The Cowboys are heading into Sunday with a few familiar questions and one increasingly important answer: Joey Porter Jr. looks like he’s sticking around.
Porter has done what Dallas hoped he would do in his first stretch with the team, and that early return has made his future look a lot clearer. The organization, according to the reporting, appears to want him beyond this season.
If a long-term deal doesn’t get done after the year, the franchise tag would be an option. That would create another complicated decision for Dallas, especially with receiver George Pickens already playing this season under the tag.
Either way, this does not sound like a team that views Porter as a short-term fix.
That long-term buzz comes as the Cowboys try to clean up a defense that still has a long way to go. Even so, Porter has stood out as one of the few bright spots.
On the field this week, Dallas gets Arizona, and the Cardinals have been a problem the Cowboys haven’t solved since 2017. Rookie safety Caleb Downs laid out what it will take to finally end that skid. He pointed to the challenge of handling tight end Trey McBride and rookie first-round pick Jeremiyah Love, who is back from injury and should test Dallas’ run defense.
“I think they do a good job with their motions. and they run the ball well.” said Downs. “They have a lot of different personnel groupings, like the Rams did a couple years ago. I think, all of that combined, they have a good offense, and we’re gonna have to do our jobs.”
The injury picture adds another layer. George Pickens is questionable for the game, while KaVontae Turpin and Dee Winters are set to miss their second straight week.
Both were hurt in the loss to the Green Bay Packers on Oct. 18.
Turpin took the hit to his ribcage on the opening kickoff, and while he has been going through warm-ups and stretching at practice, he has still been listed as a non-participant. Winters has an Achilles strain and has not taken part in practice over the last two weeks.
There’s also the matter of Quinnen Williams, who has been trending up after a slow start to his Dallas tenure. He has recorded a sack in three of his last four games, and the Cowboys have needed that kind of lift. Still, Williams says he isn’t back to his best yet.
“Oh, not yet,” Williams said. “Not yet.
At all. I feel like I got some things I need to fix.
And just keep going in the right direction. And hopefully soon I have that game that I feel like I’m myself soon.”
As for the trade deadline, Jerry Jones doesn’t sound nearly as eager to chase a splash move as he once did. He said on 105.3 The Fan that Dallas is not trying to match anyone else’s urgency.
“I don’t feel like I have to ‘keep up’ with anybody,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told K&C Masterpiece on 105.3 The Fan during a phone-in on Friday.
“Where we are right now, it would have to be a dynamic situation for us to give up picks because we’ve used some of those picks in our future. On the other hand, I don’t like the idea of giving up, really, anybody that somebody else might want. We need him as bad as they do.”
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