2024 Cowboys roster ranking, 50-41:
Mostly young players trying to climb their ways into important roster spots.
Time for the next edition of our continuing series as we rank the Cowboys roster before any preseason games are played.
If you missed the first installment, let me review the premise. I want to sort of steal the format from my friends at “The Leap”, which is another Substack that covers the team that does the Lambeau Leap. They actually used early July to rank all 90 players on that team’s roster and while that seemed ambitious, I thought it would be worth it to roll through the top 60 and to knock it out with six straight days of 10 players each.
So, I needed a methodology, and this is what those guys used:
Our methodology: We ordered the players based on ability relative to their respective positions rather than the value of those positions. Put another way, this exercise prioritizes the "best" players, not necessarily the "most valuable" ones. That means the starting quarterback doesn't necessarily have to top the list because of the position he plays.
For me, basically, it means: “Just go line every Cowboy up from best football player to worst.”
Each edition of the 60-man roster ranking will include a batch of roughly 10 players and I used a panel of four of my football media friends to assist. They each ranked the roster, 1-60, and we combined their rankings with mine to determine the actual order. You might think of the rankings as general tiers, rather than getting too carried away with who is exactly where.
My panel of friends is as follows:
I am very grateful for their help in this. Now, let’s get down to business
Today, we will be looking at guys who are probably on the team as we start camp, but many are far from secured roster spots. They now need to fight to keep their place and stay on the roster with the goal of becoming bigger role players.
For those who missed spots 60 through 51, here it is.
Here are those that grab those next 10 spots, No. 50-41.