The Dallas Cowboys have been receiving good news in the secondary all week.

All-Pro cornerback Trevon Diggs is expected to return to action in Week 14, while fellow All-Pro DaRon Bland avoided serious injury on Thanksgiving Day. The same goes for starting safety Malik Hooker, who was in and out of the game due to back spasms.

Now, another Cowboys cornerback with starting experience is ready to return to the field and contribute down the final stretch.

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Third-year cornerback Josh Butler, who started the season on the PUP list, took to social media to share the message that he has been “ready since Week 6,” but he’s just trusting the process.

“Been a year. Been ready since Week 6 and healthy,” Butler wrote on X. “I just want to ball with the gang. This team so fun. Trusting in God but I’m ready. Let’s go Cowboys.”

Butler began the 2024 season on the practice squad, but was promoted to the active roster on November 18. He played in five games, starting three, before suffering a torn ACL in Week 13 against the New York Giants.

If Butler is activated and returns to the roster, the Cowboys’ secondary will be as healthy and deep as it has been in the past few seasons. Because Butler is on the PUP list, he would not count as one of the team’s two remaining IR-return spots. He would simply need to be added to the roster.

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An intriguing CB option

During his brief action in 2024 under defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer, Butler showed a lot of promise. Butler recorded five pass deflections, one sack, and 21 total tackles in his five games.

While the Cowboys’ defense has been thriving since the addition of Quinnen Williams, cornerback remains one of the biggest weaknesses.

There is undeniable depth at defensive tackle, defensive end, at linebacker with the addition of Logan Wilson, and even at safety now that the starters are healthy. But cornerback is an area where the team should consider all options.

If Butler is ready to go and a roster spot is available, he would be an intriguing option for the team to consider.

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The Los Angeles Lakers have unveiled their full first five ahead of their Emirates NBA Cup showdown against the Dallas Mavericks.

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Thanks to starting center Deandre Ayton’s announced return from a right calf contusion that cost him the Lakers’ 135-118 Tuesday win against the LA Clippers (Jaxson Hayes started capably in his stead), Los Angeles will have access to head coach JJ Redick’s preferred starting unit once again.

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With Ayton manning the middle, the Lakers will start five-time All-NBA First Team superstar point guard Luka Doncic (who was, until February, a Maverick) and shooting guard Austin Reaves in the backcourt, plus small forward Rui Hachimura and 21-time All-NBA power forward LeBron James in the frontcourt.

The Mavericks, meanwhile, will be bringing back the 10-time All-Star big man who served as the centerpiece of their misguided Doncic deal last season.

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For Dallas, former 2020 Lakers champ Anthony Davis is set to return from a lingering calf injury, although it is Marc Stein of The Stein Line reports that Jason Kidd will be playing Davis on a minutes restriction.

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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.