The Cowboys’ preseason ended the way a lot of exhibition games do: with enough good, enough ugly, and enough roster noise to keep the staff busy well past Friday night.
Dallas fell 27-24 to the Saints at AT&T Stadium, closing out a 2026 preseason in which the Cowboys won at Seattle and Arizona but lost at home. Now the real thing is next, with the opener at the Giants on September 13th, the fourth straight season Dallas will begin on the road.
This one could have gotten away early. The Saints led 17-6 in the first half and stretched it to 24-9 in the third quarter, but the Cowboys kept clawing and eventually tied it at 24 in the fourth before coming up short.
A few performances from the final exhibition will stick in the evaluation meeting, and not all for the right reasons. Defensive tackles Jay Toia and UDFA Tommy Dunn had a rough night after both had been trending up against the Cardinals.
They had trouble with pad level and holding up at the point of attack, and that made life harder on the linebackers behind them. New Orleans kept finding room on the edges early, and the push up front was a big reason why.
The tackling on the second level didn’t help. Shemar James, Markquese Bell, and Sam Williams all had moments where the angles were off or the finish wasn’t there, and once again a red-zone series turned into an easy run straight at Isiah Land for a touchdown with Spencer Rattler scoring on the QB keep.
Williams did make his mark later with a sack that helped keep Dallas in the comeback, but Tyrus Wheat got home too, and that matchup feels like one of the more interesting roster battles on the defense. Williams and Wheat may be fighting for one outside linebacker spot, and the special teams usage only adds another layer.
Williams logged seven snaps on special teams against the Saints, the same number he had against the Cardinals, but just two against the Seahawks. Wheat had seven in the opener, nine in the second game, and 12 on Friday night, and the hometown broadcast called him a “core” specialist.
During a live interview on the broadcast, head coach Brian Schottenheimer pointed to the sudden-change situations where Christian Parker’s defense has shown up as one of the things that has stood out to him across the preseason. Wheat has been more involved in that area than Williams, which could matter when the final call is made and the more recognizable name winds up on the outside looking in.
There’s also the Marist Liufau injury to factor in. He was still out there battling for his roster spot, but he did not return after getting hurt, and that could affect whether Dallas can keep both Williams and Wheat.
Offensively, the play that probably jumps off the tape most is the touchdown from recently signed tight end Mitch Van Vooren, followed by Sam Howell’s two-point conversion run that tied the game. Van Vooren isn’t making the roster, but the sequence was a neat reminder of what tight ends can do when they’re not tied up in protection.
That ties into the larger conversation around Jake Ferguson and his drop in big-play production, along with how much of that has been shaped by the uneven play Tyler Guyton and Terence Steele have had at tackle. On Van Vooren’s score, Sebastian Gutierrez did a nice job sealing the edge at right tackle and gave him a clean runway into the middle of the end zone.
With Steele and Guyton having mostly strong camps, the Cowboys can at least picture more of those kinds of plays from Ferguson, Luke Schoonmaker, or Brevyn Spann-Ford if the blocking holds up.
And if the preseason is telling us anything about the way Klayton Adams wants this offense to look - he’s been calling the plays in preseason - it’s that the tight ends are going to get featured early and often. That showed up with Zack Kuntz last week, and it showed up again with Van Vooren on Friday.
The other big bright spot belonged to UDFA receiver Jordan Hudson, the local product from Garland who played at TCU and SMU. He’s not really in the mix at a position that already feels crowded, with Camden Brown making a push as the annual undrafted receiver fan favorite and Jonathan Mingo serving as the clearest competition. But Hudson made the most of his night anyway, leading the team with five targets, four catches, 97 yards, a 52-yard deep ball, and a touchdown.
For a player who may have been on his last chance to wear the blue, white, and silver, it was a strong finish in front of a crowd that probably had a few people who’d seen him play before in college. Good for him.
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Sam Howell Just Made The Cowboys Final Cuts A Lot Tougher
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The ripple effect reaches beyond Howell, because every good showing and every healthy return changes the math for the players on the bubble. Camden Brown, Alijah Clark, Sam Williams and Derion Kendrick are all part of that conversation, with recent performances and injuries shaping how tight the cut decisions could be. For Dallas, the final evaluation period suddenly looks a lot trickier than it did before kickoff. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys Just Got A Telling Chance To Fix A Thin LB Room
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Tyrel Dodson suddenly fits that need after being released by the Dolphins and becoming available as a free agent. He brings veteran experience and a strong 2025 season to the table, which is exactly the kind of profile Dallas can lean on if it wants more certainty in a room that still feels short on it. [Read more 🡒]