window for nothing.
Houston, the 26-year-old EDGE rusher, seems to be tapping into his old self. The former Lion exploded as a rookie in 2022, but hasn’t replicated that level of dominance until right now.
Get James Houston on the roster. You have to at this point.
— Nick Harris (@NickHarrisFWST) August 23, 2025
His interior counterpart, Winfrey, balled out last night, recording a sack and two quarterback hits from the defensive tackle spot.
Neither came into this with the expectation of making the Cowboys’ 53-man roster, but they have both earned it. Cutting either one of these two guys would be a huge mistake, especially considering the volatility of the defensive front.
If these two veterans can put on the performances they have and still get cut, I will have lost all faith in the importance of the preseason. They were given a shot, and snap after snap, they proved their worth; now, it’s time to reward them and roll into the 2025 season.
Sanders/Williams never looked good in practice and were mostly held out of games so what justifies either as on the 53? Jerry just annointed Williams so that is it. Mafah and Luepke have been the best backs in practice and games. Blue is showing he may be one of those always injured small guys. We will watch Williams do zero most of the year.
You still have no idea what your talking about!! Actually both Williams and Sanders looked really good in practice!! And Williams was only held out of the preseason games!! Sanders played when he wasn’t injured, but got injured again when he did play!! But other than that, they both looked really good!! But I would still keep Mafah over Sanders!! And Blue isn’t gonna be one of those always injured small guys!! Everybody gets injured at some point in football, that’s the nature of the game!! But Blue wouldn’t have been injured again if it wasn’t for the defender rolling up on Blues ankle!! When a player gets rolled up on, chances are they’re gonna be hurt, that’s just the way it works!! But if Blue is able to get enough playing time, he’s gonna be a threat to score every time he touches the ball!! And what have you been watching?? I haven’t seen Hunter Luepke look good not once all offseason!! I think you have some of your players mixed up or something!! The only RBs that looked good was Williams Sanders Blue and Mafah!! And in the preseason the only RBs that looked good was Vaughn and Mafah!! And Blue looked pretty good until he got rolled up on!! But between practice and preseason games, the RBs that earned a roster spot to me are Javonte Williams, Jaydon Blue and Phil Mafah!! And if Deuce Vaughn can play like he did in the preseason, then he would have a roster spot too!! But he always looks good in the preseason, so I won’t look too much into that!! So I think the only RBs that deserve a roster spot are the 3 I just mentioned….. Williams, Blue and Mafah!! And I think Williams is gonna make you look like a fool when he gets to play in the regular season!! But then again, with all these comments you make, you already make yourself look like a fool, so I’ll just say Williams will prove you wrong!!
I believe Phil Mafah and Jadon Blue should be the rotation. I do not believe Blue will be an injury guy. Sometimes stuff happens and you get rolled up on wrong. These are the guys I would run on my team. Also Milton when he studies looks much better to be a qb2. I like grier to but he has been here multiple times. I agree Winfrey and houston when starters get in the game will look a lot better. We know what mazi looks like. Maybe try him at end or even linebacker. And if a std dt came available next week I would certainly go shopping.
So wrong about QB2. QB position is about leading the offense down the field and scoring points. What it is not about is whether you can throw the football through a wall. Milton will be good if/when he develops, but if Grier is not there and Dak goes down, the Cowboys will do as they did last year. Grier has the experience to give them a chance to win every week.
2023 Preseason (Dallas Cowboys, 3 Games Played)
Not only has Milton not come close to this level performance, but no NFL QB in the last 20+ years has either.
Keep Milton on the roster (I know keeping 3 is not preferrable) if you don’t want to lose him, but if you cut Grier, someone will pick him up and you will loose important depth at a position critical to success. Grier would be the clear #2 on more than a half dozen teams and would challenge for the starting role on 3 or 4. Given Dak’s history of injury, it is too big of a chance.
