The Dallas Cowboys have been hit by the injury bug relatively early this season. Thursday's injury report was perhaps the most extensive one so far this season, per The Athletic's Jon Machota. One name that popped up out of nowhere was second-year defensive end Marshawn Kneeland. He was reportedly limited in practice with an ankle injury.
Kneeland's status for Week 5 is now in jeopardy. If he can't go on Sunday, the Cowboys may be forced to let James Houston play as many defensive snaps as he can handle.
Houston has earned these snaps with his play through four weeks. The under-the-radar offseason signing has been a great find for the Cowboys' defense. Despite only playing 22% of the team's defensive snaps, Houston already has two sacks, three tackles for loss, one QB hit, and one forced fumble on the season. He is the highest-graded Cowboys defender on Pro Football Focus with a 73.6 overall defensive grade.
Perhaps that is damning with faint praise, since there aren't too many overperformers on that side of the ball in Dallas. The Cowboys are the second-worst defense in terms of points allowed and the worst defense in total yards allowed in the NFL, after all.
Cowboys Have No Choice But to Unleash James Houston on the Jets
Yet, Houston's production had already caught defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus' attention even before Kneeland went down. On Thursday, Eberflus said that he "probably should give [Houston] more" snaps going forward.
Week 5 against the Jets will serve as an audition for Houston to continue to get more snaps, even if Kneeland were healthy.
The Cowboys are desperate for more pressure on the opposing quarterbacks, ranking near the bottom in most pass rush metrics. They only have four sacks on the season (two of them by Houston), and arguably have the worst pass defense in the league, ranking dead last in net yards gained per pass attempt. Sam Williams has been particularly disappointing so far, grading as the 109th-best defensive end out of 116th qualified players in the position.
Even though the Cowboys' secondary struggles have received the lion's share of attention, the pass rush rotation needs an equally significant shakeup. The fact that Houston was not a household name when arriving in Dallas may have limited his snaps to start the season, but it may be time to give him what he has more than earned.