Cowboys positional rankings reveal where accountability needs to start

from on 2026-09-16 14:00 (#78E6T)

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - SEPTEMBER 13: Brian Schottenheimer head coach of the Dallas Cowboys during the third quarter of the game against the New York Giants on September 13, 2026 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

For me it's quite simple: Because the expectations for the offense and defense were quite high, and both units were outcoached and outplayed by the Giants, the accountability falls squarely on Brian Schottenheimer and Christian Parker.

Alas, if only simple answers were the right answers - they almost never are.

The Cowboys went from two red-flag performances retained from the entire 2025 season to 12 in one game.
And perhaps even more strikingly, the team went from 13 starter-quality performances retained or acquired from 2025 to just four against the Giants.
This wasn't simply a bad game. It was a remarkable concentration of bad individual performances.

One of the team captains, Quinnen Williams, has spoken up and announced the team would take accountability.

I think the takeaway is this: Quinnen wanted to make sure he said certain things into a microphone, and a lot of it centered around the idea of the team embracing criticism this week.

That doesn't mean things will get better, but it means they aren't delusional about last night. https://t.co/hwe1E4RZca
- Bobby Belt (@BobbyBeltTX) September 14, 2026

The idea today is to look at positional rankings (or percentile rankings) to identify which players and units need to take a little more constructive criticism than others. We've covered positional rankings extensively this offseason, go here if you need a quick primer.

The idea is that instead of using a player's raw PFF Grade, we look at where a given player is ranked relative to the other players in the league at his position.

Relative positional performance gives us a way to separate the players who actually hurt the Cowboys from those who merely looked bad because the team lost.

Example: Jalen Thompson has a 43.7 Grade for the season opener, which suggests he had a slightly below-average game. But he ranks 71 out of 84 qualifying safeties, which would give him a positional ranking (1 - position rank / total qualifying players) * 100 of just 15, an indication of a red flag or bottom 20 performance.

Based on the overall ranking scale provided by PFF, the results can be split into quintiles, which delivers the following positional ranking groups:

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Positional Ranking	Description
100-80	Blue-Chip Peromance
79-60	NFL starter quality performance
59-40	Slightly above or below average performance
39-20	Underperformer
19-0	Red Flag

Be aware though, that we're talking about the performance in just one game, the sample sizes in terms of snap counts can be quite low, and we understand the vagaries of PFF grades.

With that out the way, we'll start with a top-line view of the roster performance, take a deeper look at the good and bad per position unit, and then move on to a view of the entire roster.

The first thing I'd like to do is look at the 2025 full-season positional ranking for the returning players and trade/free agency acquisitions and compare that to the 2026 Week 1 ranking for the current roster plus four qualifying rookies.

Positional Ranking	2025	2026
100-80	5	7
79-60	13	4
59-40	5	5
39-20	4	5
19-0	2	12

The Good. Somewhat surprisingly, the Cowboys had more blue-chip performances on Sunday Night, than they had over the course of last year's regular season. Moving into the blue chip quintile are Otito Ogbonnia (96),
Donovan Ezeiruaku (94), Javonte Williams (91), Tyler Booker (87), Cobie Durant (81) and rookie Jaishawn Barham (80), with Quinnen Williams (91) the only repeater from last year.

The Bad. The issue is that the team didn't have enough starter quality performances (green) against the Giants, and replaced them with way too many red flag performances. Two players dropped from blue to red (George Pickens (95->9), Ryan Flournoy (88->1), three players (Jalen Thompson 67->15, James Houston 62->4, DeMarvion Overshown 65->0) fell directly from green' to red' and must count as the biggest disappointments from Sunday. In other words, compared with their 2025 positional rankings, the Cowboys effectively lost nine starter-quality performances and gained ten red-flag performances.

Offensive Line

Overall, the most stable unit in terms of performance from year-to-year, but with ups and downs.

Offensive Line	2025		2026
Player	POS	Snaps	Pos. Rank	Snaps	Rank	Total Players	Pos. Rank
Tyler Booker	G	1,003	79	58	9	66	87
Cooper Beebe	C	767	60	58	6	28	79
Tyler Guyton	T	650	23	58	26	71	63
T.J. Bass	G	352	67	58	47	67	30
Terence Steele	T	1,163	42	58	62	71	13
Average			54				54

The Good. Very encouraging to see Tyler Guyton's improvement to a starter quality performance, just as it's nice to see Tyler Booker move into blue-chip territory and Cooper Beebe almost there as well. Unfortunately, this doesn't improve the overall unit performance.

The Bad. The average performance of the unit remains stable versus last year, because T.J. Bass and Terence Steele are pulling the average down. The Bass regression might have been expected with the short notice, but Steele has been a worry throughout the offseason and his Week 1 performance will keep the Cowboys worried. Very worried.

