5 Cowboys Most Likely to Be Inactive Against Giants on Sunday

Projecting the Cowboys' five inactive players for the Week 1 season-opener against the Giants on Sunday Night Football.
Jalen Brooks lands on the list of projected inactives for the Dallas Cowboys' Week 1 matchup against the New York Giants.
Jalen Brooks lands on the list of projected inactives for the Dallas Cowboys' Week 1 matchup against the New York Giants. / Jason Parkhurst-USA TODAY Sports
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Chauncey Golston

Neville Gallimore being active on gameday won't be any more popular than his making the 53-man roster was, but it's something you should prepare yourself for.

Gallimore was absolutely egregious in 2022, being one of PFF's worst-graded players in the entire NFL. But he turned things around this preseason, with a solid 74.6 grade that actually beat out Chauncey Golston’s 65.1 by a pretty good margin. Gallimore graded out better against the run (62.4 to 58.0) and as a pass rusher (75.2 to 66.8).

Golston has some versatility to move around the defensive line, and he played in 15 games in each of the last two seasons, but there's just so much depth on the Cowboys line this year that he's not really needed.

Even without Golston Dallas could have four active interior d-linemen (Gallimore, Mazi Smith, Osa Odighizuwa and Jonathan Hankins) and five active edge defenders (more on them in our final pick), so a bottom-of-the-bench guy just doesn't bring a lot of value to the gameday roster there.

It's disappointing to have a former third-round pick as a consistent inactive, but that's what I'm projecting for Golston early in the season. He may well end up overtaking Gallimore on the depth chart, but for the time being it'll be Golston who misses out on the opportunity to suit up on Sundays.