The Dallas Cowboys don't have a stacked roster, top to bottom. When lining up all NFL teams, the Cowboys certainly have some strong positions on paper, but spring and summer analysis rarely play out as expected come the fall. In between, the team will make several decisions on who they want to protect on the initial 53-man roster.
Oftentimes those decisions before Week 1 will be labeled as the final 53-man roster when they are nothing of the sort. The team can strategically approach cutting vested veterans, who are not subject to the waiver wire process where other teams can claim their contracts. Vested veterans, who have accrued over four NFL seasons, are immediately free agents and can rejoin the team, even with pre-determined agreements.
Veterans signed to the practice squad do not carry over their contracts. Veterans signed after Week 1 do not have the full season guaranteed. Dallas has used these tactics in the past, and here are three candidates to be released after the third preseason game, but still end up contributing to the team this year.
QB Will Grier
In long-term planning, Grier is QB3. Dak Prescott is the franchise QB while the club traded for second-year player Joe Milton this offseason. But Milton may not be the best choice to be an in-game replacement for Prescott for a short-term injury. That is more likely going to be Grier, but that doesn't guarantee him a roster spot to start the season. The team could easily have him on the practice squad and elevate him for the first three weeks of the season, protecting Milton on the roster but giving them a veteran backup until the inevitable spot opens on the roster after an injury elsewhere.
Goodwin had been a favorite of special teams coach John Fassel, but it's a new era in Dallas. Brian Schottenheimer has his own ST coach in Nick Sorensen, so it's a question whether he'll have a similar affinity for the cornerback-in-depth-chart only Goodwin, who has long been solely a special team's contributor. If he is part of the team's plans, they could employ a tactic they used several years prior, where the gentleman's agreement to release the vet only to bring him back after Week 1 allowed the team to pull off roster gymnastics.
