Cowboys report card: Grading Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and the offense at bye week

June 26, 2024

As Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said Tuesday, it isn’t quite the halfway point of the season but the Cowboys are done with their first trimester. They enter their bye week on a high note with a win over the Los Angeles Chargers and a 4-2 record.

Six weeks provides enough of a sample size for evaluations, so let’s hand out grades for each player. Important context to consider: Grades are relative to expectations, so one player having a higher mark than another doesn’t mean the former is the better, just that he’s performed better relative to his expectations.

We spotlight the offense Thursday (minimum 10 percent of snaps played) and Jon Machota graded the defense and special teams Friday.

Quarterback

Dak Prescott: C-plus

Prescott’s season is a weird one to evaluate because in three of the first four games, the Cowboys hardly required any contributions from the quarterback position. In the three games they have needed Prescott to show up — against the Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Chargers — he fell short, woefully short and showed out, respectfully.

His supporting cast hasn’t always helped, evident by Peyton Hendershot, Luke Schoonmaker and Michael Gallup all having huge drops on would-be touchdowns in the first six weeks. Prescott’s game against the Chargers was a redemptive performance, complete with sharp throws, pocket escapability and designed run success. In varying doses, the Cowboys need that version of Prescott to show up more often.

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Running backs

Tony Pollard: A

Pollard hasn’t been perfect but it’s hard to imagine asking more from him than what he’s provided in his first season as the lead back. The Cowboys’ running game has trailed off a bit and Pollard’s yards per attempt has steadily declined the past four weeks but let’s look at the big picture.

After three weeks, he led the league in rushing attempts and was at 4.3 yards per rush. Pollard is tied for seventh in rushing attempts after six weeks and is averaging 3.9 yards per run (coincidentally, the same average as Ezekiel Elliott, though Elliott has half the attempts). However, according to TruMedia, aside from Bijan Robinson, who has just one more target, no running back has been targeted more in the pass game than Pollard’s 25 targets and only Robinson and Christian McCaffrey have run more routes than Pollard, each of them barely holding the edge. Pollard has also been solid in pass protection, highlighted by his work on Prescott’s touchdown pass to Brandin Cooks on Monday night in L.A.

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Rico Dowdle: B

Dowdle has had games this season when he’s shown pop and an element of physicality that left Dallas when Elliott departed in the offseason. His opportunities have been fairly limited and his usage situational but it would be interesting to see more Dowdle as the season progresses as a more traditional running back presence and to give Pollard more breathers.

Deuce Vaughn: C-minus

There was a lot of hype and intrigue surrounding Vaughn after his electric preseason but it hasn’t translated the same way to the regular season. Vaughn has 20 carries but just 40 yards to go with it and is coming off of his first healthy scratch of the season, which McCarthy said was related to special teams needs for the team.

Hunter Luepke: B-plus

Luepke has been solid as a fullback, nothing extraordinary but playing his role in the offense as a blocker and occasional ball carrier. With as many playmakers as the Cowboys have on offense, touches for Luepke aren’t exactly high on the priority list.

Tight ends

Jake Ferguson: B

It was expected for Ferguson to have growing pains as he takes over the role of No. 1 tight end in the offense and there has been some of that. But overall, Ferguson’s play has been trending in the right direction and he’s shown the ability to develop into that No. 1 tight end option for Prescott. He has 21 catches on 29 targets and, for the most part, has been a solid blocker as well.

Luke Schoonmaker: C

Granted, Schoonmaker is a rookie who had most of his offseason wrecked by injury rehab but his most memorable play through the first six weeks was a drop in the end zone against the New England Patriots, and another drop the week prior to that as well. The Cowboys need more from their 2023 second-round pick.

Peyton Hendershot: D

Hendershot is on injured reserve and his only standout moment this season was a dropped touchdown in Week 1.

Jake Ferguson has 21 receptions for 190 yards and one touchdown for the Cowboys this season. (Tim Heitman / USA Today)

Wide receivers

CeeDee Lamb: A-minus

Lamb is 11th in the NFL with 475 yards receiving through six weeks. Of the 10 players above him, only two receivers are on bad teams — DJ Moore in Chicago and Nico Collins in Houston — have less than 50 targets, and both of them have 42. Lamb also has just 42 targets and his 34 catches are more than both Moore and Collins. The point is, Lamb is having a good season that could be better if there was better performance out of the quarterback and the offensive game plan.

Brandin Cooks: B-minus

Cooks’ history of jumping around to various teams and still producing suggests that his slow start has more to do with the coaching and/or quarterback than Cooks himself. The veteran wide receiver has been a consummate pro about it, being patient publicly and a valuable leader internally as well. His speed is still a valuable asset that helps the offense beyond the stat sheet, but he also made a dent on the sheet against the Chargers.

Michael Gallup: C-minus

The longest tenured receiver on the team, Gallup has only caught a little more than half of his targets and had a brutal drop Monday night as well. The chemistry between him and Prescott feels disjointed and aside from a couple of decent games in the middle of the schedule, Gallup has been a non-factor.

Jalen Tolbert: B-plus

After a strong training camp, Tolbert has been good to open the season as well. As is the nature of a No. 4 receiver, his opportunities have been limited. He’s caught seven of his nine targets, four of them for first downs. If Gallup’s game doesn’t pick up, it could be time to give Tolbert some looks as a No. 3 target. Tolbert has also been very good on special teams and takes a lot of pride in that phase of the game.

KaVontae Turpin: B-plus

Turpin has done a little bit of everything, from contributing in the running game (highlighted by a 46-yard run and a touchdown) and the passing game (highlighted by a 26-yard touchdown catch) as well as sparks in the return game, even if they didn’t always count. Pretty much what you’d expect from a No. 5 receiver option and return specialist.

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Offensive linemen

Tyron Smith: B-plus

If the grades are relative to expectation, it would be dishonest to say it wasn’t expected that Smith would miss time due to injury. So far, it’s been two out of the six games and he heads into the bye week healthy. When he’s on the field, Smith is still mostly effective.

Tyler Smith: A-plus

Smith missed a couple of games to begin the season but he’s been a beast since he returned. The only question the Cowboys have with Smith is if his talents are best utilized at guard or tackle. He’s been great at both positions but has played exclusively at guard this season and performed very well.

Tyler Biadasz: A

His play at center has been good but Biadasz’s season has been highlighted by two hustle plays down the field in which he recovered a couple of fumbles. But he’s also been good at his day job as the pre-snap navigator and center.

Zack Martin: A

The only time Martin is in the news is when his playing status is in question, which is the highest compliment you can give an offensive lineman. He missed one game due to injury but has otherwise been his usual dominant self.

Terence Steele: B-plus

The answer to the trivia question of who is the only player on the Cowboys that has played 100 percent of his snaps. Steele has rebounded nicely from a devastating knee injury last December. He leads the team with four false start penalties so that’s an area that needs to cleaned up.

Chuma Edoga: A

As the Cowboys dealt with the staggered absences of Tyron Smith and Tyler Smith, Edoga filled in nicely and didn’t get exposed in any sort of consistent or egregious way. Coming into the season, there was a question as to who the sixth-best offensive lineman was on the team and Edoga clearly answered the question.

T.J. Bass and Brock Hoffman: B

Bass (2023) and Hoffman (2022) are both undrafted interior linemen who were called in for fill-in duty on short notice. Neither player became the topic of conversation, which, again, for offensive linemen is not a bad thing.

(Top photos of Dak Prescott, Tony Pollard, Michael Gallup: USA Today and Getty Images)

The Football 100, the definitive ranking of the NFL’s best 100 players of all time, goes on sale this fall. Pre-order it here.

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