3 young players Cowboys may try to hide during preseason game

USA Today

2 days ago

3 young players Cowboys may try to hide during preseason game
One of the oldest tricks in the book is for an NFL team to try and hide a player they think has immense upside but isn't ready to contribute right away. Sometimes that is taken to the extreme, where a very minor injury is made out to be season-ending, allowing the club to stash a young player on injured reserve. That let's the youngster still attend meetings and work with the strength and conditioning staff, but bars them from actually practicing with the club. The Dallas Cowboys are well known to employ this tactic.
Another, less obvious way, is to limit a player's exposure to the rest of the league. Back when there were four preseason games, players who might not be ready for a role that year would get some burn in the first exhibition, then mysteriously disappear from the rotation as the veterans worked their way into regular-season shape with increased activity the following week. By the fourth game, the run sheet was rookies who were expected to contribute but needed game action and players auditioning for other teams as trade bait or as a nice gesture before they were released.
Players who the club thought were going to be contributors, but not without much more seasoning, were often held out from game film so hungry teams with lesser rosters wouldn't try to poach them after cutdown day. The original team hopes it can sneak these players back onto their own practice squads.
This year's 90-man roster, 91 with the IPP exemption, may have a couple of candidates for such activity.
RB Phil Mafah
The 2025 running back class was extremely deep compared to recent draft years. It allowed players to be selected a round later than where they'd normally be projected, sometimes two rounds. As such, the Cowboys grabbed Jaydon Blue in the fifth round when in other year's he'd be a fourth rounder. It allowed them to snag Phil Mafah in the seventh when he could have very easily been in the sixth, or maybe fifth.
Mafah is a brusing back who does have some long speed, but barring injury or another acquisition, the Cowboys' depth chart seems pretty secure with Javonte Williams, Blue and Miles Sanders. Hunter Luepke may be transitioning to an H-Back role, serving as a multi-use weapon, including short yardage runs. That would mean the team would stash Mafah on the practice squad, but if he shines in the preseason, than any of the 32 other clubs which are unhappy with their rooms might be looking around the league to poach someone.
TE Rivaldo Fairweather
There's a name which keeps creeping up into folks conversations as an afterthought, so he apparently sits clearly in the "coaches might think they have something" category: Fairweather. The former Auburn product transferred from FIU and had pretty decent numbers across his final three years in college.
The Dallas depth chart at tight end is in flux. Jake Ferguson will be TE1, but is in the walk year of his contract and had an all-time bad 2024 season. Luke Schoonmaker is trying to avoid the bust label as a former second-round pick entering Year 3 and may be getting passed on the depth chart by second-year UDFA Brevyn Spann-Ford. That can all lead to Fairweather having a role similar to Spann-Ford as a rookie but it could mean he'll initially need to be stashed to the side.
DB Alijah Clark
The Cowboys grabbed nine players in this year's draft, but they didn't have the usually ballyhooed UDFA haul fans are accustomed to seeing. One standout name though was Syracuse's Clark, who spent time as both a safety and nickel corner for the Orange. The Cowboys may be doing patch work at the nickel position in 2025 and they could be looking for help at safety in the near future with Donovan WIlson's contract expiring and questions as to Malik Hooker's long-term fit in Matt Eberflus' scheme.
Clark could just as likely be a one-camp-and-done player, or he could shine as a future rotational guy that the club wants to keep away from any poachers.