Week 5 features Dallas visiting East Rutherford to face the winless Jets as the Cowboys chase momentum. A string of injuries has Dallas thin at multiple spots: CeeDee Lamb, KaVontae Turpin, Tyler Guyton, and Tyler Booker are out; Malik Hooker lands on IR. Six additional players are listed as questionable, led by Tyler Smith and Miles Sanders. Rookie Jaydon Blue debuts, giving the offense a potential spark behind a battered line. Defensively, Dallas must tighten up after recent lapses while navigating a tough road test.

Dallas signed Jadeveon Clowney but kept him inactive against Chicago, signaling a controlled, quick-burn debut plan. The veteran, who has 15 sacks in the last two seasons, joins a reshuffled front that activated Mazi Smith and sat Jay Toia to spark a stalled Cowboys pass rush behind Micah Parsons. If healthy for Green Bay, Clowney could reshape the rush rotation and lift the entire defense, with locker-room leadership and mentor duties highlighted for Isaiah Land.

The move feeds into a broader narrative: Dallas aiming to restore pressure after the Parsons era, using Clowney’s veteran know-how to refine simple rush techniques and accelerate Land’s development. Fantasy angles emerge as the defense stabilizes, potentially boosting sacks and run-stopping metrics for Cowboys players in the coming weeks.

Week 3 in Chicago pits the Dallas Cowboys against the Bears with a handful of high-stakes lineup calls. DaRon Bland is inactive, Trevon Diggs is cleared to play after a knee scare, and Jadeveon Clowney remains inactive. Mazi Smith looks set for a first NFL appearance, while Jay Toia continues to mix in behind him as Jaydon Blue remains on the sideline. The feature steers toward how the rookie interior will handle the run game and how the secondary adjusts without Bland, with Diggs back as the stabilizing man on the perimeter.

Parsons is traded to Green Bay for Kenny Clark and two first-round picks, shifting the Cowboys’ season outlook from a premier edge to a priority on stopping the run. Dallas leans into interior beef, hoping to stabilize a leaky run defense while hoping their draft crack at DTs pays off.

Clark’s arrival pairs with a young Cowboys interior group to form a run-stopping front, while Mazi Smith remains under the microscope as the draft-pedigreed space-filler. The swap underscores a broader rebuild ethos in Dallas, compressing the window four years of Dak Prescott and staff are under contract into a real push for a more balanced defense.