Most of our focus is on the starters for the Dallas Cowboys. But what about the reserves? Who has been doing well so far this season, and who hasn’t? We’ll start with the offense.
Offense
If you look at the snap counts, here are the reserves who have played on the offensive side. Joe Looney, Chaz Green, La’el Collins, and Emmitt Cleary on the offensive line, Brice Butler, Lucky Whitehead, and Vince Mayle at receiver, Geoff Swaim and Gavin Escobar at tight end, and Alfred Morris and Lance Dunbar at running back. Mark Sanchez has gotten in a few snaps at quarterback. Even among these players, many have not played enough to evaluate. Let’s look at them by the number of snaps, leaving out Mayle and Sanchez.
Brice Butler - 351 snaps
Butler has played in all 13 games, starting three when Dez Bryant was out. He’s been targeted 28 times, catching 13, for a 46.4% catch rate, for 174 yards, two touchdowns, and a long of 41 yards. The big catch was against Baltimore on third down (starting from first and 30) and led to the Cowboys first TD drive of the game.
These are disappointing numbers, and are unlikely to earn him a new contract when he hits free agency at the end of the year. His yards per catch of 13.4 is well below last year’s 21.4 yard average, though his catch rate is about the same. But in Oakland, his catch rate was 60%. He’s certainly been no competition for Terrance Williams as a #2 receiver, as many hoped when Dallas signed him.
Geoff Swaim - 203 snaps - injured reserve
Swaim has been one of the Cowboys’ better role players this season, which makes his injury all the more unfortunate. He didn’t catch a lot of balls — what backup TE in Dallas does? — but he did grab six of eight targets for 69 yards. More importantly, he blocked effectively, helping Ezekiel Elliott lead the league in rushing. Still, he’s no threat to replace Jason Witten, and is at best a journeyman blocking tight end.
La’el Collins - 186 snaps - injured reserve
Collins’ toe injury this season was in many respects a blessing for Dallas, as it allowed Ronald Leary to return to his left guard spot, which has paid dividends in the overall line play. Pro Football Focus ranked Collins as the worst guard in the NFL in the opener against the Giants. He’s going to be needed next year with Leary hitting free agency, and he has more mobility than Leary, but he doesn’t have anywhere near the consistency. Still, the hope is he will fill this job well next year, and perhaps be another long-term solution for the Dallas line.
Chaz Green - 151 snaps - injured most of the season
Green was a revelation earlier in the season when Tyron Smith couldn’t go for two games. He stepped in and did an admirable job, helping the Cowboys win both games. But he hurt his foot, and is only now practicing again. So, instead of a potential replacement for Doug Free next season, the Cowboys are almost certain to keep Free (who is under contract for one more year) and hope that Green can string together a healthy season as the swing tackle. If not, they will need to find someone who can stay on the field.
Lucky Whitehead - 123 snaps
Despite his being left home for the Giants game, Lucky has had his moments this year. He hasn’t done much as a receiver, with two catches on two targets for 40 yards. On jet sweeps, he’s carried eight times for 86 yards. It’s in this role, however, that he has value, because he often causes defenses to leave a man home to cover him, which opens up plays in the other direction for Zeke or Dak. (See the Sturm article below.)
In the Green Bay victory, Bob Sturm thought he made enough plays to dub it the Lucky Whitehead Game. His 27-yard jet sweep started the Cowboys three-play touchdown drive from their own 10-yard line right before half that extended the Cowboys’ lead to 11 points, which was never headed.
Alfred Morris - 112 snaps
Morris has to be one of the disappointments this season. 61 carries, 231 yards, 3.8 yards per carry, two catches for eight yards, two touchdowns. The Cleveland game, where he got 17 carries for 56 yards in mop up duty is the only time he’s been used to finish off a game. The most carries he’s received in any other game is seven, which he’s done twice. In the last four games, he’s carried the ball a total of eight times. The Cowboys just cut Darius Jackson to make way for Darren McFadden, but you have to wonder if Jackson couldn’t have done everything Morris has done, for less money. The Cowboys are paying Morris $1.8 million ($1M signing bonus and $800,000 salary) this season. Next year his cap hit will be $2.2 million to keep him, and $500,000 in dead money to release him. He hasn’t shown he’s worth that.
Lance Dunbar - 107 snaps
Dunbar may be the biggest disappointment among the reserves (along with Lawrence), because he’s shown none of the explosiveness as a receiver out of the backfield that he showed in only four games in 2015, when he caught 21 passes on 23 targets for 215 yards. This year? 11 catches on 16 targets, for 83 yards. Frankly, it’s not clear why the Cowboys didn’t cut Dunbar rather than Jackson when they activated Darren McFadden this week, since Dunbar is certain to be gone next year and Jackson was signed for four years. Hopefully Run DMC will get Dunbar’s snaps for the rest of the year. In fact, McFadden should get both Morris’s and Dunbar’s snaps.
