Cowboys Camp — Aug 31: Howell's Comeback Makes It Three Quarterbacks

Sam Howell spent the fourth quarter of Friday's preseason finale un-losing a quarterback competition. Joe Milton started against the Saints and was ordinary — 8-of-15 for 92 yards, no touchdowns, a 72.1 rating — and Howell relieved him and went 12-of-18 for 155 yards with two touchdowns, a 130.6 rating, per Kurt Daniels at the team's website. Down 24 to 9, Howell hit Jordan Hudson for a 52-yard gain and a 26-yard touchdown, then completed all five passes on the tying drive — the last a 21-yard touchdown to tight end Mitch Van Vooren — and ran in the two-point conversion himself before New Orleans won it 27 to 24 on a 53-yard Daniel Carlson field goal with under two minutes left, per Daniels. Dallas finished the preseason 2 and 1. Two days later the cutdown answered the question by refusing to: the initial 53 carries three quarterbacks — Dak Prescott, Howell and Milton — with no backup ruling announced; no quarterback appears anywhere in Nick Eatman's move-by-move accounting at the team's website.

That is not where our last episode pointed. A week ago we wrote that "two straight weeks of film lean one way" — Milton's way — and that the conversation around the team had mostly stopped saying "competition." Howell's fourth quarter ended that lean in one drive, and the people running the team never joined the conversation anyway: Brian Schottenheimer called the race "neck and neck" after the finale Friday night, and Jerry Jones floated keeping both backups, saying avoiding negative plays matters most at the position, per Tommy Yarrish at the team's website. Eatman's own column made the roster argument — "Sam Howell just took someone's spot" — pairing the finale with Howell's two-million-dollar roster guarantee. Howell, before the decision: "I did the best I could." So the honest ledger reads: we told you the film leaned Milton, the finale contradicted the film, and the roster kept everyone. Who backs up Prescott in Week 1 is still an open item.

The cutdown itself ran 39 moves — one trade, 28 players waived, seven veterans released, two players to injured reserve with return designations, and one waived as injured, per Eatman. The name the beat led its cut coverage with: edge rusher Sam Williams, a 2022 second-round pick re-signed in March on a one-year, fully guaranteed two-million-dollar deal, released with waiver pickup Tyrus Wheat kept instead, per Jerry Trotta at The Landry Hat. Rodney Knuppel at Athlon Sports framed the release as the arithmetic of a rebuilt pass rush — an edge room that now reads Rashan Gary, Von Miller, Donovan Ezeiruaku, James Houston, rookie Malachi Lawrence and Wheat, on a defense that managed 35 sacks last season. The backfield was purged: Jaydon Blue, Phil Mafah and Israel Abanikanda were all waived, per Eatman, leaving Javonte Williams and Malik Davis as the kept halfbacks — Davis winning the second job on a 5.7 yards-per-carry preseason, per Trotta. Trotta also reports questions about Blue's "football character" and suggests Dallas may not bring him back on the practice squad even if he clears waivers — reporting, not a transaction; waivers had not cleared as we filed. The veteran releases included receivers Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Tyler Johnson and Denzel Mims, per Eatman. Two threads from our last episode ended in plain waivers: linebacker Justin Barron, who had entered a cognitive evaluation after the Seattle game, was waived with no reporting found on the evaluation's outcome, and safety Julius Wood — concussed August 22, and one of camp's most productive undrafted players at 11 tackles and six defensive stops — was waived too, a cut Trotta lists among his cutdown losers.

The receiver room paid off one summer story and closed another. Camden Brown, the undrafted rookie, made the initial 53 as the sixth receiver after a six-catch, 166-yard, two-touchdown preseason, with Trotta framing the keep as long-term insurance given George Pickens playing on an expiring franchise tag. Jordan Hudson — the man catching one of Howell's finale touchdowns, four catches for 97 yards on the night — was waived, his summer complicated by a pending college-eligibility lawsuit on which a Dallas County judge granted a temporary restraining order, per Daniels. Schottenheimer, asked about it Friday: "Honestly, I don't know the rules, but I do know that Huddy played great tonight."

The front office spent cutdown weekend churning its tackle depth. Saturday, Dallas acquired Broderick Jones — Pittsburgh's 2023 first-round pick, who played all of his 2025 snaps at left tackle — sending the Steelers third- and sixth-round picks for Jones and a fourth-round pick, per Yarrish at the team's website. Sunday, one day later, Nate Thomas — a 2024 seventh-rounder who made starts at left tackle last season — went to the Texans for a 2027 seventh-round pick, per Yarrish. Schottenheimer settled the top of the depth chart while the bottom moved: Tyler Guyton keeps the starting left tackle job — "Tyler's playing really, really well" — with the staff citing wanting more consistency than Thomas showed in camp, per Yarrish.

The injury column has a real loss in it. Linebacker Marist Liufau fractured his forearm making a first-quarter tackle in the finale, with surgery scheduled for as early as Monday and Schottenheimer saying he will miss "some weeks" — "What a great competitor. He'll be back" — per Yarrish. Liufau and cornerback Devin Moore were both placed on injured reserve with a designation to return at the cutdown, per Eatman. One watch item goes unresolved: we said to watch for Von Miller's first full practice at The Star, and we found no account of one in the reporting we accessed — what is verified is that Miller is on the initial 53, a lock in the edge room, per Trotta.

Back in July we previewed Dallas as the widest gap in football — a top-five offense welded to a dead-last defense that managed 11 takeaways all season — with the whole offseason budget spent on the broken half. Cut day kept spending there: the edge room was remade on merit rather than pedigree, both players lost to injured reserve are defenders, and the offense's only cutdown drama was which backup quarterback to keep — answered with both. The July read holds.

What to watch next: waivers clear Monday and the practice squads form behind them — where Blue, Hudson, Wood and tight end Michael Trigg land is the next episode's job — Aidan Davis at Yahoo Sports reports Dallas hopes Trigg clears to the practice squad, an expectation and nothing more. Beyond that, the depth chart Dallas would not announce: who stands behind Prescott in Week 1. We'll check back once the claims and the practice squads are in.

_Data via nflverse._