For the most part opinions about the Dallas Cowboys are the same among people. It is generally agreed that this is a talented roster but that it likely has a ceiling on it that could have been risen with a bit more help over the course of the offseason. Perhaps the team will break through that ceiling and finally do the thing, but odds are stacked against them cause of, well, everything.

Sifting through the national media can be difficult in this sense because opinions get so farfetched and silly. Standard and normal conversations about this team are far and few between on that level because they create such attention with opinions at either end of the spectrum.

As we get closer and closer to training camp we are starting to see the waters calm a bit here, which is something that we talked about recently what with how PFF ranked the Cowboys roster as just inside of the top 10 at number 9.

Somebody has Dallas even higher than that.

ESPN ranked the Dallas Cowboys roster just outside of the top 5

Whether or not you believe the Cowboys should have been more proactive with one or another contract extensions is up to you. Whatever your degree of upset-ness in this regard, the lack of extensions do not change the makeup of the roster for the 2024 season.

The fine folks over at ESPN assessed each roster in the NFL looking ahead to the upcoming campaign specifically and apparently think quite highly of the Cowboys.

Dallas comes in at number 6, the third team in the NFC trailing the San Francisco 49ers (1) and Detroit Lions (5).

Biggest strength: Edge rusher. One of the league’s top defenders, Micah Parsons has led the position in pass rush win rate each of the last three seasons. In fact, since his arrival in 2021, Dallas sits first in pass rush wins (809) and fifth in sacks (3.0 behind first). DeMarcus Lawrence is now 32 years old but hasn’t lost a step — he posted one of the top tackle rates and pass rush win rates among edge rushers last season. Sam Williams returns as solid depth, and the team added Marshawn Kneeland in the second round of April’s draft. — Clay

Biggest weakness: Running back. This wasn’t a tough choice for a pretty good Dallas roster that very clearly decided to deprioritize running back this season. Out is Tony Pollard and in is soon-to-be 29-year-old Ezekiel Elliott as the lead back. Elliott is a franchise legend, but he’s no more than the football equivalent of an innings-eater at this point in his career. That was further evidenced last year in New England, when he posted his fourth straight season with below-average yards per carry and yards after the catch marks. Additionally, there’s not much to get excited about behind Elliott (Rico Dowdle, 179-pound Deuce Vaughn and Royce Freeman). — Clay

X factor for 2024: Rookie offensive linemen Tyler Guyton and Cooper Beebe. Assuming they start, they’ll play a critical role in protecting QB Dak Prescott. And it’s a bit of a scary proposition for a team with Super Bowl aspirations. Most rookie offensive linemen — even first-round picks — are below average in Year 1. Dallas needs its picks to overcome the odds. — Walder

Advertisement

Nonstarter to know: Linebacker DeMarvion Overshown. The Cowboys’ 2023 third-round pick didn’t see the field as a rookie because of a torn ACL from the preseason. He’s a patient linebacker with elite speed and strong (ex-safety) awareness in coverage. Don’t be surprised if he’s getting snaps ahead of Damone Clark by midseason. — Schatz

These are interesting categories to break the roster down into in terms of specific blurbs and each one obviously requires a bit of context.

Let’s get into them.

Biggest strength

ESPN listed Micah Parsons as the biggest strength of the Cowboys and that is very difficult to refute given what he has done through the first three years of his career.

It is worth mentioning that gone is defensive coordinator Dan Quinn who Parsons has praised repeatedly over the last thousand days. Will he remain the same player? Can new DC Mike Zimmer utilize him in the same way?

Biggest weakness

If Cowboys fans agreed on anything universally it seems like it would be this. The running back position is… unique, to say the least.

But if you have to have a weakness and obviously everybody does, is it not even mildly encouraging that it is a position that many people believe (for lack of a better term) doesn’t matter? To be clear running backs and the run game specifically do matter, but there are obviously circumstances beyond the position itself that matter a great deal relative to the overall cause. Being “weak” here feels like a rich person problem, so to speak, regarding the overall roster.

X factor for 2024

In a similar sort of vein, if we had to blindly trust the Dallas Cowboys on one thing, wouldn’t that one thing be offensive line evaluation?

The track record here is not just very good but sterling. History (the last decade and change) shows us that the Cowboys know how to find premium offensive linemen and turn them into all-world type of players. It is a risky thing to bet on but they know this game and almost have it rigged against the house.

A different sort of x-factor might be that Trevon Diggs and DeMarvion Overshown are both returning from serious injuries. The floor of the defense should theoretically improve there. Speaking of!

Nonstarter to know

I suppose that DeMarvion Overshown classifies here, but I think we all think that he will wind up starting the majority of games. Still though it is a fair choice.

Expanding the parameters a bit to what we will call “role player to know”, how about whatever tight end winds up surprising? Assuming that happens of course.

