The exhibition season is over and the Dallas Cowboys will now turn their attention to the regular season. The club held out their top players from Saturday’s matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders, save for rookies who they wanted to get more snaps under their belt. Head coach Mike McCarthy isn’t shy about believing in the bubble-wrap approach to the exhibition season, as his star players sat out all three preseason games.
But now the work is here for the coaching staff and front office. The club is going to decide on 53 players who will be on the regular season roster, set at 3:00 pm Central on Tuesday, but also 16 players they hope to make it to the practice squad. The last couple of roster spots go hand in hand, as the club makes calculated risks on which non-veterans they can expose to waivers and which they need to protect by placing them on the roster.
Vested veterans, players with at least four years of experience, do not go to waivers and thus can have handshake agreements they’ll be cut so the team can do some roster magic with injury lists and game-day elevations. Here’s our best guess as to how that will all shake out with the deadline for all moves barreling down the pike.