{"id":415080,"date":"2026-08-24T04:20:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T04:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/415080\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T04:20:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T04:20:32","slug":"dallas-cowboys-rb-phil-mafah-projected-to-miss-53-man-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/415080\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys RB Phil Mafah Projected To Miss 53-Man Roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

DALLAS \u2014 Calvin Watkins<\/a> of the Dallas Morning News left Phil Mafah<\/a> off his Dallas Cowboys<\/a> 53-man roster projection published Sunday. Watkins kept four backs: Javonte Williams<\/a>, Malik Davis<\/a>, Jaydon Blue<\/a>, and fullback Hunter Luepke.<\/p>\n

Watkins wrote that Mafah \u201chas done nothing wrong\u201d and that Davis and Blue simply played better in the preseason. He pointed to Davis working as a personal protector on punts as the edge, and listed Israel Abanikanda as a practice squad candidate.<\/p>\n

Jon Machota<\/a> of The Athletic reached the same conclusion Sunday, writing that Davis is the back Dallas is \u201cmost comfortable\u201d with in the No. 2 role and that Mafah is the one who gets cut.<\/p>\n

Davis started Saturday at State Farm Stadium and carried 5 times for 29 yards. He caught an 8-yard touchdown pass on third-and-6 in the first quarter. Blue led Dallas with 15 carries for 75 yards and returned a kickoff 26 yards. Abanikanda took 8 carries.<\/p>\n

Mafah did not get a carry until the fourth quarter. He took it 15 yards for a touchdown, starting right before cutting back around the left end, and he returned the opening kickoff.<\/p>\n

Brian Schottenheimer On Malik Davis<\/p>\n

Pass protection and special teams sit on Brian Schottenheimer\u2018s list of what Davis does well, alongside running behind his pads.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you watch those guys compete, Malik, the guy is consistent,\u201d Schottenheimer said. \u201cHe\u2019s a good football player. He\u2019s good on offense. He\u2019s good on special teams. He\u2019s good in pass protection. He\u2019s a good runner. He runs behind his pads. He makes positive yards. He has not been a surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dallas signed Davis as an undrafted free agent out of Florida in 2022. He carried 52 times for 250 yards and 2 touchdowns in 10 games last season, and ran 20 times for 103 yards against the Washington Commanders on Christmas for his first 100-yard game. Dallas placed him on injured reserve before Week 18 and activated him on Feb. 15.<\/p>\n

The Roster Math Behind Javonte Williams<\/p>\n

Williams signed a three-year, $24 million extension in February that includes $16 million guaranteed. He carried 252 times for 1,201 yards last season, the first Dallas back to clear 1,200 since Ezekiel Elliott in 2019.<\/p>\n

Blue went 149th overall in the 2025 draft out of Texas. He dressed for 5 games as a rookie and carried 38 times for 129 yards with 1 touchdown. A shoulder injury kept him out of two practices and limited him in three more before Saturday.<\/p>\n

Dallas took Mafah 239th overall out of Clemson in the same draft. He played 1 game as a rookie and carried 5 times for 18 yards with a touchdown. Mafah left the preseason opener at Seattle with a chest injury after 4 carries for 9 yards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The preseason finale is Friday against the New Orleans Saints at AT&T Stadium, with kickoff at 7 p.m. CT on CBS. The roster stands at 91 and has to be at 53 before the opener. Week 1 is Sept. 13 at MetLife Stadium against the New York Giants, with kickoff at 7:20 p.m. CT on NBC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2014 Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News left Phil Mafah off his Dallas Cowboys 53-man roster…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-415080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}