We hear the concern every year from a section of the fan base. “There’s no way Dallas will be able to cut that player without another team claiming them off waivers. No way that dude gets to the practice squad!” Some times, those fans are right. Most of the time, those fans are wrong. Those chants of worry often come from the most tuned in parts of the fan base. Those who subscribe to twitter lists of every media member covering the Cowboys, every blogger, every knowledgeable fan.
They’ve kept track of every kind word from someone on the coaching staff, every excellent OTA rep and certainly every impressive play made during training camp in Oxnard. Every year, there’s a series of guys who become camp darlings for some. But here’s the thing, every club has them. Every team, save for the really bad ones, have a bunch of players who aren’t good enough to be part of the major rotation and exist on the fringes of the 45-man game day roster, much less the 53-man active roster. Other teams rarely want those guys from your favorite club. They have their own guys.
And those guys have been in camp all spring and summer, were mostly handpicked by their front office and their coaching staff and are well integrated. They’ve proven to be the-prospect-with-potential under the circumstances and style of play that organization will use for the coming season. They would be preferred over grabbing the guy that would have to learn the system on the fly, getting little in the way of helpful reps in regular season practice.
Sure, there are players who other teams covet. Teams that lost out on a player in a UDFA bidding war; those are the most dangerous. But by and large, teams are able to get the guys they want back to the practice squad. Sometimes, when a team feels the prospect is really at risk, they’ll reach out to a low-cost veteran, someone who doesn’t have to clear waivers under a one-year deal who they can create a wink-wink agreement to bring them back after stashing someone on returnable IR.
The Cowboys have done this before, with Jake McQuaide and Jeremy Sprinkle in 2021, C.J. Goodwin and others in 2020. Occasionally the club is burned, but this more so happens after injuries occur during the season and teams poach prospects to fill in the holes in their roster.
With all that said, here’s a list of players who the in-the-know fans are worried about, but would likely be able to make their way to the practice squad were Dallas to release them in the cut down to 53 players.