When CeeDee Lamb went down with a multi-week ankle injury in a Week 3 loss in Chicago, it felt like the sky was going to fall for the Dallas offense. Instead, we’ve seen George Pickens, Jake Ferguson, and an unexpected Cowboys rising star emerge.
Ryan Flournoy, the team’s sixth-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, finally saw the field consistently and took advantage of the opportunity.
The former Southeast Missouri State Seahawk seemingly became the Cowboys’ WR2 with Lamb and KaVontae Turpin on the sidelines. In total, he reeled in 11 catches for 158 yards in his three games as a starter.
Now, with the return of these more established wide receivers imminent, we have to wonder if his stock will continue to soar or fade.
Here To Stay, or Temporary Relevance?
We could see this situation go either way; it will be one of the top storylines for Cowboys fans to follow in the coming weeks.
On one hand, the team cannot reasonably ignore what Flournoy showed. You could argue he showed more in these last few weeks than guys like Jalen Tolbert ever have. He looked and played like a true WR3 or better.
Ryan Flournoy having triple-digit receiving yards is not something I had on my bingo card.
Seeing Flournoy develop into a legit WR weapon for the Cowboys' offense is a good thing both now and later. pic.twitter.com/XBtN4wXiR2
— Dan Rogers (@DannyPhantom24) October 5, 2025
We’ve also seen the team praise his performance, both in this current run and when he was just grinding for a roster spot.
The flip side, however, is that the Cowboys favor experience and expectations quite a bit.
It won’t be easy for them to hide Tolbert, and the returning Jonathan Mingo in favor of the 216th pick in his draft class. The former cost Dallas a third-round pick when they drafted him, and the latter sent a key fourth-rounder to Carolina last year.
If they force those guys into action to “maximize” the return on investment, we won’t be seeing Flournoy nearly as much as we have been.
Current Job Up For Debate, Future Role Nearly Secured
There is something else to consider here: even if Dallas prioritizes their most costly weapons over Flournoy this year, he may have cemented his role for 2026 and beyond.
The Cowboys, whether from an extension or the franchise tag, will likely be paying Pickens a lot of money to stay by Lamb’s side.
Jalen Tolbert, as a result, should be signing elsewhere this offseason, and the rest of the wide receiver room in general will have to be cheap to afford two top weapons. Ryan Flournoy could capitalize on that.
We might just see the Cowboys bring him back on a cheap deal as the WR3 behind Lamb and Pickens; it’s safe to say that wouldn’t have happened without his impressive stretch.
Tolbert should have been traded long ago. He is in the last year of his contract, was never being resigned and as soon as Pickens was brought in, Tolbert should have been moved for a pick in the last draft. Now, his value is at bottom and getting a 6th is all that can be expected.
Flournoy needs to be the WR3 . He can run almost all the route tree and is an excellent blocker to help the run game. Mingo can wait till next camp or be traded with Tolbert.
You really don’t pay much attention do you!? Nothing you said is accurate!! Just because Tolbert hasn’t been a top tier receiver, it doesn’t mean he’s not good, or worth keeping!! And the only reason Flournoy has a chance to stay on the roster over Tolbert is because he has a cheap contract since he was a 6th round draft pick!! But comparing the players as the players they are, they’re not really much different from one another!! This article says that Flournoy had a really good 3 game stretch, but the facts are that he only had one good game and that was it!! The other 2 games he played in he didn’t do anything!! Tolbert on the other hand has had more than one good game!! He led the whole team in touchdowns last season, and he was the biggest reason we didn’t lose the game against Green Bay!! And just because he hasn’t done anything often, it don’t mean he can’t!! It’s not his fault the plays that are called are for the other players, it’s not his fault the QB would rather throw the ball to Ceedee or Pickens!! And you wanna talk about a blocker…. Tolbert is a great blocker!! That was one of his best traits coming out of college, and there’s been plenty of highlights of him throwin big blocks for the RBs!! So trading him just because we got Pickens would be stupid, you never know when we’ll need him because of an injury to other receivers!! And that’s been proven already!! We didn’t have Lamb for the Green Bay game, and we were lucky Tolbert was still on our team to make the play he made!! And then trading him away for Flournoy who has had one good game in the 2 years he’s been with us would be stupid too!! We all know what Tolbert can do, rather you know it or not, but nobody knows what Flournoy can do, even now!! So your trading comment is ridiculous!! Keeping Tolbert was the smart thing to do!!
And keeping Flournoy over Mingo would be stupid too!! You don’t know what Mingo can do yet!! He hasn’t even had a chance to play with Dak yet, and the season was half way over by the time we traded for him last year, so he’s obviously not gonna be the receiver everybody wants him to be!! He’s not gonna come over to us and all of a sudden know our play book, and he’s not gonna all of a sudden have the best chemistry with the other players on the team!! He had his very first training camp with us this year, and his first preseason too!! And he balled out in the preseason before his injury too I mite add!! So the way he looked in the preseason, he could be a WR2 on plenty other teams!! But he shouldn’t have any problems being our WR3!! I am really glad this front office don’t have you in there making decisions!! We would be 0-17 every year!! If you were making decisions for a team, you would be breaking records for having the worst team ever year!! There’s only been a couple teams go 0-16 in a season, and it’s only happened once for those teams, so you would be the first person to make his team go 0-17 in a season, and then you would be the first person to make his team go 0-17 for 2 and then 3 and then 4 seasons in a row and it would probably go past that too!! So again, I’m really glad you don’t make decisions for our front office!! And that’s saying something considering we already have Stephen Jones in there right now!!
I like Mingo and is worth keeping. At 6-2 215 lbs he reminds me of Noah Brown the Cowboys had a few years ago. He would be a solid WR3. He would be the perfect underneath receiver when Prescott can’t find Lamb or Pickens open.
What impressive stretch!? He had one good game and that’s it!! I’m good with who we’re playing ahead of him for now!! I think y’all should pump the brakes on this Flournoy thing until he can prove he can do it for more than one game, and then do it for more than one game in a row!! His first start he didn’t do much of anything, his second game he had the good game, and then last week he was nowhere to be found!! So I think it’s time to chill out on Flournoy until he shows something for more than a game!!
With the emergence of Flournoy as a wideout threat, it gives Jones another pawn at the trade deadline to acquire more draft picks in 2026. Tolbert is a quality receiver too, but just doesn’t get enough reps. He too will be trade bait for a mid to lower round draft pick. Cowboys must stock pile to rebuild this pathetic defense.