The Cowboys have some concerning injuries on defense. Again.
Linebacker DeMarvion Overshown (knee) is out for the season and headed for injured reserve, and the team ruled out safety Juanyeh Thomas (knee).
Starting cornerbacks Trevon Diggs (knee) and Jourdan Lewis (hamstring) are questionable. Diggs returned Monday night after missing two games, and he did not practice Friday after limited practices Wednesday and Thursday.
Lewis was limited all week.
Starting linebacker Eric Kendricks (personal/shoulder) also is questionable after missing practice all week as is linebacker Nick Vigil (foot). Vigil also didn’t practice this week.
In addition, linebacker Buddy Johnson (illness) and cornerback C.J. Goodwin (hamstring) are questionable.
Starting center Cooper Beebe (concussion) will not play.
The Panthers only ruled one player out for Sunday’s game against the Cowboys, but they have a number of questionable players.
One of those is cornerback Jaycee Horn. Horn was a limited participant in practice all week because of a groin injury and the team will wait until closer to kickoff to make a determination about his availability.
Linebacker Trevin Wallace was the only player ruled out. The rookie has been out all week with a shoulder injury.
Running back Raheem Blackshear (chest), linebacker Jadeveon Clowney (knee), linebacker Josey Jewell (hamstring), and safety Nick Scott (hamstring) are the other players listed as questionable for the game.
The Cowboys made only one change to their practice report Thursday with linebacker Buddy Johnson missing practice with an illness.
Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb (shoulder) and cornerback Trevon Diggs (knee) remained limited. Both played through their injuries Monday night, with Diggs returning after missing two games.
Center Cooper Beebe (concussion), linebacker Eric Kendricks (personal/shoulder), safety Juanyeh Thomas (knee) and linebacker Nick Vigil (foot) again did not practice.
Cornerback C.J. Goodwin (hamstring) and cornerback Jourdan Lewis (hamstring) remained limited.
Cornerback DaRon Bland (foot), running back Rico Dowdle (knee), left tackle Tyler Guyton (ankle), tight end Marshawn Kneeland (knee) and left guard Tyler Smith (ankle) were full participants a second consecutive day.
The Cowboys haven’t made a splash in free agency since 2012 when they signed cornerback Brandon Carr, backup quarterback Kyle Orton, linebacker Dan Connor and offensive linemen Nate Livings and Mackenzy Bernadeau early in March. Fans were especially frustrated this spring with the lack of free agent movement with linebacker Eric Kendricks the only help the team found in March.
Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones played the role of Grinch on Wednesday, saying the team’s approach isn’t going to change in 2025.
“I think we knew we were going to have a challenge [in 2024] and [2025],” Jones said, via Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “It’s going to be really, really tight. We still have some money left over from some guys who are not here today, and we’re going to have some other guys that won’t be here in the future that you’re still going to have their cap count.”
The Cowboys have $9.28 million in dead cap for 2025, but the anticipated departures of right guard Zack Martin and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence will add to that number.
The Cowboys also will have to pay edge rusher Micah Parsons, perhaps making him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league, after paying huge money to quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb in August.
The team has 24 players on their 53-player roster scheduled to become free agents in March, and many of them will walk for bigger deals elsewhere.
“Guys are getting opportunities and guys are going to continue to get opportunities,” Jones said. “I think [defensive lineman] Chauncey Golston has really stepped up. He’s a free agent. I hate that because he’s played his best football on the last year of his contract. I don’t hate that for him; I hate it for us. Guys have stepped up and played well.”
So, with the Cowboys unwilling (rather than unable) to use free agency, it’s not going to be a quick fix. With the 2025 offseason expected to look a lot like 2024, the 2025 season could look a lot like the 2024 season, too.
Linebacker Jadeveon Clowney may be back in the Panthers lineup on Sunday.
Clowney missed last Sunday’s loss to the Eagles with a knee injury and he remained out of practice on Wednesday, but he took a major step in the right direction on Thursday. Clowney was listed as a full practice participant on the second injury report of the week.
The Panthers will issue an injury designation for their game against the Cowboys on Friday, but the level of participation would seem to be a good sign for Clowney’s chances of playing.
Running back Raheem Blackshear (chest) also returned to practice. He was listed as a limited participant along with linebacker Josey Jewell (hamstring), cornerback Jaycee Horn (groin), linebacker D.J. Wonnum (knee), and safety Lonnie Johnson (neck).
Right tackle Taylor Moton rested on Thursday while linebaker Trevin Wallace (shoulder) missed his second straight practice.
Cowboys cornerback Amani Oruwariye is trying to take what happened in Monday night’s loss to the Bengals as a “learning lesson.”
After teammate Nick Vigil blocked a punt late in the fourth quarter, Oruwariye tried to field it down the field and mishandled the ball. The Bengals recovered and scored the game-winning touchdown a few plays later.
On Wednesday, Oruwariye spoke to reporters about what was going through his mind during the play and said it was an instantaneous decision based on seeing the ball in front of him without knowing exactly how it got there.
