BREAKING: Cowboys make MULTIPLE moves... It's OFFICIAL | Dallas Cowboys News

On Thursday, Stephen Jones said that there was a good chance P.J. Locke plays Sunday, and on Saturday, the Cowboys made it official. Now, here's why that matters. The Cowboys' defense gives up more rushing yards than any other team in the NFL, and it has taken the ball away just twice in seven games. Tomorrow, it's a 2-5 Arizona team, and the Cowboys could not have picked a better week to try and get healthy, or at least healthier. Let's start first with P.J. Locke. Now, Locke went on injured reserve back on September 26th. The reports say a torn plantar fascia, and he has missed the last five games since. He's the safety the Dallas signed back in March on a one-year deal worth about $5 million, as they reunited him with Christian Parker. But he'd only played in two games before he got hurt, so he has two solo tackles all season. The reason this matters is who has been playing in his place. Jalen Thompson started the first two games, and then he went down with a hamstring in Week 3 and is still on IR. Steven Jones says that he is coming along, but not back just yet. So it's been Marquise Bell and Malik Eaker who have been the safeties, and Philly boys pieced last week so that Bell struggled there. So what'd they do? Well, guess what? They put in Elijah Clark as the starter, a UDFA out of Syracuse. No safety on the roster has an interception, the whole team has just two, and they came from outside linebackers Overshawn and Dee Winters. Oh yeah, and speaking of Dee Winters, he's out for this game again. Now, this is not one man who's going to fix it. Locke is not Caleb Downs, but a safety who knows Parker's system, and a group that has needed injury patches since week one, is a real help. Meanwhile, the rookie downs, the 11th pick, well, he's been moved all around the field to cover these injuries. He's played in this slot in weeks two, three, and six. He's also played in the safety position, his natural position, and ultimately, we don't know where he's going to line up each week, it seems. Now, Locke did not even hold a spot on this team. One report from October 23rd said he was meant to be a backup to Hooker, so the bar was not high, but it is not nothing. Now, with this Cowboys team getting healthy, I think I like them on Couchy even more. Right now, they're at 74% to beat the Cardinals on Sunday, and of course, Kalshi is today's sponsor. On Kalshi, you're trading directly against other users, not the house, like an additional sportsbook. You're buying yes or no contracts and the outcome of events across sports, politics, or even the weather. Now, for example, I'm trading on CD-Lamb to score tomorrow, as it would be an $8 trade that pays out $146.13. If you're interested in trying out Kalshi, use the link in the description or in the pinned comment. And when users sign up with the code DIGESTNFL and trade $25, you're going to get an extra $55 instantly into your lineup. Thank you, Kalshi, for sponsoring today's video. Now, let's stop ourselves before he says the defense is fixed. Let's be honest, that's not what Locke is walking into. Dallas allows 145.7 rushing yards a game, the most in the NFL, and adding a safety is not going to suddenly fix the defense there. Now, the pass defense, maybe it gets a little better, but right now, they're close to the middle anyways. 235.1 passing yards a game, 16th fewest in the NFL. And that pass defense has been giving up touchdowns, 12 of them in seven games, the eighth most in the league, with only 10 sacks all season. Philly Voice also had Caleb Downs allowing 16 catches on 17 targets as of October 23rd, which is a 149.6 pass rating against him. So a safety who plays more of the deep half would let Downs go back to what he does best, which is hitting people near the line. At least, that's the hope. The good news is the schedule. Dallas just beat Philadelphia 38-21 and held the Eagles to 294 total yards against its own 416, with of course DeMarcion Overshown getting a pick. But at the end of the day, it was Tanner McKee, it wasn't Jalen Hurts, and even the health of Saquon Barkley could have changed that game. And the guy running the defense just continues to change. Jamar James took over the green dot this week, and of course after welcoming his first kid, he's going to continue those duties. So the defense is in flux, and that's the lens for tomorrow. We're not asking if Locke makes this team great or this defense great. That's not what we're looking at. But we're asking if this defense can finally be good enough. Now let's get back to the roster moves, because there was another one in there that I mentioned. It's James Mitchell, and he's elevated for tomorrow only. As we know, practice squad elevations, you can get elevated three times per season, and then after that, you have to go on the roster if you want to come back. But after this game, of course, he'll go back to the practice squad with just that one elevation. This tight end is a former Lions fifth-round pick out of Virginia Tech. He's got 16 career catches for 169 yards and one touchdown. Now, the reason he's up? Luke Schoonmaker. He's questionable with a groin injury. Schoonmaker has played three of seven games this season, weeks one, three, and five, and has 30 receiving yards and has, well, been a bust. Let's just say that. Now, while Jake Ferguson leads the room with 17 catches, 115 yards, and three touchdowns, guess what? The whole tight end room has just 224 receiving yards, and Brevin Spanford has been taking over as tight end one as of late. So that's thin. So if Schoonmaker obviously is out, and it seems like that might be the case, Mitchell is another body in the room. It's an insurance move, not a headline, but the Cowboys pay for insurance early this season. Now again, let's go back to Friday's report. Kevontae Turpin's out with a rib injury. Dee Winters