They are clearly not finished. The Dallas Cowboys have completed the requisite number of releases to get down to the 53-man roster limit by the league’s 3:00 p.m. Central deadline. That’s only part of the battle though. Dallas dropped 24 players from their roster with little surprises among the names. There were one or two, but with creativity in planning, Dallas is doing their best job to keep people long term even if they are saying goodbye in the short term.
Like last season, Dallas has undoubtedly cut veteran players, those with at least 4 seasons of accrued service, with an agreement they will be right back on the roster. There are several players who are injured and won’t be able to help the team out in the first few weeks of the season, but they have to make the 53-man roster before being placed on IR for at least three weeks. So guys like long snapper Jake McQuaide are cut, knowing they’ll be resigned on Wednesday.
This also doesn’t take into account players like WR CeeDee Lamb, who are currently on the Covid-19 list and don’t count towards the roster limit. As soon as he and the other four players are available, more room will be necessary. Perhaps that room is just vacated by players who will be going on short-term IR. It’s all a juggling act.
Here are some ideas of what will happen next, followed by a position-by-position breakdown of who is here and who is out. For now.