Gavin Escobar - 102 snaps
If Dunbar isn’t the biggest disappointment, Escobar could be. The difference is that we’ve grown accustomed to Escobar adding nothing to the Cowboys’ attack. And when it comes to his blocking, while he did get in the way enough to help spring the touchdown run that won the Pittsburgh game, he also committed two costly blocking penalties in the Minnesota game that killed drives. Escobar’s stats? Three catches on four targets for 23 yards and a touchdown. He’ll finally be gone next year.
Keith Smith - 100 snaps
Not much to say here. He’s played a bigger role on special teams. He’s actually caught as many passes as Escobar - three on four targets for 20 yards, and he’s rushed twice for five yards.
Joe Looney - 77 snaps
Looney seems competent as an extra blocker in the Cowboys’ jumbo package, but we haven’t had to see enough of him to evaluate whether he could step in to a bigger role if needed. Thank goodness for that.
Defense
On this side of the ball, there are actually fewer reserves to evaluate. For example, at cornerback, Brandon Carr, Orlando Scandrick, Morris Claiborne, and Anthony Brown should all be considered starters. If you called Brown a reserve, he’d be the best one on the team. But he’s second in snaps to Carr, who has played all but four snaps on the season, so he’s not a reserve. That leaves Leon McFadden, who has played only 17 snaps, which is not enough to evaluate.
At safety, it’s similar given the injuries, with Byron Jones, Barry Church, and J.J. Wilcox registering starter snaps. That leaves only Jeff Heath. At linebacker, only Justin Durant and Damien Wilson count. On the defensive line, it’s a heavy rotation. But we’ll leave out the top four - the two Crawford’s (Jack and Tyrone), Maliek Collins, and Terrell McClain - and list the other five.
DeMarcus Lawrence - 329 snaps
This has been a very disappointing year for Lawrence, with the four-game suspension to start the year, and back troubles causing him to give way to Benson Mayowa against the Giants. In games 10-12, he got the most snaps on the defensive line, but it may have worn him out, as he got only 13 snaps in week 13. Overall, he has one sack and 11 tackles. He had a great game against Minnesota. But that’s been it. One reason Dallas doesn’t have much of a pass rush is because they were counting on Lawrence and he hasn’t delivered.
David Irving - 325 snaps
He’s another enigma on the line. He was defensive player of the week against the Packers, with three forced fumbles, a fumble recovery, a batted pass, and four tackles. Otherwise, where has he been? One sack, ten tackles. It’s not enough.
Cedric Thornton - 277 snaps
This was the Cowboys big free agent splurge of the offseason. As a replacement for Nick Hayden, he seemed like a huge upgrade. He’s had one and a half sacks and 22 tackles, a passed defensed, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery, so he’s been more consistent than Irving. But Terrell McClain beat him out in training camp and Thornton has remained a reserve. His cap hit is only $2.25 million this year, but rises to $4.25 million next year, and $5.25 million the two years after that. He’s unlikely to last out his contract at his current performance level, but will have a dead cap hit each year if the Cowboys cut him.
Benson Mayowa - 266 snaps
Mayowa was the other free agent on defense the Cowboys targeted. Unfortunately, he was so invisible at the beginning of the year that Ryan Davis, who was a waiver wire claim, supplanted him for two games. Upon returning, Mayowa had his best game against the Giants. Will it be his only one, like Lawrence and Irving? Or can he keep it up down the stretch? With four sacks, he’s only a half sack behind Tyrone Crawford for the team lead, which is good in one sense, and pitiful in another (that 4.5 sacks leads the team). On a per snap basis, he’s far ahead.
Justin Durant - 266 snaps
For several weeks, Durant was splitting the middle linebacking job with Anthony Hitchens, but then Durant got hurt, and Hitchens played his way into the lead. Durant has been a journeyman. One sack, 34 tackles, two passes defensed. You could do better, and you could do worse.
Jeff Heath - 168 snaps
Heath has been largely invisible, and as a defensive back, that can be a good thing. He’s had 10 tackles. He’s only out there because of injuries. Special teams are the reason he’s on the team.
Damien Wilson - 160 snaps
Wilson has become the SAM linebacker, but that doesn’t yield much play, as Dallas goes with an extra defensive back or two almost all the time. He has a half sack and 19 tackles, and hasn’t embarrassed himself.
Ryan Davis - 118 snaps
It was hoped that Davis would provide a pass rush spark, but he hasn’t. Three tackles and a recovered fumble. No sacks. He’s unlikely to play again unless someone else gets hurt.
Left off. Kyle Wilber, 37 snaps, Andrew Gachkar, 29 snaps, Kavon Frazier, 14 snaps.
Conclusion
The Cowboys have won 11 games, so their reserves have had to make a difference in games. But almost none of them have consistently produced. It’s hard to find any that rate as above average. Here’s my rankings.
Average - Swaim, Collins, Green, Whitehead, Smith, Looney, Thornton, Mayowa, Durant, Heath, Wilson.
Disappointing - Butler, Morris, Dunbar, Escobar, Lawrence (because of what he could be), Irving (ditto), Davis.
What do you think?