Dallas, TX
Cowboys news: Draft class still receiving praise, but intriguing free agents still available
Cowboys land 4 players in ESPN’s top-100 draft values – Mario Herrera Jr., Inside The Star
The Cowboys may have gotten good value with a lot of their draft picks, but will they get the starting-caliber talent they need?
A few days ago, ESPN NFL Journalist Matt Miller published an article with his top-100 draft values and the top two on the list feature the Chicago Bears picks of QB Caleb Williams and WR Rome Odunze.
There are several Philadelphia Eagles on the list, headlined by cornerbacks Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean making the top 12.
The Dallas Cowboys were honored four times. Their first selection at #36 on the list and their last locking in the 88th slot out of 100.
#36 OT Tyler Guyton
The Cowboys’ 1st-round pick, Tyler Guyton also tops the list for Dallas’ selections to Miller’s top 100, coming in at #36.
“Entering the draft, the Cowboys had issues at left tackle, running back, center, and linebacker. The front office waited and played the board well, trading back and still getting one of the top tackles in the class.
“Guyton should be seen as a developmental player after just 15 starts in college, but Dallas does a great job identifying talent and coaching it up on the line (as we saw with Tyler Smith before him).”
The massive offensive tackle from Oklahoma was almost a telegraphed pick to the Cowboys based on how they’ve drafted before.
He is raw but he has the traits the Cowboys look for in offensive tackles, standing nearly 6’8″ tall and weighing in at 322lbs with 34 1/8″ arms.
Free Agents Cowboys Should Pursue After 2024 NFL Draft – Kristopher Knox, Bleacher Report
The Cowboys seem comfortable with what they have, but some names that could help remain available in free agency.
Dallas did turn back to the free-agent market post-draft, signing former running back Ezekiel Elliott to a one-year, $2 million deal. The Cowboys may not be done bargain-hunting, though, with just $4.5 million in cap space remaining, they may also have to get creative with their contract construction.
Here, we’ll examine three available free agents Dallas should pursue in the post-draft window of free agency.
WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling
The Cowboys have one great receiver in CeeDee Lamb and a lot of questions after him. Brandin Cooks was mostly just fine in 2023, Jalen Tolbert is still developing and Michael Gallup is gone.
Dallas did take a sixth-round flier on Southern Missouri State’s Ryan Flournoy, but it could stand to have more depth at receiver.
Marquez Valdes-Scantling is one of the more notable names left on the market, and his skill set would also fit with the Cowboys. The speedy, if sometimes inconsistent, receiver can play on the perimeter or in the slot. He would also give Dallas another potent deep threat to help back off opposing defenses.
Valdes-Scantling had his fair share of ups and downs with the Kansas City Chiefs over the past two years, but he came up big in the 2023 postseason. He caught eight passes for 128 yards and a touchdown in the playoffs and had two grabs on Kansas City’s overtime game-winning drive in Super Bowl LVII.
For a Cowboys team that hasn’t advanced past the divisional round since 1995, Valdes-Scantling’s Super Bowl experience could be quite valuable—if Dallas can land him on a team-friendly deal.
Stephen Jones blames failure to pursue Derrick Henry on salary cap – Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk
The Cowboys were not willing to spend anywhere close to the top market price for a free agent RB this offseason.
Appearing with Adam Schein of SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio, Cowboys executive V.P. Stephen Jones addressed the failure to make a phone call to Henry.
“Well, first of all, nothing but respect for Derrick Henry,” Jones said. “I mean, he’s one of the top backs in this league. He’s had one of the great careers in this league. I wish him nothing but the best with the Ravens. I’m sure a great place for him. Our situation is just, you know, and no one ever wants to say it, but it’s salary cap, and we just didn’t have the money to allocate to that position in terms of where we were from a cap standpoint, knowing what we’re looking at with Dak [Prescott] and certainly Micah [Parsons] and CeeDee Lamb. We just didn’t have those type of resources to allocate to that position or we probably would’ve already had it filled with Tony Pollard. We hated to lose Tony Pollard. We had to lose Zeke the year before from a cap standpoint. And, you know, we just didn’t have the dollars to allocate to the running back position. And, certainly, looking to do it in a more efficient way in terms of how it complements the rest of our offensive roster.”
