OXNARD, Calif. – Alas, real football.
Well, as real as can be until Sept. 4 when the Cowboys open the NFL season against the Eagles in Philadelphia on Thursday Night Football.
This, 4 p.m. PDT Saturday in Inglewood, Cowboys-Rams, preseason Game 1 of 3 at SoFi Stadium, significantly reduces all those performance qualifiers.
You know, no more but just helmets, jerseys and shorts.
No more just getting in the way serving as phantom tackles or unable to play the ball on defense.
No more no physicality.
No more just "thumping up."
The pads are coming on. This isn't a practice. This isn't a scrimmage.
Un-uh, real tackle football. Put the ball carrier on the ground. Hit the receiver to break up a pass. No redshirts on the QBs. This will be as close as it gets to football as we know it.
And you know what, and coaches always cross their fingers about losing prominent players to injury in a resultless driven game, and many of those types of players will turn their helmets in before kickoff, but this young and relatively new 2025 Dallas Cowboys team needs the work.
Big late afternoon for guys like QB Joe Milton, LOT Nate Thomas, ROG Tyler Booker, new and young receivers such as Jonathan Mingo, Jalen Tolbert, Ryan Flournoy, Jalen Brooks, Jalen Cropper and Traeshon Holden. Same for some of the young O-Linemen trying to go from the practice squad to the 53 like Hakeem Adeniji and Saahdiq Charles.
Those cornerbacks and safeties, too, like Kaiir Elam, Troy Pride, Andrew Booth, Israel Mukuamu, Kemon Hall, Zion Childress, Alijah Clark and Mike Smith. So many other linebackers and defensive lineman, too.
Better grab a numerical roster to know who's who when the game kicks off on CBS-11 in the DFW area, along with stations on the Dallas Cowboys Broadcasting Network. Check your local listings.
And it's unlikely to see Dak Prescott out there, running back Javonte Williams, Tyler Smith, CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens. Not Jake Ferguson, nor Dante Fowler Jr. either. Maybe not Jack Sanborn or Kenneth Murray. Safeties such as Malik Hooker and Donovan Wilson will get a pass. Same probably for Solomon Thomas and DaRon Bland and Osa Odighizuwa.
We'll see.
But here is where my most attention will be:
On the Cowboys pass rush, and no matter who the Rams are playing on their offensive line. Or who is at quarterback, the likely combination of Jimmy Garoppolo and Stetson Bennett, certainly not Matthew Stafford. Got to see just what the Cowboys have at the defensive end position, and that means unless there is a serious 24-hour about face, with no Micah Parsons still seeking a contract extension on the field.
Think about this: The Cowboys finished last season with 52 sacks, second highest in the past 16 seasons, only the 54 in 2022 more. In fact, you'd have to go back to the 59 sacks in the 2008 season to find more than these totals in two of the past three seasons, and those 59 are the second most in franchise history once sacks became an official NFL stat in 1982, the 60 in 1985 the franchise record.
Those 52 were the third highest in the NFL last season, only Denver with 63 and the Ravens with 54 more.
But here is the rub. Of those 52 sacks, 38½ were accounted for by players either no longer here (Eric Kendricks 3, Jourdan Lewis 1, Chauncey Golston 5½, Linval Joseph 2, Demarcus Lawrence 3, Carl Lawson 5, KJ Henry 1) or still rehabbing injuries (DeMarvion Overshown 5, Josh Butler 1) or holding in for a contract extension (Micah Parsons 12).
That's temporarily a lot missing.
Now as for players the Cowboys have acquired, Fowler totaled 10½ in Washington last season, Kennth Murray 3½ in Tennessee, Jack Sanborn 1½ in Chicago, Solomon Thomas 3½ with the Jets and Payton Turner 2 in New Orleans. That's an addition of 21.
So now is the time to keep an eye on the defensive line, especially those defensive ends. And we can look at it this way. The Cowboys are adding Sam Williams to the mix, after missing the entire season suffering a torn ACL in training camp. He was expected to be a starter last year after registering 4.0 and 4½ sacks in each of his first two seasons, playing 32 of 34 games as a rotational player, but no starts.
"We are trying to learn as a team," Williams said of putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks. "One on one we kick butt. But we got to do it as a team."
And as Williams said, that means "with or without (Parsons), we still got to learn."
The other addition showing some spark would be Donovan Ezeiruaku, the Cowboys second round draft choice out of Boston College, where last year he became the ACC Defensive Player of the Year, leading the conference with 16½ sacks, plus registering 20½ tackles for loss.
The rookie wears No. 41. Keep an eye out for him on Saturday. And don't blink, the guy has such a quick get-off and an ability to bend around the edge, you might miss him. Hey QB pressures are important, too, especially with the Cowboys lack of depth at the cornerback position with Trevon Diggs, Shavon Revel and Josh Butler all still rehabilitating.
Cowboys defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton was so smitten with Ezeiruaku's talent he didn't mind admitting he was standing on the table during the draft for the Cowboys to select the B.C. defensive end in the first round of the draft.
"The guy makes play," Whitecotton said of what caught his eye when analyzing the 6-2, 255-pound defensive end heading into the draft. "He makes plays on the football. He makes plays to end games in two-minute. There were two to three games at B.C. he ended the games with sacks.
"That's what you got to have in the NFL."
Evidently even newly signed veteran offensive tackle La'el Collins noticed something special in Ezeiruaku, getting with him after practice to work with him and give pointers on the nuances of getting off the line of scrimmage from an offensive linemen's standpoint.
So, we'll see if the Cowboys can hit on another defensive end in the second round, right where they found DeMarcus Lawrence in 2014, Williams in 2022, not to mention Marshawn Kneeland in 2024 and Randy Gregory in 2015.
Not only would "Ezie," already having earned a nickname, be a big addition to the Cowboys pressuring quarterbacks, but a most needed one even when Parsons finally gets back on the field to team up with Kneeland, too, now healthy and working with the first team defense.
The Cowboys have a whole bunch of sacks to replace from this past season. Having Williams back on the field is a good start. But the addition of Ezie just might become the putty to plug that hole.
Keep your eyes wide open come Saturday.
