FRISCO, Texas – On Friday, Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer confirmed the team will be without CB DaRon Bland (foot) on Sunday against the New York Giants.
"I'm not going to put a timetable on it, I think he'll get back as soon as he can, but we will be without him this week." Schottenheimer said.
Bland injured his foot earlier in the week during practice and first popped up on the injury report Wednesday. This injury is on his right foot, not his left foot that he fractured in training camp last season which caused him to be sidelined until Week 12.
The good news for Dallas is at this point in time, the team doesn't think Bland's injury is serious enough to place him on injured reserve, where he'd have to miss four games.
"We don't think that that's what it's going to require," Schottenheimer said. "I'd say no decision is ever final, but we don't think it's going to be something that significant."
So, what will the Cowboys do without Bland on the field?
"We've got some different packages that we're going to use," Schottenheimer said. "We'll use the safety down there some, we can play a little more base defense, but also you're going to see Reddy Stewart play a lot of football."
Stewart is a second year corner out of Troy who spent last season with Matt Eberflus and the Bears before playing for the Vikings practice squad in the 2025 preseason. His familiarity and ball-hawking ability, highlighted by 12 interceptions in college at Troy, is what gives Schottenheimer and his staff trust in the young slot corner they acquired just over two weeks ago.
"The benefit for him is he knows Flus' system," Schottenheimer said. What we love about him going all the way back to his days in college is his ability to take the ball away… he'll get quite a bit of action."
With Bland out, Trevon Diggs will need to step up for Dallas on the outside. After playing on a pitch count last week, Schottenheimer said that Diggs will play some more against the Giants, the question is just how much.
"Is it going to be a full game? We'll see kind of how he's feeling, but there is a ramp up thing we talk quite a bit about," Schottenheimer. "I thought he did play really, really well. I think he's practicing at an extremely high level. That's exciting for us. You'll see him in some more packages than just the one you saw last week."
The starting three for Dallas at cornerback in Week 1 featured Diggs, Bland, and Kaiir Elam as the opposite outside corner from Diggs. Should Diggs not be able to handle a full workload in Week 2, Friday's practice will be crucial in determining who else can be called upon to play at the other outside corner spot and all options are on the table.
"We're going to look at some different things and some potential elevations and things like that," Schottenheimer said. "We'll be watching today's practice, we've got some good competition going on out there."