If they had reached a deal to extend the contracts of Prescott and/or Lamb, however, their cap numbers for 2024 — $55.45 million and $17.991 million, respectively — would have dropped, creating room for other positions. That’s how these things go. Cap space gets created, can gets kicked, team can go all in, or something like it.
How CeeDee Lamb, WR corps help Cowboys running game in 2024 – Reid Hanson, The Cowboys Wire
The Cowboys may not have a true lead running back, but they have plenty of players that can line up in the backfield.
Using WRs as an extension of the running game is nothing new in the NFL. It doesn’t take Deebo Samuel or a Shanahan offense to get the ball into the hands of these untraditional ball carriers, Mike McCarthy showed last season even he can find ways to give carries to his top pass catcher.
Averaging just under one carry per game, Lamb was quite the formidable weapon on the ground. Whether it was a handoff around the edge, or a run between the tackles, Lamb was consistently successful. His 85.7% success rate as a runner was far and away better than any of the Cowboys’ traditional ball carriers. His 8.1 yards/attempt were staggeringly efficient with over 57 percent of his carries going for either a first down or touchdown.
Given the wear and tear associated with the ground game and Lamb’s importance in the passing game, he’s obviously limited in terms of volume. But Lamb isn’t the only WR on the roster, and given the rawness of the WR room overall, rushing attempts may be exactly what this group in Dallas needs to manufacture opportunities.
Behind Lamb and Brandin Cooks are a number of viable candidates in the WR room. KaVontae Turpin leads the list of explosive playmakers starving for opportunities. The 5-foot-9, 175-pound human joystick averaged 10 yards per carry as a runner last season. The problem was he only logged 11 attempts. While Lamb is too valuable to the passing game to risk overusing as a runner, Turpin is primarily just a return man. The risk isn’t as severe with Turpin and the reward could be astronomical.
Even if Turpin just averaged one rushing attempt per game, he’d establish himself as a threat and could be used in motion as a decoy to spread out defenses and create more opportunities for others.
Bland talks prep after historic season, Diggs return – Patrik Walker, DallasCowboys.com
It will be exciting to see what DaRon Bland and Trevon Diggs can do together in Mike Zimmer’s defense.
“It’s definitely harder to keep a low profile after last season, but I’m enjoying it,” said Bland, wearing a big smile after enjoying the 2024 Reliant Home Run Derby to benefit The Salvation Army.
But don’t plan on him changing his approach this offseason because, well, it ain’t broke so Bland isn’t trying to fix it.
“It’s all been the same,” said the First-Team All-Pro of his offseason approach heading into Year 3. “Gotta keep it the same. “I always have the same expectations. It [did] improve my confidence, going into more years in this league as well. I’m going into my third year so, yeah, I’m more confident now.”
It certainly works in the Cowboys’ favor that Bland isn’t the only record-setting cornerback that will take the field for them in 2023, seeing as Trevon Diggs is currently on track to be available at the start of training camp after suffering a torn ACL last September.
The loss of Diggs was a massive blow to Dallas’ defense, and Bland’s excellence helped to stop the bleeding. In the months to come, however, Diggs will return to a defense that features an ascended Bland playing the opposite boundary, versus the version that was previously set (in 2023) to split reps with Jourdan Lewis in the nickel before injury rocked the depth chart.
For his part, Bland could not be more thrilled with Diggs’ return.
“A lot of people aren’t expecting what Tre is gonna come back with,” he said of his fellow First-Team All-Pro and former NFL interceptions leader. “I know what Tre is gonna come back with, and it’s gonna be something dangerous. I can’t wait.”