with a calf, both of them second-straight week, and they're not playing. Now, the questionables caught headlines. Kenny Clark with a back injury, Luke Schoonmaker with a groin, and now, given the elevation of a tight end, you think that maybe he's not going to go. And then there's George Pickens, who really popped in there and kind of shocked some people, had a shoulder and hamstring issue. The expectation for GP3 is that he will play, though. Start with the line. Clark has one sack and 16 tackles in seven games, and Quinton Williams has three sacks and nine tackles for loss, second amongst defensive linemen in the NFL. Now, for a slow start, pretty good. Williams is ultimately the pass rusher here. If Clark is out or if ultimately he can't play as heavily as we want, that front has to stop the run without a big body next to Quinnen Williams, and it's already last in the league against the run. Lin Pickens, 37 catches, 45 for two touchdowns in seven games. Second on the team, of course, behind CeeDee Lamb. He hasn't missed a game all season, and it doesn't seem like there's a plan for him to miss this one. There's no split on what this offense looks like without him because, well, he's played in every week, so it tells you how much Dallas leans on the two of them. Now again, to be clear, none of these are confirmed to be active, inactive, snap counts, whatever it might be. We have that all about 90 minutes before kickoff. However, Locke, who's expected to play, questionable, still does mean questionable, but you kind of expect if he's getting activated, he's going to play. And the name that is missing from the report entirely, CeeDee Lamb. Which brings us to Arizona, and honestly, this might be the worst defense in all of football. I know, even worse than the Dallas Cowboys. The Cardinals allow a shocking nearly 30 points per game, the most in the NFL, as they've given up 30 or more in five of their seven games. Dallas scores 27 points a game, fifth in the NFL, while Arizona scores 20.3, which is 26th. And it got worse on the other side, too. Left tackle Parrish Johnson tore his bicep on October 4th, and he's out for the season. Before that injury, Jacoby Brissett was sacked 1.75 times a game. Since then, it's 2.67, and Dallas has allowed seven sacks in seven games, the fewest in the NFL, so definitely a discrepancy there. Now, a week later, they traded Marvin Harrison Jr., the fourth pick in the 2024 draft to Houston, and in four games with Arizona, he had just 85 receiving yards. So the offense runs through tight end Trey McBride as it has been the past couple years. He's got 59 catches for 472 yards. And then, of course, rookie Jeremiah Love, who is the back at full practice after missing two games with an ankle injury. Well, he is one to be watched for the Dallas Cowboys defense, especially given how bad they've been against the run. The Cardinals are 2-5, and their two wins came against teams that scored 16 points or fewer. Brissett is 183 of 282 for 1,600 yards, 10 touchdowns, and 6 INTs, and he's been sacked 15 times. Last week, Denver, he threw for 48 times, completing just 27 of them for 272 and got hit 13 times in an Arizona loss 30-16. Now, that all should help a Dallas defense with 10 sacks all year. Quentin Williams is healthy, and he's got three of those, too. Now, the other side, Love is the kind of back this defense hates to see. He has 245 rushing yards on 67 carries in five games, and Dallas allows more rushing yards than anyone in the league. Now, Dallas is six-point favorites on DraftKings, and of course, the total is 54.5. Which is why Lamb's quote this week was so interesting, as he said the Cowboys need to treat them, quote, as if they are a Super Bowl contending team, which they may be. Now, I love the thought here, because you want to go into every game thinking it's a Super Bowl contending team, so you play better, but it is an interesting comment. Now, here's what he means, though. Lamb has never scored a touchdown against Arizona. In four career regular season games against the Cardinals, he has 21 catches for 253 yards and zero touchdowns, and Dallas lost all four. This season, he leads Dallas with 651 receiving yards, and he has opened with 44, 153, 112, and 189 yards in his first four games, which is at 124.5 yards a game. But again, there's history against this Arizona Cardinals team. They haven't been able to beat them. Now, in the last three games, it's 9, 70, and 74 for CD, which is just 51 yards a game. But he was the one who scored twice in the 38-21 win versus Philadelphia on Monday night, and that's the offense Arizona has to stop with a patchwork line. And he's sitting at 47 career touchdowns. He needs two to pass Drew Pearson for seventh in Cowboys history. So a little bit of history on the line there. The offense around him is the reason the game should be fine, though. Dak Prescott has 1,851 passing yards and 13 touchdowns, sixth in the league in passing yards. And Javante Williams, after getting going last week in Philadelphia, has eight rushing touchdowns tied for the most in the NFL and 472 yards on 110 carries. So put it all together. Dallas has 27 points a game and the fifth best scoring offense. The question is not whether they score. It's whether the defense stays out of its own way. So here's the setup. Arizona obviously has had the Dallas Cowboys number, and this is ultimately just a trap game. But Dallas, with a safety back on the roster, seems like they're in a much better spot, which is why Cal, she has them at 74%. Now, if you've been following the Cowboys all season, make sure you subscribe to this channel, and we'll have every update, every move, every news, every rumor, every trade report we have got you covered. Last question, who matters more on Sunday, Locke back at safety, or Pickens playing through his shoulder? Let me know down in the comment section. And for now, we'll say peace out.