One of the most intriguing players on the Cowboys roster, defensive lineman David Irving, will rejoin the team today after serving his four-game suspension for PED use. Irving will make his 2017 debut this Sunday as the Cowboys host the Green Bay Packers in a critical Week 5 matchup, with the difference between 3-2 or 2-3 on the line.
Because suspended players don’t count against your 53-man roster limit, Irving’s return means the Cowboys will have to lose somebody to make room. There has been a lot of speculation about who will hit the discard pile. Here’s my take.
The question of who should be released is an easy one for me. Backup quarterback Kellen Moore, who got outclassed during the preseason by rookie Cooper Rush, could probably be put on the street and remain a free agent. He also still has practice squad eligibility, meaning Dallas could keep him associated with the team to assist the other QBs and coaches in game preparation. I would pull that trigger without hesitation.
The fact that Moore is still here, though, suggests the team doesn’t want to make that play. Therefore, we have to look elsewhere for our roster limit casualty. After being inactive for the first four weeks of 2017, running back Darren McFadden could make sense. Alfred Morris is the clear number-two RB now and Rod Smith brings too much on special teams. McFadden is the odd man out.
However, Ezekiel Elliott’s ongoing legal status is why Dallas may not want to part with McFadden just yet. Until they have complete certainty that Elliott will play the entire season, the Cowboys will likely hang on to McFadden as he would probably find work if he hit the open market. Nothing in the NFL emulates fantasy football more than the RB position, where teams are scouring the waiver wire all year to deal with injuries.
Since David Irving is a defensive lineman, some might assume that’s where the cut will come from. Second-year DE Charles Tapper has been targeted by some as he’s been inactive the last few weeks. Irving is also able to play inside tackle, so Brian Price has also been discussed.
Right now the Cowboys only have nine defensive linemen, so adding Irving as a tenth would not create an unusual surplus. My gut feeling is that they don’t want to lose any of their DL pieces this early in the year and with so much time for injuries to take a toll.
That same logic could be said about cornerback, where Dallas has six guys right now. Nolan Carroll and Chidobe Awuzie were out last week with injuries, allowing veteran Bene Benwikere to be active. Awuzie is expected back this week, though, to join Orlando Scandrick, Anthony Brown, and Jourdan Lewis at the top of the depth chart.
If the Cowboys are going to have those CBs active, and Carroll waiting in the wings, I think Benwikere is the easiest cut they can make. He doesn’t do you any good in street clothes. If a future need arises at CB, Dallas might call up Marquez White from the practice squad or could potentially re-sign Benwikere from free agency.
There are plenty of options but these are the most likely routes that the Cowboys will take. We should find out pretty soon.
Taco
Jess Haynie: You along with many others continue to under estimate K Moore. For some reason you also don’t trust the coaches overall assessments and evaluations of K Moore and who they believe is more likely to be successful than C Rush, if something happened to D Prescott. The coaches OBVIOUSLY don’t feel C Rush is ready or tested enough to be the 2nd team backup even though he has shown great promise in preseason. They see these two QBs every day in practice so should be the best people to make a judgement about which QB would be the most successful all things considered. I am glad you are not coaching based on your definitive comments about K Moore and what you would do if you were coach. The 2nd team QB position is a key position on the team and the risk to the starting QB is great, therefore every team needs a 2nd team QB that can come into the game and be able to move the offense and have some success. There is plenty of evidence for the coaches to have more faith in K Moore vs C Rush such as 1) K Moore has had some success in the NFL both in preseason and season games. C Rush has played about six quarters in preseason at mostly 3rd team QB., 2) K Moore has more experience and has been in the NFL for going on six years and has played for two teams, 3) K Moore knows the offense/playbook/Linehan game plans annd thi
If any of this was the case he would have remained #2
He did remain # 2. Did something change since the last game?
They aint getting rid of 9 live kellen moore. He’s the only Nfl player besides Mark Sanchez that i know who gets rewarded for poor play But you cant tell cowboys fans anything. I got called a racist for stating that Jeff Heath wasnt athletic enough to be our starting safety ?? 4 weeks in and theirs a article on here calling for his job. Im a cowboys fan but cant stand the logic of some fans You know why we havent been to a super bowl in 22 years?? Because we accept mediocre players and make up excuses for them, case and point, Kellen Moore and Jeff Heath
A few points. K Moore is not playing and not likely to play as Dak is young, big, strong and athletic and not likely to get hurt. If K Moore had to play this whole issue would come to a head fast. K Moore would either play okay or not. The coaching would also be brought into question if K Moore played lousy which most fans think he would. Again as I said above the coaches are not fools. Their careers can be on the line. They see something in K Moore that the fans don’t and it is not his ability to mentor and coach D Prescott. If Dallas even now could get a better player than K Moore at 2nd team at a similar cost they would likely go for it. Again they are not fools.
9 on the DL should be enough IMO, considering Marinelli’s propensity to drop 8 on long downs.
The other pressing question is how to work the jigsaw puzzle of the DL. I posted last week about trying Collins at LDT since he could in theory cash in the coming double-teams on Lawrence. They did it and we didn’t get anything from it.
But I cannot mess with the emergent Lawrence. I don’t want to flip him as he’s done in the past. Irving showed bursts last year at LDE, but I doubt can do it at RDE. I think that puts him inside for most of his 2017 reps.
We need somebody to be a wrecking ball next to Lawrence.