A huge reason for the instant success of both Diggs and Bland at the NFL level is attributable to a coaching staff that features Al Harris, who received a promotion this offseason to assistant head coach — while also retaining his original duties as defensive backs coach.
Cowboys already have significant disadvantage in quest for back-to-back NFC East titles – Mauricio Rodriguez, A to Z Sports
The 2024 NFL schedule will be released this month, possibly as early as next week.
Cowboys have a much tougher schedule than the Eagles do in 2024
Although many insist on using last year’s win-loss record to determine strength of schedule, things change so quickly in the NFL that is always a better idea to use Las Vegas’ win total projections for the upcoming season. Although the betting world doesn’t get everything right, they’re usually pretty darn close in the grand scheme of things.
Using this method, popularized by Warren Sharp from Sharp Football, the Cowboys’ schedule ranks 22nd in the league (32nd being the toughest). Meanwhile, the Eagles will face the 9th easiest schedule.
The difference is massive for a division that has consistently come down to the wire in recent years. After finishing first in the NFC East last year, the Cowboys will be squaring off against the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions, which appear to have a lot of continuity after finishing 2023 as the best NFC teams. Meanwhile the Eagles avoid both squads in a relatively thin NFC.
The Cowboys also get the Houston Texans as their “17th game” which means they’ll need to face the rising C.J. Stroud, who will now count with Stefon Diggs to target in the passing game.
Ultimately, the division will largely come down to how the Cowboys fare against the Eagles in their two games next season. But any advantage (or disadvantage) matters in a race that hasn’t been won in back-to-back years by any team since 2004, which is the case for the NFC East crown.
Pool season ended in September, but we welcome a splash of good news anytime. And how’s this for a headline? Dallas has started work to replace a 20-year-old water feature at the popular Bahama Beach Waterpark in Red Bird — with the expectation that the new amenities will be ready by summer 2026.
As our newsroom colleague María Ramos Pacheco reported earlier this year, the $2.5 million upgrade for the water park is coming from a federal Community Development Block Grant and from the city’s Parkland Dedication Program Fund.
This water park is exactly the kind of aquatic facility that Dallas should be investing in. City Hall faced resistance this year over the closure of several community pools, but as we’ve written previously, those facilities’ days were numbered. With sparse attendance and with parts dating back decades and no economical replacements, to keep those pools open was to pour taxpayer money down the drain.
Today, communities across North Texas gravitate toward “spraygrounds,” aquatic centers and waterparks, which are larger facilities that combine pools with amenities such as lazy rivers, tubes and tall slides.
Bahama Beach Waterpark opened to much fanfare in 2005, and it remains a crowd favorite to this day. Annual attendance was 50,000 a decade ago and has risen to 76,000, Park and Recreation Director John Jenkins told us. The water park is also one of the city’s most cost-effective aquatic facilities. Bahama Beach, which charges a modest admission fee and also receives rental income, generates about $1.3 million in annual revenue and recovers 70% of its costs.
The latest upgrade will replace Coconut Grove, a playground styled like a water fortress featuring slides, pulleys and water buckets. It will be replaced by a bigger installation including 16 decks, more than 55 water features and new slides. It will also bring back the huge water-dumping bucket that is as much a hit with adults as it is with children.
This upgrade follows a more substantial overhaul in 2021, when the city invested $5.9 million to create an area dedicated to families with small children, including new restrooms.
“This is what folks want,” Jenkins said. “They want to have this type of amenity in their communities.”
The water park isn’t just for kids and their parents. Summer programming includes water aerobics classes for seniors.
Jenkins told us that the city has contracted with a company to seek corporate sponsorship opportunities for the park system, not including Fair Park and city parks with separate management. The park director said the city wants to keep fees affordable for families and is looking to sponsorships to generate more revenue and cover its costs at Bahama Beach.