That’s stats from the 2023 preseason!! And most of those yards and touchdowns came in the final preseason game when he was given the opportunity to show what he can do!! And he did really good in that last game, but he hasn’t been anything close to that since then!! He is not a QB2 anymore and he won’t be on any other team either!! Try looking up his stats for this preseason instead of the stats from 2 years ago!! Grier was given half of the 3rd quarter and all of the 4th quarter to play against the Falcons and he didn’t do anything with it!! We only scored one time after all that time he was on the field, and that score only happened because of the RBs!! Grier is nothing like he was 2 or 3 years ago!! He’s not as accurate and he’s a lot slower when he’s trying to run!! We are way better off with Milton as qb2!! And if we cut Grier, we won’t have any problems getting him back on the practice squad…. If we even want him back!! I’m hoping we can find somebody better!! And by the time everybody gets cut Tuesday, we’ll have a lot more better options than Grier!! And I hope we get one of them!! Grier isn’t worth keeping on a roster anymore, and if it was up to him to lead this team, we’ll be worse off than we were last year!! I always thought we should’ve kept Grier over Cooper Rush, but after seeing the way Grier played this preseason, I realized that he’s not even close to being as good as he was a couple years ago!! So we just need to find a better option for QB3!!
Not keeping Mafah for Miles Sanders? Not holding on to another gem in Fairweather to keep an injured John Stephens is unbelievable! And hanging on to another mediocre in Jalen Tolbert over a talented Traeshon Holden, means that Tolbert still has friends in high places in Jones’ palace.
I agree with the Phil Mafah take!! All these people keep coming out with their 53 man roster projections, and they all keep Sanders over Mafah, I seen one today and even after everything Mafah has done, they thought it was better to keep a injury prone veteran over Mafah!! I thought he was crazy!! Not only has Mafah out performed Sanders, but Sanders has been injured twice already and the season hasn’t even started yet!! The alone should be enough to keep Mafah over Sanders!! And this coaching staff should be smart enough to realize that too
And as far as the QB situation goes…. I think Milton earned the number 2 spot on the roster, but I think we still need to let Grier go and find a different QB3!! Grier hasn’t looked like the QB I’ve seen from him before!! The way he played when he was given the opportunity to play the whole last preseason game for us before we let him go a couple years ago, I thought he was good enough to be the QB2 for pretty much any team he went to, but I haven’t seen that kind of play from him since then!! So I think we should find a better option!!
And the defensive line situation is a tough one!! I definitely think we should keep Perrion Winfrey!! He has been the best DT on our team since he signed with us!! So he’s definitely earned a roster spot!! But James Houston is a different story!! He’s definitely looked good in preseason, but the DE position is stacked, and he has a lot of other players ahead of him on the depth chart!! So it really depends on how many DEs they wanna keep!! They already have Micah Parsons, Dante Fowler, Sam Williams, Marshawn Kneeland, and Donovan Ezeiruaku ahead of Houston right now, so as good as he’s been, he still mite have a hard time making the 53 man roster!! The only way I see them keeping Houston is if they decide to go with just 4 DTs and 6 DEs!! But I don’t think they’ll keep more than 10 defensive linemen on the roster at once!! I think 10 is the limit, so if they wanna keep Houston then they’ll have to cut Jay Toia or Solomon Thomas or maybe even Perrion Winfrey and I don’t think they’ll wanna lose any of them 3 just to keep another DE that won’t play much, if at all with all the other players ahead of him on the depth chart!! If we only had 2 or 3 good DEs then that would be different, but we have at least 5 really good ones that are gonna be getting playing time, so like I said, Houston is gonna have a hard time making the team!! And it’s not because he’s not any good, it’s just a numbers game, and he just happens to be at the bottom!! I’m not saying he won’t make the team, I’m just saying he’s gonna have a hard time making it!! And if it comes down to choosing between him and Winfrey, I think we should go with Winfrey just because we need help a DT, and we don’t really need anymore help at DE!! But that’s just my opinion!! And I really think that’s the best way to go!! But I guess we’ll all find out what they choose to do by the end of the day Tuesday!!