Dallas City News

The Dallas Cowboys were victorious against the Las Vegas Raiders on Saturday night. They had some nice performances on offense, defense, and even special teams as we witnessed the longest field goal they’ve ever had in a game courtesy of a 66-yarder from Brandon Aubrey.

On Monday, we looked at five offensive players who impressed, but today we’ll take a different approach. Focusing on the defense, we’ll look at players who moved the needle at certain position groups and determine what questions remain as the team shores up the roster.

How’s the CB depth battle looking?

The Cowboys have a good core of cornerbacks starting with fellow All-Pros Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland and followed by veteran slot corner Jourdan Lewis and rookie outside corner Caelen Carson. That’s a nice start.

They still need to round out the depth and have a few options available. Eric Scott Jr. is the player we should all be hoping for as he’s the secret project player the team traded up to get in last year’s draft. After being picked on last week (before doing some picking himself), Scott Jr. wasn’t targeted much against the Raiders. He stayed toe to toe with his man and wasn’t giving up the cushion he was a week ago. It’s hard to say, but things might be starting to click for him.

The team traded away Nahshon Wright a couple of weeks ago and got former second-round pick Andrew Booth in return. Against the Raiders, we got a good look at him. It didn’t start well as he was beaten on a deep pass (although he stayed right with him), but credit Booth for not getting rattled. His coverage remained tight as they picked on him all night, and while there were some small completions, Booth kept fighting and did a great job wrapping up. Considering what we’ve been put through with that previous guy who wore that jersey, it was refreshing to see no. 25 make some plays.

Josh Butler is a personal pet cat of mine, and while he didn’t play poorly, he’s not making any big plays either. He had a very ho-hum performance on Saturday, which in cornerback terms isn’t bad, but he needs to show out if he expects to stay ahead of these other corners the team has traded for.

And who is this Kemon Hall guy? He’s not even listed on the Cowboys’ roster at the Mothership. Hall is a 27-year-old practice squad journeyman on his second stint with the Cowboys. He’s a high-energy player who was spazzing around last week and it was more of the same on Saturday. He had one blemish where he made a lazy tackle attempt, but redeemed himself with a pick-six. Suddenly, he’s put himself in the mix for one of those final roster spots.

How many safeties are they keeping?

Speaking of a crowded secondary, the Cowboys’ safety group is equally plentiful. After the main four main guys – Malik Hooker, Donovan Wilson, Markquese Bell, and Juanyeh Thomas, is there even room for anyone else?

Israel Mukuamu is the incumbent who landed the gig before but is his time running out? He had a nice pass breakup and provided good coverage in the limited times he was targeted.

Undrafted free agent rookie Julius Wood is one of the few UDFAs who have caught fans’ attention and has a name that screams strong safety. He followed up a good game last week with another solid performance as he sniffed out a run play and had a nice tackle for a loss on Raiders running back Ameer Abdullah.

With eight defensive backs locked in, which players will join them?

Is the battle for big man depth getting any clearer?

With no Mazi Smith to evaluate, the Cowboys at least did us a favor and went out and traded for veteran Jordan Phillips so we’d have someone in the middle to keep us interested. Phillips started the game and looked like what he’s shown during his career. He had some good pushback and opened up a nice crease for rookie linebacker Marist Liufau to burst through and make a tackle for a loss.

Albert Huggins was just a guy who caused a ruckus at practice last week when he shoved a Rams staff member to the ground, but he kept that mean streak going. He had a nice deflection, created pressure, and was hustling all over the place. For a position with little to no depth, Huggins has our attention.

Rookie Justin Rogers played okay. He wasn’t giving any ground. He shed a block to make a nice tackle and had a nice QB pressure after hand-swatting his blocker. Nothing fancy.

Junior Fehoko’s role on the team remains murky. He played most of his reps at 5-tech in this game and was completely neutralized. It’s still a small sample size, but he hasn’t had any success anywhere he’s played thus far.