Dallas residents vote with their feet, and they love their water park. City Hall is wise to keep its sole water park in great shape and to recognize that a commitment to Bahama Beach is a much-needed investment in southern Dallas.
The NFL’s Thanksgiving Day slate of football will continue on Thursday afternoon in Dallas as the Cowboys host the Chiefs for a 4:00 p.m. ET kickoff from AT&T Stadium.
Kansas City enters Week 13 coming off a massive overtime win against the Colts last Sunday that brought them to 6–5 on the season and kept their playoff hopes alive. Despite still not playing his best football, Patrick Mahomes got back to delivering when it mattered most—leading the offense to 14 unanswered points to close out the comeback while logging just his second 300-yard performance of the season.
The Cowboys, meanwhile, are winners of their last two after retooling their defense at the trade deadline. The team is sitting at 5–5–1 and is just outside the NFC playoff picture. With a win over the Eagles in their pocket and a matchup against the Lions upcoming, Dallas suddenly has a realistic path to returning to the postseason for the first time since 2022.
With a lot on the line this Thanksgiving afternoon, here are three bold predictions for Cowboys vs. Chiefs.
CeeDee Lamb hasn’t been nearly as productive as Dallas would like him to be over the last several weeks, but it’s not for a lack of trying.
Despite failing to tally a 100-yard game in over a month, Lamb has been targeted double-digit times in three of the Cowboys’ last four games. Drops, however, have become an issue—as the 26-year-old recorded his second three-drop performance of the season last Sunday against the Eagles.
With George Pickens garnering some much-deserved attention from the Chiefs’ secondary, expect Dak Prescott to continue feeding Lamb on Thursday afternoon—only this time, it pays off. Look for Lamb to post a season-high in receiving yards (115-plus) while also pacing Dallas in receptions as the former All-Pro gets back on track. ––Mike Kadlick
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The 2025 season hasn’t been the most productive for Kelce, as he’s still yet to record more than 91 receiving yards and hasn’t caught more than nine passes in any game this season. A matchup against the Cowboys’ defense may be the perfect recipe for him to turn in his best game of the campaign.
Two weeks ago against the Broncos, Kelce had nine catches on 13 targets for 91 yards and a touchdown in what was a vintage performance for the future Hall of Famer. I’m expecting him to have a Thanksgiving feast in Dallas, with even bigger numbers than he had in Week 10.
The Cowboys’ secondary has surrendered the third-most passing yards per game this season. Opponents have averaged 2.2 passing touchdowns per game against Dallas, second-most in the league. That all bodes well for Kelce, who I’m predicting will have his first game of the season with double-digit receptions, 100-plus yards, and more than one touchdown. ––Karl Rasmussen
Despite the Chiefs playing on what feels like every holiday since Mahomes took over as quarterback, Kansas City hasn’t suited up on Thanksgiving since 2006—when they beat the Broncos 19–10 at Arrowhead.
Now headed on the road, and with their backs against the wall as they look to avoid missing the postseason for the first time since 2014, look for the Chiefs to make it two in a row on Turkey Day—though it won’t be easy.
In what will be not only an all-time classic, but also potentially the highest-rated game in NFL history, I’m predicting that—behind a three-touchdown performance from Mahomes—Kansas City will win 30–27 to keep their hopes alive for at least one more week. ––Kadlick
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FRISCO, Texas — For the first time since 1995, the Dallas Cowboys and Kansas City Chiefs will face off on Thanksgiving Day.
On that day 30 years ago, Troy Aikman’s 192 passing yards and two touchdowns were enough to beat Chiefs QB Steve Bono’s 276 yards passing as the Cowboys won 24-12.
Now, both teams are in a new era, with Dak Prescott leading the Cowboys and Patrick Mahomes the Chiefs. The two have only faced each other one time, with Mahomes and Kansas City getting the better of Prescott and the Cowboys 19-9 at Arrowhead Stadium back in 2021.
