Cowboys’ Dalvin Cook is ‘ready,’ will make Dallas debut against 49ers in Week 8, per report

The Dallas Cowboys (3-3) are ready to try something new in Week 8 to help juice the NFL’s worst rushing offense. The team plans to elevate four-time Pro Bowl running back Dalvin Cook off the practice squad, setting the stage for his debut, according to ESPN. 

Their 77.2 rushing yards per game rank dead last in the NFL and stand as Dallas’ worst per game average through its first six games since 1989. That was the Cowboys’ first season with Jerry Jones as team owner and general manager, and the first season of Pro Football Hall of Famer Troy Aikman’s career. Dallas went 1-15 that year. 

“I think the biggest thing for us is we’re taking the full week. Dalvin is ready [to play],” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said on a conference call Friday. “I really like the work that he’s putting in. I think he’s clearly crossed over the threshold of the communication and the understanding [of the offense].”

Cook, 29, missed all of training camp and worked out in Houston with trainers near his offseason residence before signing with Dallas on Aug. 29. The final threshold McCarthy alluded to is Cook being fully up to speed with his scheme’s nonverbal communication at the line of scrimmage. During the week, The Athletic reports that Cook even took first-team reps. 

Cook made the Pro Bowl in four of the past five years, rushing for at least 1,135 yards in each of those four campaigns from 2019 to 2022. That streak came to an end in 2023 after playing in 15 games with the New York Jets, but he amassed only 214 rushing yards on 67 carries (3.2 yards per carry, a career low) behind a banged-up offensive line while taking handoffs from a rotation of quarterbacks who weren’t Aaron Rodgers. He ended up finishing the year with the Baltimore Ravens and totaling 23 rushing yards on eight carries against the Houston Texans in the 2023 AFC divisional round. Cook is a few weeks younger than Ezekiel Elliott, who has been sharing the Cowboys backfield with Rico Dowdle and Hunter Luepke.

Dallas could use all the help it can get to snap its first three-game losing streak against the San Francisco 49ers. Its 2021 and 2022 seasons ended in the playoffs against San Francisco, and it lost, 42-10, at the 49ers on “Sunday Night Football” in Week 5 last season.