Dallas City News

After a big win on Sunday night, the Dallas Cowboys return home this week to take on the Detroit Lions. The Cowboys are heading into the toughest part of their schedule, and the next five games tell a lot about what type of team this is.

With that in mind, today we take a look at two players the Cowboys should use more against Detroit to keep things moving in the right direction.

Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images

1) WR KaVontae Turpin

With Brandin Cooks sidelined for the foreseeable future, the Cowboys will need other members of their receiving corps to step up and help pick up the slack. One guy the Cowboys should continue to turn to with Cooks out is 28-year-old wideout KaVontae Turpin.

When Turpin joined the Cowboys back in 2022 he was an afterthought to be used in the offense. Flash forward to today, five games into the season, and the wide receiver has caught nine passes for 105 yards, four first-down receptions, and one receiving touchdown.

While the Cowboys have started to involve Turpin somewhat in the offense, they still aren’t using him nearly as much as they should. The wideout has played 72 offensive snaps this season, getting over 20 in a game just once, last week against the Steelers. With Turpin’s size limiting his ability to play on the outside it’s understandable the Cowboys can’t run him out there for every offensive snap, but they need to find more creative ways to get him involved in their passing game.

Turpin is the only one on the entire offense that possesses truly special speed. The Cowboys need to start using this to their advantage more often and give Turpin more chances to make things happen.

Photo by Mark Alberti/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

2) FB Hunter Luepke

Hunter Luepke’s emergence has been one of the most positive storylines to come from the start of the Cowboys’ regular season. After some questioned if Luepke would even make the 53-man roster, the fullback has started to become an actual contributor on offense.

Last week against Pittsburgh, Luepke made one of the game’s biggest plays, taking a screen pass 18 yards with less than a minute left in the game that set the Cowboys up to score the eventual game-winning touchdown.

In the past two weeks, the Cowboys have started to use Luepke much more, but there’s still a way they could really expand his offensive role. That would be by starting to give Luepke all of Ezekiel Elliott’s offense snaps. Elliott was a great Cowboy, but it’s clear he’s a shell of his old self at this point. Luepke is a better runner and pass catcher, and at this point, there’s not much Elliott does better than the 24-year-old fullback.

Luepke should be Dallas’ short-yardage back moving forward and has earned the right to be on the field for 25 plus snaps a game.