Skill Position Players

This is the unit with the most dramatic dropoff versus last year.

Skill Positions	2025		2026
Player	POS	Snaps	Pos. Rank	Snaps	Rank	Total Players	Pos. Rank
Javonte Williams	RB	769	74	41	5	56	91
CeeDee Lamb	WR	732	84	47	41	82	50
Luke Schoonmaker	TE	392	13	13	46	69	33
Brevyn Spann-Ford	TE	300	76	13	52	69	25
Jake Ferguson	TE	786	34	44	63	69	9
George Pickens	WR	968	95	49	75	82	9
Ryan Flournoy	WR	479	88	41	81	82	1
Average			66				31

The Good. Nice to see both Javonte Williams and the much-maligned Luke Schoonmaker up a quintile, but the rest of the skill positions had a night to forget.

The Bad. At WR CeeDee Lamb drops two quintiles from blue to yellow, while George Pickens and Ryan Flournoy drop all the way from blue to red. Not much help at TE, where Brevyn Spann-Ford and Jake Ferguson also drop.

Dak Prescott (not listed here) also drops a bit, from 88 last year to 78 against the Giants, but his 10-point drop nowhere near explains the 35-point drop among the skill position players. And if we were to remove Javonte Williams, the skill-position average would drop by a staggering -44 position ranks.

Prescott ranks seventh out of 32 QBs at PFF, fourth out of 32 QBs in EPA/Play at rbsdm.com and third out of 32 in ESPN's QBR.

It's easy to assign blame to the QB, but this game was not on him. If anything, the problem was the supporting cast around him.

The Front Seven

Not a lot of change in the unit average, only dropping from 64 to 56, but lots of turmoil among the player ranks.

Front Seven	2025		2026
Player	POS	Snaps	Pos. Rank	Snaps	Rank	Total Players	Pos. Rank
NEW: Otito Ogbonnia	DI	138	44	40	6	139	96
Donovan Ezeiruaku	ED	603	73	42	8	129	94
Quinnen Williams	DI	640	99	53	12	139	91
Jaishawn Barham	LB	-	Rookie	34	16	82	80
L.T. Overton	DI	-	Rookie	18	68	139	51
Kenny Clark	DI	746	75	50	70	139	50
NEW: Von Miller	ED	420	48	11	75	129	42
NEW: Rashan Gary	ED	653	61	41	102	129	21
NEW: Dee Winters	ILB	993	50	40	68	82	17
NEW: Jonathan Bullard	DI	326	58	29	125	139	10
James Houston	ED	305	62	10	124	129	4
Malachi Lawrence	ED	-	Rookie	30	128	129	1
DeMarvion Overshown	ILB	218	65	51	82	82	0
Average			64				56

The Good. This unit jumps from one blue-chip player in Quinnen Williams to four with blue chip performances by Otito Ogbonnia, Donovan Ezeiruaku, and rookie Jaishawn Barham, with an honorable mention for fellow rookie L.T. Overton, who comes in with an average performance in his rookie game.

The problem. Despite four blue-chip performances from Q. Williams, Ogbonnia, Ezeiruaku, and Barham, the front-seven average falls from 64 to 56 because the bottom of the group is so bad.

The Bad. What initially looks like a beefed up front seven at the top of the list quickly develops into a list devoid of greens and way too many reds. DeMarvion Overshown's performance ranked dead last among 82 qualifying linebackers, Rookie Malachi Lawrence had a terrible day, ranking 128/129, and the list goes on.

The Cowboys didn't have a bad defensive line performance. They had a wildly uneven one. The top was very good; the bottom was disastrous.

The Secondary

The Cowboys weakest position group heading into 2026 regressed further despite the positive addition of Caleb Downs.

Secondary	2025		2026
Player	POS	Snaps	Pos. Rank	Snaps	Rank	Total Players	Pos. Rank
NEW: Cobie Durant	CB	819	70	50	19	100	81
Caleb Downs	S	-	Rookie	61	26	84	69
DaRon Bland	CB	743	65	69	49	100	51
Shavon Revel Jr.	CB	334	0	20	72	100	28
Malik Hooker	S	593	37	12	68	84	19
NEW: Jalen Thompson	S	978	67	69	71	84	15
NEW: PJ Locke	S	173	37	28	82	84	2
Average			46				38

The Good. If we look only at the CBs, they actually increased their position rank slightly, moving from an average of 45 to 53, from slightly below average to slightly above average. That's at least something. Plus there's the addition of Caleb Downs, who comes in with the second-best performance in the secondary in his first NFL game.

The Bad. If we look only at the safeties, their average drops from 47 in 2025 to 27 in the Giants game - and that's despite the addition of Caleb Downs!

