5 Cowboys Most Likely to Be Inactive Against Giants on Sunday

Jalen Brooks

The shape of the Cowboys' offense makes wide receiver an obvious spot to pick an inactive.

Keeping Hunter Luepke over Sean McKeon means that we'll likely have to go with three active tight ends, since we've not seen anything that suggests Luepke could fill in if needed. We'll also almost certainly roll with all three running backs (Tony Pollard, Rico Dowdle and Deuce Vaughn) active. That's a lot of non-WR skill-position players.

So at wide receiver, we first have the obvious actives: Ceedee Lamb, Brandin Cooks, Michael Gallup and return man KaVontae Turpin. That leaves one of Jalen Tolbert or Jalen Brooks needing to be inactive.

Tolbert got the clear edge as the WR4 in the offense during the preseason, securing his roster spot even when there was plenty of competition at the bottom of the wide receiver depth chart.

Tolbert was often inactive and made little impact as a third-round rookie in 2022, but he really impressed in his second preseason, leading all Cowboys wideouts in Pro Football Focus’ receiving grade. Brooks wasn't nearly as impressive, though he did enough in training camp to at least make the 53-man roster.

There hasn't been any indication of a change (or frankly enough time or opportunity for a change) in the pecking order since the 53-man roster was set, and that means we can expect Tolbert to suit up on Sunday while seventh-round rookie Jalen Brooks is wearing street clothes.

This could change as the season progresses, but if the Cowboys wide receiver room stays healthy then fans in Dallas can expect Brooks to be inactive more often than not — especially if we continue carrying both three tight ends and a fullback.