Injuries were a problem for the Dallas Cowboys throughout the 2024 season. Star players such as Dak Prescott, Zack Martin, Trevon Diggs, and DeMarcus Lawrence saw their seasons end prematurely as they were sent to the IR.

In addition to established stars, the Cowboys saw lost Sam Williams who was on the verge of a breakout campaign.

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Williams was set for an increased role following the departure of Dante Fowler Jr. and Dorance Armstrong. During his first two seasons in the NFL, Williams had 48 tackles and 8.5 sacks, leading to excitement over his prospects.

Unfortunately, Williams suffered a torn ACL during training camp and missed the entire year. Executive vice president Stephen Jones recently expressed his excitement over Williams’ return to health, but the depth around him suddenly looks much different.

Not only did Fowler return, but the Cowboys signed Payton Turner and selected Donovan Ezeiruaku in the 2025 NFL draft. Throw in the presence of Micah Parsons and Marshawn Kneeland and Mike Clay believes Williams will hardly see the field.

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In his 2025 projection, the ESPN insider has Williams taking just 54 snaps with four tackles.

Williams entered the league as an athletic phenomenon. He stands 6-foot-4 and 261 pounds and ran a 4.46 in the 40-yard dash. That speed led to him playing gunner on special teams, something unheard of from defensive ends.

Even with that talent, Clay doesn’t believe Williams will contribute in 2025, which will cost him a lot of money as he enters free agency in 2026.

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El Capitan is heading south. Despite the advantage in the series entering Saturday’s game, FC Dallas lost the Texas Derby in 2025 thanks to a 2-0 loss against the Houston Dynamo.

The win was Houston’s first at Toyota Stadium since the 2011 season.

The first half lacked excitement until the 38th minute when Anderson Julio tried to score a goal from midfield. His lofted attempt forced Jonathan Bond to push the ball over the crossbar.

The Dynamo found the game’s first breakthrough in the 64th minute on a shot from distance from Jack McGlynn. The former Philadelphia Homegrown received the ball about 25 yards out from goal from Griffin Dorsey, took one touch before firing a rocket of a shot past Michael Collodi.

Houston doubled its lead in the 80th minute as Dorsey added a goal to his tally for the night. The Dynamo played a quick counter up the right side of the field where Dorsey and Toyosi Olusanya played a give and go near the top of the penalty area before Dorsey got the ball and shot it into the back of the net.

Instant Reaction: We’re immune to winning at home, aren’t we? I’ll have a lot more to say about this on Monday. Right now, I’m just…tired.

About the Subs: Eric Quill went to his bench at halftime to bring off Petar Musa for Logan Farrington. Musa was only expected to play around 45 minutes in this one. With 20 minutes to go in the match, Quill made a double sub with Paxton Pomykal and Lalas Abubakar coming on for Kaick and Nolan Norris. The final subs came shortly after the second Houston goal with Bernard Kamungo and Tsiki Ntsabeleng came on for Ramiro and Shaq Moore.

Man of the Match: Skip.

Where does this fit into the season: The loss not only sees El Capitan head to Houston for this year, but it also sees the Dynamo pass FC Dallas in the standings at 16 points. Dallas does have a game-in-hand at this point.

What’s next for FC Dallas: Following a two-game home stand, FC Dallas will begin a two-week stretch that sees them play on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Up first will be a US Open Cup match against the New York Red Bulls on Wednesday night in New Jersey.

First Shift 🏒

The Stars are in the middle of their eighth playoff series in three years, so they seem pretty comfortable.

Yes, there will be a lot on the line on Saturday with a 3-2 lead in a best-of-seven series against the Winnipeg Jets with Game 6 at home, but coach Pete DeBoer said the team likes the pressure and the opportunity.

“I think, if anything, it’s exactly what I thought it would be,” DeBoer said of the back and forth in a series with the team that had the best regular season record in the NHL. “If you’re playing the Presidents’ Trophy winning team, the best team in the regular season, the best defensive team in the regular season…I mean, their analytics were very good on both ends of the puck. So we’ve gotten exactly what we expected to get. And so that’s why I don’t think there’s any surprise we’re in the spot we’re in and excited about a chance to win this at home in Game 6.”

The Stars battled through a tough Colorado series and won on home ice in Game 7. This is kinda like a Game 7, because Dallas has lost its last two games in Winnipeg and been outscored 8-0 in the process. In fact, the Stars are 5-1 at American Airlines Center in the playoffs with 3.83 goals per game and a GAA of 2.50. Winnipeg, meanwhile, is 0-5 on the road in the playoffs with 1.60 goals per game and a 5.00 GAA. It’s been night and day for both teams, but DeBoer said those are just numbers.

“Listen, our home rink is a big advantage for us. Our home crowd’s a big advantage for us. It has been my entire time here,” DeBoer said. “We have to approach this like a Game 7, even though we have the luxury of it not being a Game 7, and make sure that we know they’re going to be there, the fans are going to be there, that environment’s going to be there. We’ve got to take advantage of that.”

The Stars saw defenseman Miro Heiskanen return to the lineup two games ago after battling a lengthy absence caused by a knee injury, and DeBoer said the veteran leader looked better in Game 2 than he did in Game 1. Heiskanen saw his minutes go up to 18:33 from 15 in the first game, and that’s still significantly lower than the 25 or so he has played in past playoff runs.

“He started to do what he does,” DeBoer said. “He started to grab the puck and transition it up the ice and break down the other team’s defense, which is important in this series. Everybody is above everybody else, so you need that push from the back end, the Harleys, the Heiskanens, that’s a key piece.”

To give Heiskanen a cushion in his two games, the Stars have used an alignment of seven defensemen instead of the usual six. While there will be discussion of changing that back to six defensemen with 12 forwards, DeBoer said there still are advantages to having an extra guy on the blue line as Heiskanen shakes the rust off.

“I think it all depends,” DeBoer said. “If we go to 12 and six, we have to be comfortable that Miro is going to play 20-plus minutes a night and not just comfortably, but can he bring to the table what he brings to us with his skating and his transition and things at 20-plus minutes? I mean, we’ve done it two games, we won one and we lost one. I don’t see our group being fatigued. Miro’s gone from 15 to 18 minutes, so we’ll have to see how he feels tomorrow.”

One of the things taking a forward out of the lineup has done is given DeBoer the opportunity to scale up the minutes of playoff scoring leader Rantanen, so that’s also something that will be in the conversation.

Whatever happens, the game is expected to have some incredible intensity. The two teams battled physically in the third period in Game 5 and Stars captain Jamie Benn received a misconduct penalty and a $5,000 fine for an altercation with Winnipeg captain Mark Scheifele. DeBoer sees that as two familiar rivals getting to a good place in a series.

“I think that’s normal,” DeBoer said. “I mean, that hatred grows in a series as the games go on. And the deeper you get in the playoffs there’s a lot at stake. I think that’s the beauty of hockey, that’s what separates it from a lot of other sports is that physical emotion that the guys play with at this time of year.”