Thursday’s chaotic Dallas–Philadelphia opener means America’s Team won’t be part of the NFL’s first Sunday slate. Still, fans won’t be without a rooting interest, as five former Cowboys players are starting fresh with new teams.
Whether you still hold a place in your heart for them or can’t wait to cheer against them, it will be a chance for them to start their new era strong.
For some, it marks the end of a long run in Dallas and a deep connection to the star; for others, it’s the next step in a young career, or even a return to a familiar home.
Either way, it will certainly be interesting to watch, so let’s preview those players’ debuts here.
Micah Parsons: Packers Tenure Begins Against Lions
The headliner among these is obviously Micah Parsons.
After four record-breaking seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, he was shipped out of town to one of the Cowboys’ most bitter rivals.
Today, he makes the switch official by taking on a mutual rival in the Detroit Lions. There had been some speculation that a back injury would keep Parsons off the field for this one, but he seems ready to go.
As weird as it will be to see, Parsons will wear green and gold for the Packers.
DeMarcus Lawrence: Long-Time Cowboy In Green
Overshadowed by the Parsons departure, DeMarcus Lawrence also left town this offseason.
Dallas’s second-round pick in 2014, Lawrence signed a big deal with the Seattle Seahawks in free agency.
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1900677238158184539
Now, he’ll start that new era against the San Francisco 49ers.
While the former Cowboy has his own personal history with the Niners, this will be his first matchup against them as a division rival. Seahawks fans are certainly expecting a lot here, so it will be interesting to see how he fares at 33 years old.
Jourdan Lewis: Dallas Fan Favorite Arrives In Duval
One of the more heartbreaking moments of this offseason was when Cowboys fan favorite Jourdan Lewis headed south for Jacksonville.
The cornerback had become one of the longest tenured players in Dallas, and his 2024 campaign was perhaps the strongest of his entire career. That’s what landed him a $30M deal with the Jags.
After years of being underrated and underappreciated, Lewis is a key piece for that defense, and he’ll have a chance to prove his worth against the Panthers today.
It’s bittersweet to see Lewis elsewhere, but you can’t help but think that he will thrive.
Brandin Cooks: New Orleans Return After Cowboys Stint
Nearly a decade ago, in 2014, Brandin Cooks was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the first round.
In 2025, he is returning to his original home with nearly 10,000 receiving yards and four stints elsewhere under his belt. The most recent of those was, of course, in Dallas, where he spent two seasons.
Cooks was never the greatest Cowboy, but he did have some significant moments, and that shouldn’t be forgotten.
He’s gone his entire career being slept on, and now it seems he’ll have a chance to finish where he started. He went from a rookie in NOLA to a veteran of the locker room.
Chauncey Golston: 2024 Emergence Births 2025 Giants Contract
When Dallas drafted Chauncey Golston with their third-round pick in 2021, they expected a bit of a development period before a sudden burst onto the scene.
That’s exactly what happened for this Iowa Hawkeye.
Golston started just three games between 2021–2023, before starting in 13 last season. He set career-highs in every statistical category, and it paid off with a brand new $19.5M contract.
https://twitter.com/PFF_Betting/status/1899302848883470716
The only problem is that the new money is not with Dallas. Golston is now a former Cowboy and a current New York Giant who is starting his Big Blue tenure today.
I expect all of them to contribute, but not in any spectacular fashion maybe except for Parsons who will get his sack or two.
Hopefully the greedy, overrated former Cowboy gets run over by Gibbs, Montgomery and rest of the Lion offense.
The only one out of this group I wish we still had is Jourdan Lewis!! I think we’ll be fine without him, but it still would’ve been nice to have him!! But since he’s gone, I hope he has the best years of his career!! As far as the rest of them go, I’m glad they’re gone!! Especially Lawrence and Parsons!! And I’ll more than likely root for the team they play against, unless it’s a team that’s bigger rivals to us!! When it comes to week 1, the seahawks play the 49ers, so I hope they both lose, I hate both teams!! And Green Bay plays the lions, so I guess I feel the same way about those teams!!!! But I’m sure you can see I’m writing this after the games were played, so I already know the outcome of the games, and if I’m being honest, I was actually hoping the lions would beat the packers, so I guess that says a lot about how much I hate the packers!! And as far as the seahawks and 49ers go, I didn’t have any interest in watching that game and didn’t care who won it, so my first statement about them stands…. I wouldn’t care if they both lost, and I know it’s not possible, but if they end in a tie, that would pretty much be a loss for the both of them, since neither one of them actually won, so I would’ve been happy to see that!! But from what I’ve heard, the 49ers ended up winning at the end of the game!! So I wasn’t lucky enough to get my wish!! But it’s ok, the way they looked in that game, I don’t think either team will win that many games this year!! So maybe the end of the season records will make up for the game I hoped they both lost in against each other!! Although they still have another game to play against each other, so maybe I’ll be able to get the results I wanna see out of that game!! I’m sure this don’t make sense to anybody with the way I swerved off, but I was just trying to point out how much I hate those teams!! But to end this long rambling session…. I’m just gonna worry about the only team I really like and that’s obviously the Dallas Cowboys!! And from what I seen in week 1, I feel good about this season!! I was actually one of the very few that felt good about the team before the season even started, but now that I seen them play, I feel even better about them!! As long as Ceedee fixes his drop problem he had in week 1, I’m confident we’ll be in the playoffs this year!! I predicted before the season that we could win between 10 and 12 games this year,, and for now I’m confident I made a good prediction!! But when we get further into the season, I’ll have a more I guess you’ll say pinpointed prediction…. Meaning I’ll say my exact prediction…. Instead of saying 10 or 12 wins, I’ll say we’ll have 10 wins or 11 wins…. I’ll pick the exact number I wanna go with!! But for now I’m gonna stick with 10 to 12 wins!!
Sorry for rambling on for whoever is crazy enough to read all this crap I just wrote!!