It's been a rollercoaster season for Dallas Cowboys' third-round draft pick, Shavon Revel Jr. After recovering from a torn ACL he suffered at East Carolina, the decision by the coaching staff to play him in his rookie season has had its consequences.
The decision to play Revel Jr. in 2025 initially felt like a reach, but anyone who’s watched this Cowboys defense understands they needed every bit of help they could get to patch things up. Through a small sample of games, though, it appears Revel Jr. has a lot of room to improve.
Longtime Cowboys reporter Ed Werder said it best: Revel Jr. needs to work on his fundamentals. The rookie's tackling issues reared their ugly head in the Christmas Day win over the Washington Commanders.
Cowboys' Shavon Revel Jr. needs more work to become an efficient cornerback
Revel needs tackling lessons this offseason. Embarrassingly bad far too often.
— Ed Werder (@WerderEdNFL) December 25, 2025
Revel Jr. may have the upside Cowboys fans raved about, but he’s also fresh off a major injury, and Dallas supporters may have held out too much optimism when he was activated. Teams have started to pick on him in coverage, and he's made a lot of poor tackle attempts in his seven appearances.
After the game, Brian Schottenheimer revealed that Revel is in concussion protocol. Next Sunday's finale against the Giants would represent more reps for the developing rookie, but the Cowboys might be better off shutting him down so he enters the offseason with a clean bill of health. It can't be overstated that he didn't have a full offseason after being drafted.
Regardless, the Cowboys may look at their 2026 draft board as if Revel Jr. doesn't exist. With DaRon Bland enduring a difficult season and now undergoing another foot surgery, and Trevon Diggs looking likely to leave, the cornerback room needs a lot of work. Not to mention, 2024 fifth-round pick Caelen Carson might follow Diggs out the door.
With no second or third-round pick, the Cowboys might need to invest in a cornerback with one of their two firsts. That might've happened regardless of how Revel performed as a rookie, but his bumpy year has likely added more urgency to rebuild the room.
Revel will get better as time goes on, but the Washington game exposed exactly how far he is from being the legit corner that everyone expects of him.