The Dallas Cowboys have been bitten by the injury bug countless times so far this year. The injuries to the offensive line, CeeDee Lamb, and DaRon Bland are all well documented.
It seems like they’ve gotten another name to add to that list, as defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus has announced that safety Malik Hooker will miss Week 5 against the New York Jets.
This isn’t shocking, as Hooker left Week 4’s game against the Green Bay Packers with the injury. Juanyeh Thomas stepped up and filled in, recording a 66.1 PFF grade over 51 defensive snaps.
Thomas will almost certainly get the start on Sunday, something that Cowboy fans have been hoping would happen for a while. Of course, I’m sure they would prefer that it didn’t come at the cost of Hooker missing time.
A third year undrafted free agent out of Georgia Tech, Thomas has been mostly effective in his career. It should be added, though, that he’s played very limited snaps.
As a rookie in 2023, Thomas logged a very good 81.1 overall PFF grade in 192 snaps, but was limited to 93 snaps in 2024, in which he earned a 56.1 grade. So far, he’s played only 61 snaps this year, recording a 69.3 grade to this point.
Of note, Sunday will be his first start since his rookie 2023 year. In that game, his NFL debut in Week 1 against the New York Giants, PFF credited him with an 84.6 overall grade over 41 snaps.
Turning our attention to the second part of Eberflus’ announcement, if Kenneth Murray can’t go, expect Marist Liufau to get more snaps. As we discussed earlier this week, that’s probably not a good thing.
Playing his most snaps of the season, Liufau logged a 37.2 overall grade. Not only did this include three missed tackles, but it also included a horrible unnecessary roughness penalty that helped extend the Packers last touchdown drive.
For as frustrating as Murray has been, and his overall 39.8 grade shows he’s been extremely so, it does not appear that Liufau would be much better. Certainly, a disappointing development for the coaching staff.
While all of the injuries that Dallas has dealt with this year are frustrating, the upshot is that young players like Thomas are going to get the chance to prove themselves. And, as the saying goes, if you’re going to be bad, at least be interesting.