Cowboys Caleb Downs shines, but Dallas defense remains an issue

The Dallas Cowboys seem to be having seller’s remorse from their surprising cuts of Jaydon Blue and Phil Mafah in the final roster countdowns, as they are now adding a tailback off the Atlanta Falcons practice squad to join the RB2 committee.

What they won’t be doing is swinging a big trade, as owner Jerry Jones said, “reshuffling of the deck” is “not practical” at this point.

Was there any good news from the opening loss to the New York Giants? Sure, from the likely source: Caleb Downs. Here is what Dallas is doing heading into game two of the season.

The Cowboys, who made news three weeks ago when they cut running back Blue and Mafah, are signing a tailback off the Atlanta Falcons practice squad.

The Cowboys are adding tailback Tyler Goodson, who was a star for the Falcons in the preseason and was a surprising omission from their 53-man roster. Goodson spent the previous three years with Indianapolis, where he made 33 appearances with one start. In the corresponding move, they cut running back Israel Abanikanda.

Here are the Dallas Cowboys winners, losers in season-opening defeat

At 5-foot-9 and 197 pounds, Goodson, the 25-year-old former undrafted free agent out of Iowa, is basically the same build as Malik Davis, the former Cowboys RB2 who was lost for the year to an injury sustained in the final practice before the opener against the New York Giants. Goodman will join Emari Demercado as the backups to starter Javonte Williams.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones went on his weekly radio show on 105.3 The Fan out of Dallas and was asked once again if there could be a trade or a significant roster addition now that the season has started. He didn’t sound too optimistic about that.

“You temper that with availability of making moves on outside help for the roster,” Jones said. “If you wanted to, this is a narrow window of making changes on a roster at this date. You don’t have a lot of moving around relative to where you were at other parts of the year. It’s not something that you come in and say, ‘We’re going to reshuffle this deck’ after your first game. That’s not practical.”

Dallas Cowboys add former Pro Bowl offensive lineman to practice squad

As for Dallas’ performance in the opener against the New York Giants, he pointed out that with all the turnover on defense, including at coordinator, matters may take a while to come together.

“The last time that I was involved in as much change as we have made this year was the first year that I bought the Dallas Cowboys and we won one game…” Jones said. “I think that’s an explanation, a valid one. There’s a lot of change to that side of the ball. We’re very optimistic that we can play better right now than what we played there Sunday night.”

Dallas fell to 16th from 15th in the latest ESPN power rankings, but the Cowboys are still two spots ahead of the New York Giants team that beat them Sunday night.

The rankings are pegged around each team’s most impressive non-quarterback debut, and for the Cowboys that belonged to rookie safety Downs. Downs played 88% of Dallas’ defensive snaps against the Giants.

Todd Archer writes: “Considering how poorly the defense played, it’s strange to give this to Downs, but the 11th pick in this year’s draft had a productive debut. And there wasn’t an offensive player who fits in this category. Downs finished with seven tackles, a sack and a forced fumble. He played 61 of 69 snaps, splitting time between safety and the slot. With Malik Hooker suffering a fractured forearm Sunday, though, the Cowboys might have to alter Downs’ alignment somewhat, even if he is a valuable slot defender.”

The Cowboys return to action on Sunday, Sept. 20, when they host the Washington Commanders. The 2:25 MT/3:25 CT kick will be televised on FOX.

USA Today’s Cowboys Wire rated the “good, the bad and the ugly” from Dallas’ debut against the New York Giants, with the play of Quinnen Williams and Caleb Downs taking the “good” and all the penalties taking the “bad.” The ugly is pretty easy to guess: the overall defense.

Ben Grimaldi writes: Defensive coordinator Christian “Parker’s debut was a massive failure as the Giants dominated the line of scrimmage and humiliated Dallas’ defense. The Giants ran for 165 yards, while Dart threw for 230 yards and three scores in a game that looked like nothing had changed for the Cowboys’ defense. 

“It was an abysmal showing from Parker and his unit that was hyped up coming into the contest. The ugly defense from the 2025 campaign returned even uglier in 2026, it was just wearing different clothes and more makeup. The lipstick on the pig adage fit the Cowboys’ defense against the Giants.”

Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on X.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Cowboys Caleb Downs shines, but Dallas defense remains an issue