It's not even training camp yet, and Dallas Cowboys fans already have stuff they can complain about if they really want.
All kidding aside, this is a crucial year for the Cowboys with Brian Schottenheimer taking over as head coach, and the team making plenty of aggressive moves to surround Dak Prescott and get back in the thick of the NFC after an injury-plagued 2024 season.
The team is set to report on July 20 in Oxnard, CA, and you can already see certain players getting the seniority treatment when young guys should be getting more reps. The Cowboys have an interesting blend of veterans and young players on both sides of the ball, but there are certain position groups where they should be unleashing the guys they've been investing in through the NFL Draft.
You can already see they're putting trust in the wrong starters. But which one stands out more than the others?
Cowboys putting too much faith in Dante Fowler Jr. already
As a former first-round pick, Dante Fowler Jr. likely has to be considered a disappointment. At least, that would be the case for Jacksonville Jaguars fans. Fowler has found a way to be productive as a rotational player, especially last season with the Washington Commanders. After spending two years in Dallas, Fowler followed Dan Quinn to the Commanders and racked up 10.5 sacks, the second-highest total for a single season in his NFL career so far.
The burst of production in the sack department landed Fowler another one-year deal with the Dallas Cowboys worth $6 million, and it already feels like Fowler is going to be eating up snaps with not one, not two, but three recent second-round picks sitting behind him on the depth chart.
The Cowboys have Sam Williams coming off of injury and entering a contract year, They just drafted Marshawn Kneeland last year and stole Donovan Ezeiruaku in 2025. Not to mention, the team might be looking to resurrect the career of another former first-round pick -- Payton Turner -- who is four years younger than Fowler.
Defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus has a bit of a difficult task ahead of him, needing to find the proper balance between putting the most productive players on the field while also getting the most out of the guys the Cowboys have used high NFL Draft capital on.
You want to have waves of pass rush, of course, but a player like Fowler shouldn't be stealing snaps from your trio of second-round picks unless is pass rush productivity is off the charts on a per-snap basis.
You could argue something similar for what the Cowboys are doing by seemingly penciling in Javonte Williams at the running back position on offense. Williams was signed in NFL free agency to a very team-friendly one-year deal worth $3 million.
The Cowboys made sure they brought in safety nets with the additions of Miles Sanders as well as rookie Jaydon Blue, but putting trust in a guy like Williams who has struggled to return to his physical ways after a brutal knee injury in 2022 could be setting the offense up to be one-dimensional before camp even starts.
In some ways, with the coaching staff that's currently in place, you feel like roster decisions that are about to be made are in the "playing not to lose" category, and that could end up being a huge mistake.