RBs flourish, Milton struggles: Cowboys snap counts, offensive position grades vs Rams

The Dallas Cowboys organization got up off the proverbial map on Saturday night, finally getting a chance to dust themselves off in game action following a stinker of a 2024 season. A 7-10 final record was just a description of a season that was floundering long before they lost quarterback Dak Prescott for the year with a midseason injury. The writing was on the wall when the front office decided against giving lame-duck head coach Mike McCarthy any semblance of help, instead coining the infamous "all-in" phrase to indicate he'd get one more go 'round with the hand he had been dealt.

New head coach Brian Schottenheimer was given help this offseason, with the Cowboys adding numerous former first and second-round picks to their roster. A new season with a new physical mentality got underway with a roaring thud, as Schottnheimer's promise not to reveal any game-plan or play particulars was carried out. Not only that, the boredom factor was augmented by the team's refusal to play any of their old or new stars in their 31-21 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

But even with those withholdings accounted for, the players who did hit the field were still charged with executing what they were asked to do to the best of their ability, and that was not too successful of an effort across the board. The club did manage to get a couple things working after a shaky start, but overall there was much meat left on the bone.

Here's a look at who played, how much and how well in the team's preseason opener.

Quarterbacks

Overall Grade: D

Joe Milton: 59 snaps (89%)

Will Grier: 7 snaps (11%)

Prescott, despite missing the final two months of last season, kept his streak alive of not appearing in a preseason game since 2019.

Second-year QB Joe Milton got the start, and his accuracy was all over the place, while he also struggled with staring down receivers. At one point he missed a wide open Ryan Flournoy in embarrassing faashion. He finally settled into a groove on his final drive of the fourth quarter, possibly finding a rhythm as the coaching staff began calling plays that had worked during camp practices. There's been a lot of hope placed in Milton being a find, but he left the gae late in the fourth quarter to a thorwing-arm injury. Grier's play in his one drive was indicative that the backup QB role isn't gifted to the youngster.

Running Backs

Overall Grade: A

Phil Mafah: 38 snaps (58%)

Malik Davis: 15 snaps (23%)

Deuce Vaughn: 13 snaps (20%)

The Cowboys were playing without their expected rotation of Miles Sanders, Javonte Williams, Hunter Luepke and rookie Jaydon Blue, giving an opportunity to the guys who are hopeful of being RB5 or on the practice squad. The success was there, as head coach Schottenheimer hoped for. Mafah in particular looked impressive, consistently churning out chunk yardage when the play wasn't blocked well. Davis was re-added this week in order to have a third back for the game and went crazy against prevent defenses.

Tight Ends

Overall Grade: B-

Rivaldo Fairweather: 33 snaps (50%)

Tyler Neville: 24 snaps (36%)

Luke Schoonmaker: 18 snaps (27%)

TE1 Jake Ferguson had an injury scare earlier in the week, but he wouldn't have been playing anyway. Brevyn Spann-Ford is competing for TE2, along with Luke Schoonmaker, but his injury did keep him out from this action.

Fairweather ran a great route to get open in the back of the end zone for his touchdown from Milton, but only saw three targets. He caught all three balls, including a fourth that was called back for a penalty and turned in a quality blocking performance as well. Neville and Schoonmaker were far less impressive.

Wide Receivers

Overall Grade: Incomplete (But, B)

Jalen Brooks: 39 snaps (59%)

Ryan Flournoy: 32 snaps (48%)

Jalen Cropper: 29 snaps (44%)

Josh Kelley: 29 snaps (44%)

Jonathan Mingo: 21 snaps (32%)

Traeshon Holden: 20 snaps (30%)

Jalen Tolbert: 19 snaps (29%)

Milton's issues made it a hard evaluation of the wideouts for the evening, but there were several attempts where they did their jobs but the QB couldn't get the ball to them. Zero drops on the day while the top-three wideouts sat is impressive, with CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens and Kavontae Turpin having the night off.

Flournoy and Holden certainly look like they have something to them.

Offensive Line

Overall Grade: A

Brock Hoffman: 66 snaps (100%)

TJ Bass: 66 snaps (100%)

Asim Richards: 49 snaps (74%)

Saadhiq Charles: 41 snaps (62%)

Ajani Cornelius: 35 snaps (53%)

Geron Christian: 32 snaps (48%)

Hakeem Adeniji: 21 snaps (32%)

Nate Thomas: 10 snaps (15%)

La'el Collins: 10 snaps (15%)

The Cowboys opened up the game with a pass-first, pass-second, pass-always mentality, but once they got that out of their system, the running attack worked extremely well. Schottenheimer has spoken about his religious commitment to running the ball this season, and seeing how none of the starting offensive linemen played, this is an extremely inspiring start.

Still, pass protection is what lines will be judged on, and the backups had a mixed while the starting five rested. Asim Richards split time between left tackle and left guard and was perfect in pass pro but had back-to-back mind-numbing alignment penalties. Hakeem Adeniji gave up a sack while Nate Thomas gave up a QB hit.

This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: RBs flourish, Milton struggles: Cowboys snap counts, grades vs Rams