When a season is going as poorly as this one is for the Dallas Cowboys, no one is interested in any excuses. And I get it, every team deals with injuries. But the list the Cowboys continue to navigate through remains an issue.

QB Dak Prescott (hamstring) and DE Sam Williams (knee) have already been lost for the season. There’s still no clear timetable on when (and if) DE DeMarcus Lawrence (foot) will be able to return.

And then that brings us to the uncertainty coming out of Sunday’s game at Washington and entering Thursday’s game against the New York Giants. Reserve offensive tackle Asim Richards, who has played 105 offensive snaps over the last three games, suffered a high ankle sprain Sunday. It seems unlikely he will be able to play Thursday.

Richards was one of 16 names on Dallas’ Monday injury report. Of that group, five are listed with multiple injuries. Five key players remain question marks for Thursday: LG Tyler Smith (ankle/knee), WR Brandin Cooks (knee), CB Trevon Diggs (groin/knee), TE Jake Ferguson (concussion) and RG Zack Martin (ankle/shoulder).

Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones said Monday on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas that there’s a good chance Cooks and Smith will be able to play. Diggs also has a chance. But Jones said it’s “a little more of a long shot” for Martin and Ferguson.

Starting quarterback Cooper Rush (knee) was a name not expected to be on the report following Sunday’s game. Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy made it sound like it’s not something that would prevent Rush from playing Thursday. “He’s got some work to do,” McCarthy said, “but I think we’re going to be fine.”

Why not tank?

Micah Parsons made it clear after Sunday’s game that he has no interest in tanking. Dallas’ star defender isn’t hoping to improve the Cowboys’ draft spot. And the team owner and general manager is completely on board.

Cowboys DE Micah Parsons: “I’m not done yet. I don’t plan on tanking. If the higher-ups are looking for a draft pick, I hope that’s ruined, because we got a lot of football left to play. As long as I’m a part of this team, we’re always going to fight.”

— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) November 25, 2024

“Love it,” Jerry Jones said Tuesday morning on The Fan. “Just absolutely love it. Micah gets criticized for some of the things that he says, but the way that was articulated is strong. … (Tanking) has not come across anybody’s mind in this organization. Somebody is going to take that and say, ‘That’s your problem, you got your head up your you know what. You don’t realize that you need to be playing for a higher draft pick, Jones, and you’d do a little better in the draft.’

“I get it. I get all of it. But it’s critical to us to get out here and compete. Those guys (in the draft) will be there for us, the ones we want when we get there in the draft.”

Jones later added that “there’s a lot of ambiguity with those draft picks.”

If the season ended today, the Cowboys would have the 11th overall pick. Judging by the remainder of their schedule and what the team has been saying about tanking, it seems more realistic that they will end up picking closer to 15-to-20 than 5-to-10. The last time they were in a similar situation was 2020, when they finished 6-10. They ended up with the 17th overall pick and drafted star WR CeeDee Lamb.

Too many penalties

The Cowboys think highly of left tackle Tyler Guyton’s future in the league. They know he has the ability to be a quality starter. But it’s very clear that their first-round pick has to clean up the penalties. Entering this week, only Houston Texans offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil (15) has more penalties than Guyton (12).

Of Guyton’s 12 for 90 yards, four are false starts and three are for illegal formation. Those bother the coaching staff most because they are pre-snap penalties.

“It’s a big emphasis,” McCarthy said. “We’ve obviously talked about it time and time again. It’s just the discipline and the stance of breaking that plane. It’s just not consistent enough. There’s communication and every (officiating) crew is different, but it has to stop. He knows it. He feels sick about it. But we just got to get it corrected.

“Those are penalties that potentially took points off the board or an opportunity to score more points. We got to get it corrected. We’re far enough down the line. He understands it. That’s how this league goes too. His name comes up in the pre-game meetings with the officials. It’s an emphasis that the officiating department is making on a weekly basis. There’s something there and we got to be better than that.”

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(Top photo of Jerry Jones: Robert Deutsch / Imagn Images)