It’s been a wild first few weeks of the season; not just for the Dallas Cowboys but for the NFL in general. Before COVID-19 surfaced and then blanketed the entire known universe (ok, not the universe, but you know how us humans be doing, all self centered and stuff), things were already being put on their head. The new CBA, signed four scoring drives and seven punts ago in March 2020, allowed teams to roster additional practice squad guys, move players up to the big club without giving them big-club contracts, and bring more players in should-be-seafoam unis to the sideline each week.
And that was before Miss Rona put her Sunday church hat on.
Once that bad boy came off the top rope like Koko B. Ware, all hell broke loose in life, and the NFL tried their best to keep up. That move to bump the taxi squad from 10 to 12 moved to 16. The ability to IR everybody and their momma? Make it happen. Hell, bring ’em all back after just three weeks. Concessions were made. The Cowboys have used and abused the new rules, placing player after player on IR, so much so that despite an Alps-worth of mounting injuries, their weekly IR part seems empty because they’ve IRd everybody and used the roster room.
Or have they?
No. They haven’t. The Cowboys have not used all of their roster spots and it’s a fair question to wonder why. Why, Sway? Why don’t the Cowboys want to be better?
Here’s the deal.
Every week, I put together a fancy pic gallery of the Cowboys weekly roster. It helps crystalize, mainly for the Facebook brethren who don’t like reading long-ass articles like this one, who is currently playing for the club. Each week since the initial 53-man roster was devised, Dallas has changed the content of their personnel files. They’ve placed new names on IR, filled their spots, elevated players on a temporary basis from the PS to use them on gamedays and all that jazz.
But, and here’s the weirdest thing, they’ve never maxed out their roster.
Here’s the initial 53-man roster from the first week of September.
The next day, Dallas released LB Joe Thomas so they could claim a WR, Malik Turner. Two days later the club placed Sean Lee, Ventell Bryant and La’el Collins on IR, and signed back three vested veterans they had cut with this understanding in mind (CJ Goodwin, Justin March and Thomas).
Cool, back to 53 players.
But after injuries took their toll in Week 1, things went weird in Week 2. Dallas placed four players on injured reserve, but only replaced three of them. One more went on IR after Week 2 and they were replaced. Then this week, two players went to IR, two more were released but the Cowboys only added three players.
The Cowboys are going into the game against the Giants with only 51 players on their 53-man roster.
Here are the roster moves.
- Week 1: Thomas released (52), Turner claimed (53). Lee, Collins Bryant to IR (50), March/Goodwin/Thomas back (53)
- Week 2: Jarwin, LVE, Erving to IR (50), activated Carr (51), signed Light, R.Smith (53), Brown to IR (52)
- Week 4: Awuzie to IR (51), signed Smith,S (52)
- Week 5: Released Carr (51), waived Light (50), signed Senat (51), Looney, Smith,T. to IR (49), activated Brown from IR (50), signed Bernard from PS (51)
For those who want everything broken down in detail, here’s my 53-man roster tracker.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VtmlmOlQTpdevJfFfPumd3zEW4_hxvvUc_WnhNyG7cw/edit?usp=sharing
This isn’t really a game-day issue. The club has elevated players from their practice squad for each game, bringing the amount of available players to choose from up to 53 or 54 each week of the season. The inactive lists are shorter, but they still go into each game with the requisite number of available bodies.
To the casual fan, who normally has trouble identifying the 13th warrior on the club (Antonio… what’s his last name again?) much less the 53rd man on the roster, this isn’t going to be a big deal. But for those who know, they know.
The club has roster holes. It is having an extreme difficulty catching onto Mike Nolan’s defensive system, and not going out and taking a flyer on a veteran who could be the proverbial diamond in the rough is borderline malpractice. A front office is supposed to be doing everything within their power to help the product on the field.
If the Cowboys were 3-1, this may not be a big deal. But they are 1-3 and have the worse defense in the league and on pace to be the worse in team history. Their offensive line is in shambles and while they’ve made acquisitions towards the latter, not much has been done towards fixing the former.
After Week 1 of an NFL season, vested veterans can be signed and released and a team only pays for the games they were on a roster. Dallas could mix and match and try a guy for a week here, a week there and only put on the salary cap what stuck.
They could have a kick return specialist from the XFL or AFL who could replace Tony Pollard. They could have a veteran safety whose currently on the trash heap, or a veteran interior defender who could not get blown off the ball by the Browns’ offensive linemen.
Would it be a guaranteed fix? Of course not. It probably wouldn’t make much difference at all. Most guys are on the street for a reason, but giving a guy a week of practice to see what he has is a better effort than deciding during a Tuesday tryout session.
The NFL has gifted clubs the ability to have extra players in the fold, in case of injury. It just seems like a bad decision to not take advantage of that, even if the net result likely wouldn’t change much.
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