The Dallas Cowboys taught us quite a bit about who they are in their Week 3 loss to the Chicago Bears. Let’s take a look at the top and worst performers on both sides of the ball according to Pro Football Focus (PFF). As an aside, all players listed below played a minimum of 25 snaps. 

One of the few positives from Sunday’s game was the progress of the offensive line, led by Tyler Booker’s noticeable improvement. Not only was this the highest grade of the game, it is the highest grade received by a Cowboys offensive lineman in any game so far this year. 

The grade is largely propped up by an elite 93.1 run blocking figure. While that’s always encouraging to see, Booker still only had a 48.7 mark as a pass protector. 

But, after the disaster that was Sunday, we won’t pick nits here. Hopefully Booker can build off his run blocking momentum to start improving as a pass blocker as well. 

Schoonmaker’s performance Sunday was a microcosm of his career so far: perfectly underwhelming but not terrible. For a former second round pick, you’d expect more than that.

But, 36 catches for 311 yards in 37 career games is all that Dallas has gotten, including his first catch of the season on Sunday that went for all of five yards. What’s worse, he’s been subpar at the main skill he was drafted for. 

After recording a 55.3 run blocking grade Sunday, his overall season grade sits at a below-average 52.6, which is somehow an improvement over the 39.8 mark he had last season.

So, while he bounced back from an abysmal performance in Week 2 to be only below average in Week 3, fans have to be wondering just how much longer coaches will trot Schoonmaker out there for significant snaps. 

It says a lot about the team’s defensive performance that the best grade for a player playing significant snaps would be considered “above average” by PFF. With that said, Odighizuwa had a solid day.

While he didn’t get home, he did record a hurry and two tackles. Not inspiring numbers, but we’ll take what we can get from this game.

To quote Simon and Garfunkel, hello darkness, my old friend. Murray surely felt pressure after recording an overall 30.0 grade in Week 1, and he bounced back with a 69.4 grade in Week 2. 

Unfortunately, Murray outdid himself in Week 3, and not in a good way. Dragged down a 27.8 run defense grade, he finished as the worst qualified linebacker (minimum 25 snaps) in the NFL this week.

And, as we discussed in the Week 1 PFF grades analysis, Weeks 1 and 3 are much more inline with a career in which he’s never recorded a grade higher than 54.4, and that was all the way back in his rookie 2020 season. If Jerry Jones is serious about making the playoffs, it’s fair to wonder how much longer he can allow Murray to play regular snaps.