Who will come out on top in their first meeting since, with the Cowboys sitting at 5-5-1 and the Chiefs at 6-5? Our staff weighs in:
Patrik: This is yet another difficult one to predict, but it does feel a lot less impossible for the Cowboys to walk away with this one than, say, four weeks ago when they fell to 3-5-1 after being dismantled by the lowly Cardinals. One trade deadline and bye week later and they’ve added Quinnen Williams, Logan Wilson, DeMarvion Overshown and Shavon Revel to the active roster, and Caelen Carson looks rejuvenated in his return from IR. The problem now is self-inflicted wounds that continue to make things more difficult for the Cowboys than they need be, and including offensively, being a key reason Dak Prescott and Co. sputtered or stalled on several drives against Philly. Do that against the Chiefs and you’re eating an L for Thanksgiving dinner. Mahomes is still Mahomes, yes, but while Travis Kelce can impact games, he’s not a gamebreaker anymore, and I do think the Cowboys’ defense bottles up the KC rushing attack much how they successfully did Ashton Jeanty and Saquon Barkley; and the offensive line that deleted the Eagles’ acclaimed front gives me good vibes. A close one here, but Dallas finds a way … wow, I just said that, huh? 24-21, Cowboys
Tommy: There is no question that the Cowboys’ defense has improved a lot since the trade deadline when they made the moves to acquire Quinnen Williams and Logan Wilson, and were also able to get guys like DeMarvion Overshown back from injury. Because of that, Dallas has done what they’ve aimed to do all year the last two weeks: Stop the run. And it’s worked! I think it’ll work on Thursday against Kansas City as well. When your run game gets stopped offensively, what do you do? Well, throw the ball. The good thing for Dallas is in their last two games, the teams that have thrown the ball on them have been the 23rd (Eagles) and 25th (Raiders) passing offenses in the league. Kansas City is the 2nd best passing offense, right behind Dallas at #1. I don’t think the Cowboys secondary is at a place to where they can consistently stop Patrick Mahomes and his array of speedy wide receivers, plus Travis Kelce who may not be as shifty as he once was but is still plenty efficient and leads the team in receiving yards. I’m not as concerned about Dallas’ offense, but they’ll still have to beat a tricky Steve Spagnuolo defense that’s a top ten unit. Don’t be fooled by the Chiefs’ 6-5 record, all their losses have been by one possession. I don’t mean to ruin Thanksgiving, but I’m taking Kansas City. Chiefs 31, Cowboys 24
Nick: I love the build-up to this game, because a few weeks back, I didn’t think it would be any decision at all to pick this game. Every time we saw a quarterback such as Bo Nix, Jacob Brissett or even Bryce Young and Russell Wilson before that, all I could think of was how bad it’s going to be when Mahomes comes in here on Thanksgiving. Well, that defense is not the same. Just how different are they? We’ll find out soon enough. But more than just playing him, I wonder how consistent the Cowboys can be as a team. We haven’t seen three straight wins since 2023 and something tells me it’s just not going to happen this week. Kansas City might look the same with a 6-5 record, but they haven’t played many games with their entire offense – Kelce, Worthy, Pacheco, Hunt, Rice, etc. They’re all coming together again and I just think it’s going to be too much for the Cowboys to overcome. I think it’ll be high-scoring, but I’ll take the Chiefs 34-30.
Mickey: We’ve been seeing more and more of this in his two games with the Cowboys, defensive tackle Quinnen Williams becoming a nuisance for opposing offenses with his ability to disrupt up front. Well, the Chiefs will be without starting guard Trey Smith, and look for Q to take over the game up front, not only being a huge help stopping the Chiefs running attack but also applying pressure to QB Patrick Mahomes. So, thinking the Cowboys will get a game-ball like performance from Williams up front, dragging this defense along with him, enabling the Cowboys to pick up their third consecutive victory and inch above .500 for the first time this season.
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