The Dallas Cowboys notched a much-needed and hard-fought win on Thursday night against their division rival New York Giants, but that victory came at a cost as both Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence went down with injuries in the win.
Luckily for the Cowboys, there is a bit of a "mini bye week" between their Thursday win and their Week 5 matchup on Sunday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and not only will Dallas need to be doing some work on figuring out how to replace their two best guys on the defensive front, but there could be other players in danger of losing their jobs.
Having some extended time like this to look at the tape and make personnel changes could help give the Cowboys a much-needed spark as the season goes along, but which players could potentially be in danger of being benched or replaced after what we've seen in the first four games?
First-round pick Tyler Guyton leads Cowboys in danger of being benched after Week 4
1. Tyler Guyton, left tackle
There is definitely value to letting rookies go out there and take their lumps, but Cowboys first-round left tackle Tyler Guyton is probably coming off of his worst game yet as a professional. And to add insult on top of it, he made the impulsive decision to make a comment about the NFL needing new officials as he was headed to the locker room...
Guyton was bad enough against the New York Giants on Thursday night that he was getting hit with the Druski memes on Twitter/X, and obviously the Cowboys need to figure out where the balance is for him in terms of having patience through rough patches or maybe giving him some time on the sideline to sort of reset and get another shot at it later in the season.
It's not surprising that he's going through rookie growing pains, but Guyton may need some coaching on his technique before he can go out there and truly "fail forward" in real game action.
2. Brandin Cooks, wide receiver
At this point, the Dallas Cowboys are just spinning their wheels with Brandin Cooks out there as a top three option in the passing game. The idea behind acquiring Cooks last season had plenty of merit, and Cooks has been plenty productive throughout his career to justify bringing him in, but the return on investment so far this season just hasn't been there.
The Cowboys just need to promote Jalen Tolbert to the WR2 role and not look back at this rate.
Cooks has caught just nine passes so far this season, including five in the last three games combined. He has a QB rating when targeted this season of just over 79, which would be the worst of his NFL career to this point if it holds. His inability to create separation on the simplest of routes has made life difficult for Dak Prescott when he hasn't looked in the direction of CeeDee Lamb.
Tolbert has been much better so far this season with 160 yards on 13 receptions. He should not be having his snaps eaten into by Brandin Cooks anymore.
3. Donovan Wilson, safety
The most touchdowns allowed by Donovan Wilson in coverage throughout the course of his NFL career has been only two. That has happened on a few different occasions, but he's never been credited with allowing more than two in a season.
He's already given up two touchdowns this year.
Wilson has become enough of a liability that pretty much every Cowboys fan was begging for the team to make a change against the New York Giants, and it's something that Mike McCarthy and Mike Zimmer are going to have to seriously consider going forward. And not only with Wilson, but perhaps his running mate Malik Hooker. Hooker, who nearly gave up a Minneapolis Miracle style touchdown near the end of Thursday's game...
The Cowboys might legitimately just have better players buried on the depth chart at safety right now. With what we've seen from Wilson so far, it's time to find out.
4. Damone Clark, linebacker
We are already well on our way to this one happening, aren't we?
DeMarvion Overshown inexplicably had his snap count go down after Week 1, but that changed obviously in Week 4 for Overshown as he racked up eight tackles and a pass broken up. Overshown was Dallas' clear standout on defense Thursday night along with Mazi Smith.
Clark, on the other hand, only played a handful of snaps and is down to just 32 percent of the snaps played so far this season. He started all 17 games for the Cowboys last season but with Overshown starting to come on and the presence of Eric Kendricks and rookie Marist Liufau, the writing is on the wall for Clark. He's not likely to have many snaps going forward at all, barring injury.
