Dallas Cowboys 53-man roster prediction (post-draft edition)
By Reid Hanson
Dallas Cowboys running back (5) Tony Pollard, Deuce Vaughn, Rico Dowdle, Malik Davis, Hunter Luepke
The Dallas Cowboys are set to go long here in the post-Zeke era. For years, Ezekiel Elliott was an iron man at the RB position, giving Dallas little worry for depth. Not only is Zeke no longer here, but the top back on the roster is coming off significant injury.
Deuce Vaughn is a fun draft pick who fell into the Dallas Cowboys’ laps. He’s extremely undersized and there are redundancies between him and Pollard, but he should carve out a little role early in his career.
Dowdle is the special team darling who has injury questions of his own. And free agent signee, Ronald Jones, misses the cut altogether because Malik Davis out performs him. The final spot goes to UDFA fullback, Hunter Luepke, who can play TE roles, H-back and FB roles, and short yardage roles.
HC Mike McCarthy loves FBs in his offense and Luepke is a darn good (and versatile) FB.
Receiver (5) CeeDee Lamb, Brandin Cooks, Michael Gallup, Jalen Tolbert, KaVontae Turpin
Tough decisions must be made this season regarding their WR room. Lamb, Cooks, and Gallup are locks, Turpin is the special team weapon and gadget man, and Tolbert is a top-100 draft pick with loads of potential.
They don’t want to admit it but the Dallas Cowboys take draft status seriously. For as unsetting as Tolbert’s rookie season was, he made the jump from South Alabama to the Dallas “friggin” Cowboys so a mental red shirt year is partially understandable.
Just missing the cut is Simi Fehoko who has struggled to do much of anything despite having some elite size/speed qualities. His survival will likely depend on his ability to replace Noah Brown in his old “blocker” role because McCarthy loves blocking WRs and Simi has the size to get it done.
Other players to watch is the talented Antonio Callaway, last season’s surprise Dennis Houston, and UDFAs David Durden and Jalen Moreno-Cropper. They are all in the mix and could replace others or force Dallas to keep six. But they’ll have to earn it.