The Cowboys addressed the secondary with Downs and Thompson, yet the safety position got dramatically worse in Week 1. That doesn't mean the offseason moves were necessarily wrong - one game is far too small a sample - but it does mean the actual Week 1 performance did not validate the perceived upgrade.

Total Roster

Now that we've gone through the major position groups, here's a look at the total roster.

Total Roster	2025		2026
Player	POS	Snaps	Pos. Rank	Snaps	Rank	Total Players	Pos. Rank
NEW: Otito Ogbonnia	DI	138	44	40	6	139	96
Donovan Ezeiruaku	ED	603	73	42	8	129	94
Quinnen Williams	DI	640	99	53	12	139	91
Javonte Williams	RB	769	74	41	5	56	91
Tyler Booker	G	1,003	79	58	9	66	87
NEW: Cobie Durant	CB	819	70	50	19	100	81
Jaishawn Barham	LB	-	Rookie	34	16	82	80
Cooper Beebe	C	767	60	58	6	28	79
Dak Prescott	QB	1,135	88	58	7	32	78
Caleb Downs	S	-	Rookie	61	26	84	69
Tyler Guyton	T	650	23	58	26	71	63
DaRon Bland	CB	743	65	69	49	100	51
L.T. Overton	DI	-	Rookie	18	68	139	51
CeeDee Lamb	WR	732	84	47	41	82	50
Kenny Clark	DI	746	75	50	70	139	50
NEW: Von Miller	ED	420	48	11	75	129	42
Luke Schoonmaker	TE	392	13	13	46	69	33
T.J. Bass	G	352	67	58	47	67	30
Shavon Revel Jr.	CB	334	0	20	72	100	28
Brevyn Spann-Ford	TE	300	76	13	52	69	25
NEW: Rashan Gary	ED	653	61	41	102	129	21
Malik Hooker	S	593	37	12	68	84	19
NEW: Dee Winters	ILB	993	50	40	68	82	17
NEW: Jalen Thompson	S	978	67	69	71	84	15
Terence Steele	T	1,163	42	58	62	71	13
NEW: Jonathan Bullard	DI	326	58	29	125	139	10
Jake Ferguson	TE	786	34	44	63	69	9
George Pickens	WR	968	95	49	75	82	9
James Houston	ED	305	62	10	124	129	4
NEW: PJ Locke	S	173	37	28	82	84	2
Ryan Flournoy	WR	479	88	41	81	82	1
Malachi Lawrence	ED	-	Rookie	30	128	129	1
DeMarvion Overshown	ILB	218	65	51	82	82	0
Average			60				42

Trade/Free Agency acquisitions: The eight players that were brought in from the outside, bolded and marked new", had a disappointing Dallas debut. Ogbonnia and Cobie Durant showed up in the blue, but all others were somewhere below average to red flags. Their average positional rank dropped from a slightly above average 54 to an underperforming 36 in Week 1. Against the Giants, these players did not look like the reinforcements the Cowboys thought they were getting.

The Rookies: Four rookies made their NFL debut on Sunday, and as a group, they averaged a position rank of 50, which is better than the team average of 42, and which comes despite a forgettable performance from Malachi Lawrence.

The rookies weren't the problem. Barham's 80 and Downs' 69 are particularly encouraging, especially considering the overall team average of 42.

Minimum to qualify in position ranks. For those interested, the Week 1 qualifying minimums are 10 snaps for all defenders and offensive linemen, 10 dropbacks for the QB, three targets for wide receivers, five targets for running backs, and no minimums for tight ends.

Last year, Kenneth Murray ranked 106 out of 108 qualifying linebackers, a position rank of just two. And even though it was plain to even the most cursory fan that Murray was a defensive liability, the Cowboys hung on to him, started him in 16 games and had him play 870 defensive snaps. The reasons remain unclear, was it because they thought they had no alternatives, was it because of stubborn coaches, was it because of the team's belief in the sunk cost fallacy, was it because of the general Cowboys inertia when it comes to change? Who knows.

But we can't have a repeat of that in 2026.

If the Cowboys really are going to be accountable, there have to be significant play-time adjustments for game two. In some cases, disappointing performances may be explainable as a one-off, but you can't just go back to the drawing board and say, better communication, more assignment-sound play, fewer penalties and stuff like that will be enough to beat the Commanders next week. But better football and better players will.

If the positional rankings are telling us something real, the Cowboys need to respond to them with playing-time decisions. The injuries to Malik Hooker and DeMarvion Overshown already provide an opportunity for some personnel and playing-time changes, more playing-time changes elsewhere should be coming..

You can't preach your way out of a bottom-five performance. At some point, accountability has to show up on the depth chart.

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