John Stephens Jr. could become a thing. We did see it in training camp and the preseason last year, after all. Hopefully the options here only continues to grow and we look back upon a massive list of contenders.

MIAMI — This time, the NBA draft comes with a halftime, the league for the first time spreading the two rounds over two days.

So Wednesday night the main course, the first 30 selections over the first round at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

Thursday at 4 p.m at ESPN’s New York studios, the final 28 selections (with picks forfeited due to previous salary-cap violations by the Philadelphia 76ers and Phoenix Suns.)

For the Miami Heat and the rest of the league, it means an opportunity for a double exhale. Not only about the 17 hours between the rounds, but teams are now given four minutes in the second round per selection instead of the previous two (there remains a five-minute limit between selections in the first round).

“It’s going to be a lot of digging of information between the two rounds,” said Adam Simon,  the Heat’s vice president of basketball operations and assistant general manager, who oversees the team’s draft.

With the Heat entering the draft process slotted at No. 43 overall, the 13th selection of the second round, the break in the draft will mean a reset of the intel process, with teams having played some of their hand in the first round.

“So it’s either going to be a lot of maneuvering or a lot of lying,” Simon said of the chatter during the break, “one or the other.”

As it is, having a second-round pick is somewhat of a Heat anomaly.

The last time the Heat emerged from the second round with a selection was when they traded for the rights to KZ Okpala in 2019. That foray led to an uneven partnership on a three-year contract the Heat eventually dealt for salary-cap relief.

The second round is one that is played by its own rules – numerous rules. Unlike first-round selections, which come with guaranteed contracts, players selected in the second round are not slotted into a specific salary scale. Further, some teams make second-round selections with the intent of signing those picks to two-way contracts, which do not count against the salary cap. In addition, second-round agreements often are made with overseas players to have such selections remain overseas and therefore count neither against next season’s salary cap nor roster limit.

While the Wild West nature of the season round hasn’t changed, what has is the added time for agents to influence the process.

“I anticipate a lot of phone calls between teams and agents, and agents trying to figure out where their players are going to go,” Simon of the break between rounds, with the Heat’s war room set up on the team’s practice court at Kaseya Center.

With the NBA’s rookie scale, the first round is formulaic.

“The second round, there’s the ability to sign players to four-year contracts or two-way contracts or ‘stash,’ you take a foreign player, leave him over,” Simon said. “So I think every agent’s going to have a different agenda, and some are going to want their players to try to get to certain teams.

“They’re going to do what they can to maybe potentially get their player to a team. And then at the same time, there’ll be teams trying to find out from agents where they think their players are going to go and help them to maneuver.”

Recent Heat second-round picks

2024: No. 43 (own selection).

2023: None.

2022: None.

2021: None.

2020: None.

2019: Bol Bol (No. 44, immediately dealt to Denver Nuggets). Traded for  No. 32 selection KZ Okpala.

2018: None.

2017: None.

2016: None.

2015: Josh Richardson (No. 40).

Kenya Moore is leaving Real Housewives of Atlanta while season 16 filming is underway.

The suspended Atlanta Housewife won’t be returning to the Bravo series she has starred in for 11 seasons, The Hollywood Reporter can confirm. Her exit comes after an investigation stemming from Moore reportedly targeting franchise newcomer Brittany Eady.

Moore was suspended from the franchise earlier this month after she reportedly displayed posters with sexually explicit images of Eady (allegedly performing oral sex) at the grand opening of her Kenya Moore Hair Spa in Atlanta, Georgia. Bravo cameras were filming the cast event at the time, with a source telling Entertainment Tonight that the network was “reviewing the content Kenya displayed during filming.”

Following reports around the event, Moore had posted on X, “I would never engage in revenge porn, I have never distributed private images or footage of anyone, nor solicited images owned by others to use to threaten or blackmail. I have always been vindicated. I can’t talk about STORY even with people planting fake news.”

She added at the time to her Instagram Story, “Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see. The truth always comes to light.”

Early Wednesday morning, Moore was sharing supportive posts to her Stories and posted a video of her singing her catchphrase song, “Gone With the Wind Fabulous.”

Moore first joined RHOA for season five in 2012. She was among the inaugural cast of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip, the Real Housewives spinoff series that launched on Peacock in 2021. Outside of Bravo, the reality star has appeared on seasons of Celebrity Apprentice, Dancing With the Stars and Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.

Following the cast departures of RHOA stars Sherée Whitfield, Marlo Hampton and Kandi Burruss, Porsha Williams is now the only veteran among the season 16 cast. Along with Williams and Eady, RHOA currently stars Drew Sidora, Kelli Ferrell, Angela Oakley and Shamea Morton Mwangi.

Season 16 has yet to get a premiere date from Bravo, and Moore’s mid-season exit marks a rare production hurdle for the hit Housewives franchise.