The Dallas Cowboys trimmed their roster to 53 players on Tuesday but their depth chart is anything but final.
Not only can they claim players by Wednesday at noon but there will be movement throughout the season – as there always is.
It’s also not necessarily goodbye for everyone who was released. Players with fewer than four years of vested service will be available for any team to claim on waivers but once that process is done, teams can begin to fill out their 16-man practice squad.
MORE: 4 players Cowboy should attempt to claim on waivers
For the Cowboys, they need to try and retain these seven players.
Recently signed this offseason to help replace Sam Williams, Carl Lawson is a vested veteran who won’t be subject to waivers.
That means Dallas can bring him back without worrying about him being claimed.
As long as Lawson is comfortable with this, they should make sure he’s one of the first players retained. Lawson has dealt with injuries throughout his career but had 7.0 sacks in 2022, which was the last time he was healthy.
Dallas has a knack for finding safeties late in the draft, or after the draft. The latest example is Julius Wood, who had nine tackles and two picks in the preseason.
The East Carolina product wasn’t able to unseat the talented group of safeties ahead of him, but he proved himself worthy of a shot to develop on the practice squad. He’s one player who could be claimed but if not, he needs to be retained.
Josh Ball wasn’t able to take advantage of early opportunities in his career, but he turned a corner when he was kicked inside to guard. He began to play better and showed improvement this preseason as his confidence grew.
He wound up being the victim of a numbers game but he’s a decent guard who can play tackle in an emergency. That’s worth keeping around.
Deuce Vaughn earned a spot on the 53-man roster which left Royce Freeman on the outside looking in. Even so, Freeman looked decent when he was given the chance this preseason and has had some success in the NFL.
As a vested veteran, he can be signed to the practice squad without going through waivers.
This might have been the plan all along, and even if they add Dalvin Cook, they can use all the darts possible as they look for some semblance of a rushing attack this year.
The highest-graded defender for Dallas this preseason was Darius Harris, who earned an 89.8 from PFF.
Harris is a fifth-year pro from Middle Tennessee State who spent the past four years with the Kansas City Chiefs. He played a full slate of games just once, which was in 2022. That year, he had 43 tackles, 1.5 sacks, and a fumble recovery. He’s a talented linebacker who would give them some much-needed depth.
A sixth-round pick in 2019, Kelvin Harmon had 365 yards on 30 receptions for the Washington Football team as a rookie. Injuries derailed his carer but after time in the USFL and XFL, Harmon got another shot in the league with Dallas.
Harmon caught all five targets thrown his way for 70 yards. The sample size was small, but it was encouraging enough to bring him back to the practice squad.
Undrafted out of North Texas in 2019, Kemon Hall has played for five different teams in the NFL. Two of them have had him in for multiple stints. One is the Los Angeles Chargers (2019 and 2021-2022) and the Dallas Cowboys (2020 and 2024).
Hall has played in just 18 games, all with the Chargers, but he looked like a vastly different player this offseason. He earned the team’s second-highest coverage grade from PFF and had an interception against the Raiders. Dallas is deep at corner, even with the loss of DaRon Bland, but Hall needs to be brought back.
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