Cowboys fans are already getting antsy about Rashan Gary, but the veteran edge rusher’s track record says this slow start is more blip than verdict.
Dallas went into the offseason trying to patch together the kind of pass-rush presence Micah Parsons used to provide while also firming up the run defense. The first move was getting Kenny Clark back in the deal, then the Cowboys sent away one of their picks for Quinnen Williams, and then came the trade for Gary. That last swing has drawn the most second-guessing so far, because through three games he hasn’t produced the splash the Cowboys were hoping for.
The raw numbers are hard to ignore. In three games, Gary has played 64 pass-rush snaps and has just six pressures, with no hits and no sacks.
For a player expected to help recreate Parsons’ impact in the aggregate, that’s a rough opening stretch. He’s lined up against Jermaine Eluemunor, Josh Conerly Jr. and Roger Rosengartern, but hasn’t managed to get home.
The run-defense grade hasn’t helped calm anyone down, either. Gary’s 49.2 mark from Pro Football Focus against the run is one of the worst on the team and sixth-worst among qualifying NFL edge rushers. And the drought goes beyond this season: he hasn’t logged a sack since Week 8 of last year, which means it’s been almost a calendar year since his last regular-season sack.
Still, there are signs that suggest the pressure isn’t far from turning into production. Gary’s pass rush win rate is 17.9%, which is above average, and that number climbs to 23.1% in true pass sets. In other words, he is winning reps even if the finish hasn’t been there yet.
There are a few possible reasons for the disconnect. Opposing offenses may be paying more attention to him because he’s the most established edge presence Dallas has.
It could also just be the randomness that comes with a small sample. And the quarterbacks he’s faced - Jaxson Dart, Jayden Daniels, Marcus Mariota and Lamar Jackson - are not exactly easy catches for an edge rusher.
But Gary’s bigger issue is also his defining trait: he’s streaky. His career has been built on runs of pressure and sacks, followed by quiet stretches that make everyone wonder where the production went.
Since he really settled in during the 2021 season, his sack totals have looked like this: 9.5, 6.0*, 9.0, 7.5, 7.5. That’s not superstar output, but it is steady, useful production over a long stretch. His quarterback hits and pressures have also held fairly firm on a yearly basis, even if his pass rush win rate has declined in each of the last five years before ticking back up again.
*Season shortened to nine games due to injury.
The recent pattern is the part Cowboys fans should remember. In 2025, Gary opened with four sacks in his first three games, then went two games without one, then added three more over the next two contests before the current no-sack stretch began.
This wasn’t new. In 2024, he went five games without a sack and had just one hit before bouncing back with 6.0 sacks over the next eight weeks.
In 2023, he stacked up four sacks in two games, then went six weeks with just one, only to respond with five in the next three games and seven more after that. In 2022, he had five sacks in the first four games, then just one over the next five.
That’s the story with Gary: the dry spells are real, but so are the bursts. Right now, he’s in one of the coldest stretches of his career, and it looks ugly. But his history says this is the kind of dip he has climbed out of before.
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