A month before Cowboys training camp gets rolling, the player with the most to gain is Shemar James.
That answer comes into focus once you step back and look at how NFL rosters really work. Yes, teams carry 90 players in camp and eventually cut down to 53, but most of those jobs are already spoken for.
The real fight usually lives in a small cluster of spots, the ones still genuinely unsettled. For Dallas, that battle lines up most clearly at linebacker.
The Cowboys’ linebacker room has been a problem area all offseason, and even after they traded for Dee Winters during the draft, the group still feels short on certainty. The front office has taken swings like this before.
Last year’s veteran additions of Kenneth Murray and Kaiir Elam made sense in theory: low-cost bets on players with NFL experience. Sometimes that kind of move pays off, as it did with Stephon Gilmore and Brandin Cooks a few years ago.
Other times, as with Murray and Elam, you end up asking why any price was worth paying.
Winters might be a useful piece, especially given that he played for a very serious NFL defense with the San Francisco 49ers. But his arrival does not suddenly solve the position. Dallas still does not have the kind of linebacker depth that lets anyone feel safe.
DeMarvion Overshown brings another layer of uncertainty. The hope is obvious, but the first three years of his career have been shaped by injury, and that makes him tough to bank on. The Cowboys would be smart to treat anything they get from Overshown as a bonus rather than a given.
That is where James stands out. He is in line for real opportunity simply because the room around him is so unsettled.
He played moderately well as a rookie, even with a defense that was historically awful overall, and now he enters camp with actual NFL experience on his side. In a group full of question marks, that matters.
There is another name worth mentioning: Devin Moore, James’ former Florida teammate. The Cowboys do not know what they will get from DaRon Bland, Shavon Revel, or Cobie Durant, and Moore could end up rising to the top. But that feels more like a story that unfolds over the first couple months of the regular season, not one that is decided in training camp.
For now, the clearest answer is James. He is the player who can make the biggest leap when camp opens.
In Other News...
Cowboys May Have Found A Bigger Weapon Than Fans Realized
Ryan Flournoy spent the kind of season that can quietly change a receivers trajectory, even if it did not start that way. After being released during roster cuts, he fought his way back into the picture and finished as the Cowboys third wide receiver by midseason, a notable climb for a player who entered the year buried on the depth chart. His final line, 40 catches for 475 yards and four touchdowns, hints at how quickly he became more than a depth piece.
What makes Flournoy worth watching now is how much room there still seems to be for the growth to continue. He has looked sharper in spring practices, with more confidence in the offense and a better grasp of the playbook, and the numbers from his target profile suggest there is substance behind the rise. He was productive when the ball came his way and showed a knack for turning catches into extra yards, which is the sort of skill set that can earn a bigger role if the momentum carries into camp. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys Camp Clues Already Point To Two Huge Answers
Junes OTAs and mandatory minicamp did not settle every Cowboys question, but they did sketch out a few important trends before training camp opens July 29. George Pickens has been in the building and working with Dak Prescott, while Tyler Guyton has been getting the first-team looks at left tackle, a strong sign the Cowboys are leaning toward him as the starter. On the defensive side, DeMarvion Overshown has handled the green dot work in practice, and the secondary continues to sort through several moving pieces.
There is still real competition in the back end, though, especially at the boundary corner spot opposite DaRon Bland, where Shavon Revel, Cobie Durant and Caelen Carson are all in the mix. Caleb Downs has also added more layers to his role, with work at slot cornerback, safety and on special teams, which suggests the Cowboys are still figuring out where his best fit is. Camp should bring more clarity, but for now the early clues already point toward a few answers Dallas was hoping to find. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Spent Big And Still Handed Dak A Week 1 Opening
The Giants have spent heavily this offseason, nearly $200 million by one count, with Paulson Adebo headlining the upgrades on the back end. Even so, the cornerback room still looks like a work in progress, and that matters because Dallas is set up to test it early. Adebo is viewed as the top corner, but he missed five games last season and the coverage numbers that followed him raise obvious questions about how steady that side of the field will be.
The bigger issue is what happens across from him, where the Giants still have not settled on a starter. Greg Newsome II, Colton Hood and Deonte Banks are all in the mix, which leaves New York trying to sort out a key spot right as Dak Prescott and the Cowboys' offense come into view. For a defense that has already invested so much, the opener has a way of revealing whether the spending bought stability or just created a different kind of uncertainty. [Read more 🡒]