Dallas City News

The Dallas Cowboys have lost 13 players, most to free agency and one to retirement over the last three months. Even with this exodus, they’ve done enough to retain and add talent during the offseason that some returning players can’t feel safe going into training camp. One of them is offensive lineman Josh Ball.

Barring injuries to other prospects or a miraculous turnaround in his play, Ball will soon join 2021 classmates Kelvin Joseph, Jabril Cox, Simi Fehoko, as failed picks from that draft. Once seen as a draft day steal with his perceived potential, falling more due to personal conduct concerns, Ball has been fine off the field but hasn’t done enough on it.

Entering the final year of his rookie contract, Ball has been disappointing since Dallas made him a fourth-round pick in 2021. He’s had some bad luck with his health, getting stashed on IR with a severe ankle sprain his rookie season and missing all of 2023 with a major hip/groin injury.

The one year that he was healthy in 2022, Ball dressed in 13 games as a backup but rarely played, The team didn’t trust him enough coming out of the preseason and signed 40-year-old Jason Peters to be their swing tackle. We saw why later that year in a game against the Houston Texans when Ball, who had to play due to injuries to Tyron Smith and Terence Steele, was a disaster.

Last year, Ball was moved from tackle to guard to give him a better chance to compete. Things were looking up for him with the switch but making the roster was dicey at best. The hip injury might have saved him, at least for one more cycle, as he’s still on the roster with a chance to compete again in 2024.

Like other Dallas backup offensive linemen, though, Ball is facing a tough numbers game this summer. Even after Tyron Smith and Tyler Biadasz’s departures, the Cowboys still have their three returning starters and three new drafted rookies in OT Tyler Guyton, C Cooper Beebe, and G/T Nathan Thomas. That’s at least half of the OL roster spots already taken, and Thomas has been getting good early reviews from the spring camps.

C Brock Hoffman and G T.J. Bass, who were talked about as potential starters before the draft, will be front-runners from depth spots. One of the free agents Dallas did re-sign this year was Chuma Edoga, one of their primary backups last year at both guard and tackle. They also have Asim Richards, another versatile player, back for a second season. Throw in third-year prospect Matt Waletzko and you can fill out a depth chart, and even practice squad spots, without Ball in the mix.

The one role that could save Ball is being a viable swing tackle, but after seeing him get bumped to guard in 2023 it’s hard to imagine that’s still on the table. The Cowboys have younger options with more flexibility and upside, plus they can get back about $1 million in cap space if Ball isn’t on the team.

It would take an extraordinary leap in his play for Josh Ball to overcome all these numbers, and nothing about his career trajectory so far suggests that coming. The cap space is worth more than the player at this point, especially with what they’re hoping was a successful haul of new OL talent in the 2024 draft.