Not much went right for the Dallas Cowboys in their opening-day loss to the New York Giants, and the offense was every bit as shaky as the defense.
Christian Parker and the defense have taken most of the heat, and fair enough. But Brian Schottenheimer’s group looked disjointed too, and Ryan Flournoy may be the piece that gets it moving again.
The Cowboys had higher hopes for their No. 3 receiver after he earned an extension just before the 2026 NFL season. Instead, Sunday Night Football left plenty of people wondering whether Dallas got enough back from him. If Flournoy is going to be part of the answer, he has to do more in a few different areas.
The clearest issue in Week 1 was production. Flournoy finished with two catches for 22 yards on five targets, and Dak Prescott’s only interception came on a throw in Flournoy’s direction.
That kind of night did nothing to force the Giants to adjust, which meant the attention stayed locked on CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens. Both of them struggled to get rolling, and Flournoy never made New York pay for shading help elsewhere.
That mattered because the Giants’ secondary wasn’t exactly untouchable. Flournoy needed to win against the No. 3 corners and the rotational defenders, but that didn’t happen. If he starts doing that consistently, Dallas can make defenses think twice before sitting on Lamb and Pickens.
The blocking was just as troubling. PFF gave Flournoy a 48.4 blocking grade against the Giants, and the film backed it up.
On the first play of the game, he was in motion and asked to crack back on Abdul Carter, but Carter got to Javonte Williams easily. Later, when Schottenheimer dialed up an end-around for Lamb, Flournoy missed his block completely and the play went nowhere.
On another snap, he was late getting involved in the run game and never got a hand on a Giant before Williams was stopped for little gain.
By the second half, as one reporter noted, Dallas seemed to stop asking Flournoy to block and instead sent him on deeper routes. That shift said plenty. If receivers can’t help set the edge, the offense loses a piece of what it wants to do.
Still, one rough game doesn’t have to define him. Week 1 can lie. Flournoy showed more late last season, and the Cowboys are still waiting for the version of him they expected to see coming out of the offseason program and preseason.
The path forward is pretty clear. He needs to get back to being reliable in the short and intermediate game, where he can move the chains and make contested catches. He also needs to be better in the run game, because if Dallas can’t run outside with confidence, the whole offense gets easier to defend.
To be fair, the Cowboys can help him too. He may not need to be the first man trying to handle Abdul Carter from a strange angle on the opening snap of the season.
So yes, this is a critique of Flournoy. But it’s also a reminder of how important he is.
Dallas doesn’t need him to be the headline act. It needs him to be steady enough to keep defenses honest and give Lamb and Pickens more room to work.
If he does that, the Cowboys’ offense has a much better chance to find its footing.
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