“It was in the moment,” Oruwariye said, via the team’s website. “I was taking my guy and I heard a thump. I didn’t know what it was — could’ve been a punt, could’ve been a block — all I know is I turned around to react as any athlete would. I saw the ball there and, in a split decision, I made the decision to go try and secure the ball. That’s just part of the game. It’s something that I felt, in that moment, was a reactionary thing to do, and so I’m standing by it.”
Oruwariye said it was an “emotional moment” when he realized what happened and that Monday night was “tough” because he “didn’t want to feel like I was letting anybody down.” He said it meant a lot that his teammates “wanted to rally around me, console me and support me” in the wake of the miscue and that he plans to build off of that as he and the rest of the Cowboys move into the future.
The hits just keep coming for the Cowboys.
Linebacker DeMarvion Overshown (knee) will become the 13th player the Cowboys have placed on injured reserve. Other players have fought through injuries all season, including wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and cornerback Trevon Diggs.
Lamb (shoulder) and Diggs (knee) were limited in Wednesday’s walk-through.
Center Cooper Beebe (concussion), linebacker Eric Kendricks (personal/shoulder), safety Juanyeh Thomas (knee) and linebacker Nick Vigil (foot) did not practice.
Cornerback C.J. Goodwin (hamstring) and cornerback Jourdan Lewis (hamstring) were limited.
Cornerback DaRon Bland (foot), running back Rico Dowdle (knee), left tackle Tyler Guyton (ankle), tight end Marshawn Kneeland (knee) and left guard Tyler Smith (ankle) were full participants.
Panthers linebacker Jadeveon Clowney remained out of practice on Wednesday.
Clowney missed practice all of last week and was ultimately ruled out for last Sunday’s loss to the Eagles. Clowney is listed with a knee injury and had three tackles and a sack in his last game appearance in Week 13.
The Panthers were also without running back Raheem Blackshear on Wednesday. Blackshear suffered a chest injury against the Eagles and the Panthers also lost Jonathon Brooks to a torn ACL in that game, so the recently signed Velus Jones is the only healthy running back behind Chuba Hubbard.
Hubbard and defensive lineman A’Shawn Robinson had rest days and linebacker Trevin Wallace sat out with a shoulder injury. Linebacker Josey Jewell (hamstring), cornerback Jaycee Horn (groin), linebacker D.J. Wonnum (knee), and safety Lonnie Johnson (neck) were all limited participants.
Cowboys special teams coach John Fassel isn’t blaming Amani Oruwariye for the team’s loss on Monday night, and he doesn’t want the cornerback blaming himself either.
Fassel, who consoled a distraught Oruwariye after the game, said he communicated with Oruwariye through text and in a phone call on Tuesday.
“If we can put ourselves in his shoes and how fast things happened, I think that’s probably what you expect for him to do,” Fassel said Tuesday, via Josh Tolentino of lonestarlive.com. “I told Oruwariye, ‘If I’m a football player in his shoes, and I see the ball bouncing, and I don’t know how it got there, I’m probably going to handle it, too. It’s fair to absolutely say it’s a peter call [to not touch the ball]; it’s a poison call for the guys who see what happened. But he wasn’t part of that core and didn’t have any idea what happened. Like if it was an incomplete pass or a fumble or a blocked kick. Who knows how many different things could have happened [in Oruwariye’s mind]. It’s a unique one for sure. It’s a crazy play and it happens fast.”
On the first play after the two-minute warning in a tie game, Cowboys linebacker Nick Vigil blocked the kick of Bengals punter Ryan Rehkow. Oruwariye, who didn’t know the punt was blocked, touched the ball. The Bengals recovered, and Joe Burrow threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Ja’Marr Chase three plays later for the game-winner.
Some of Oruwariye’s teammates protected him from questions from the media Monday night, and Fassel defended Oruwariye on Tuesday.
“I asked him how he was doing, word for word, and he said, ‘I’m doing good,’” Fassel said. “I said, ‘Good because you should be doing good. You have no reason to think you cost us the game or you made a mistake or that you let the team down.’ All words that came out of his mouth. All those things are not true in my opinion. He did not let the team down. He worked incredibly hard to come off IR after missing [five] games. He tried to make a play on the ball. So none of that stuff should be written about [Oruwariye]. He didn’t let the team down. He felt bad about it. I’m glad that he is good today. Football happens.”
The Cowboys still draw a decent crowd, even when the Cowboys are barely decent.
Last night’s Bengals-Cowboys game on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 generated an average audience of 18.7 million viewers.
That said, the combined broadcast and cable audience wasn’t much bigger than Thursday’s streaming-only Packers-Lions audience initially reported by Prime Video, at 17.29 million. (Updated numbers released on Monday pushed the figure to 18.48 million.)
The NFL has expanded the ABC simulcasts in 2024, given the sluggish numbers being generated by the non-ABC telecasts.
The press release from ESPN also discloses the audience for the ManningCast at 900,000. This year, ESPN had not disclosed audience information when it dipped below one million.
No viewership details were provided for the Simpsons twist on the game, which was available only on ESPN+ and Disney+. Wild guess? Whatever it was, it wasn’t worth whatever they put into it.
