The Dallas Cowboys enter the 2026 NFL season with a roster full of unknowns, and several players on the bubble could either emerge as key contributors or find themselves off the 53-man roster entirely. That’s right, we’re looking at boom or bust players ahead of training camp. Let’s dive in.

LB Marist Liufau

The tea leaves are not great for Cowboys linebacker Marist Liufau. He’s being asked to start at a different position than the one he played during his first three years in the league, moving from inside linebacker to edge rusher in a contract year. That combination makes him a significant cut candidate.

When you’re asked to switch positions three years into your career, it’s usually not a good sign. The immediate questions about his size are obvious. Does he have the kind of body to take on offensive tackles at the NFL level and hold up against the run? We know he has explosiveness and strength, but surviving in the trenches is a different challenge.

However, there is upside. His background at inside linebacker means he can drop back into coverage and serve as a versatile chess piece in Cowboys defensive coordinator Christian Parker’s scheme. Parker’s defense is built around multiplicity and disguised coverages, where outside linebackers sometimes rush the passer and sometimes drop into zones. Early in the offseason, Parker revealed that the position switch came from conversations with coaches who were with Liufau during his time at Notre Dame. Some who covered the Fighting Irish believed his skill set translated better as a pass rusher.

Cowboys national scout Ross Wuensche also said on a podcast recently that they believe Liufau can be “a really cool matchup piece” for Dallas. That sounds like a team excited about a concept. If it works, he makes the roster and plays a unique role. Add in his special teams value, and there’s a path to the 53-man roster — but the margin for error is razor thin.

CB Shavon Revel Jr. 

Cowboys cornerback Shavon Revel Jr. is the textbook boom or bust prospect. He would have been a first-round pick had a knee injury not kept him out for a large portion of the 2025 college season and raised long-term health concerns.

Revel Jr. appears to be healthy now, having worked without a brace through OTAs and minicamps. If Dallas can get elite cornerback play from him, the payoff would be enormous. The talent is there. And Parker’s specialty is developing defensive backs, the way he did with Patrick Surtain Jr., Cooper DeJean, and Quinyon Mitchell. Those were highly touted prospects coming out of the draft, and Revel would have been in that tier without the injuries.

The bust potential is equally real. Revel hasn’t played consistently in a while, and his 2025 film showed instances where he whiffed in coverage and missed tackles. The question is whether that was rust from extended time away from the field, and whether a full offseason with a new coaching staff erases those concerns. This is essentially his first real offseason, and that alone is exciting.

CB Devin Moore

Fourth-round rookie cornerback Devin Moore is another player whose boom or bust projection was baked in before the Cowboys even drafted him. At 6-foot-3, Moore was the only cornerback in the class with Pro Football Focus grades over 80 in both run defense and pass coverage. He can play zone or man coverage and is best suited for a Cover 3 scheme.

The concern is a lengthy injury history that caused him to miss a significant portion of his college career at Florida. If Moore stays healthy, he has day-one starter upside (unlikely to happen in Dallas), even if he’s unlikely to develop into a true No. 1 cornerback. For a team that badly needs secondary depth, a healthy Moore who starts could qualify as a home run for a fourth-round selection.

RB Jaydon Blue 

Perhaps the most discussed name on this list, running back Jaydon Blue represents the clearest case of talent versus reliability. If Blue figures out the off-the-field stuff — work ethic and consistency concerns that surrounded his rookie season — and stays on the field, he has the potential to be an explosive weapon.

Coming out of college, everyone talked about his speed and explosion. Cowboys fans saw flashes during the preseason, but Blue struggled to crack the active roster and was a healthy scratch for most of his rookie year. There is plenty of reason to believe he can be the perfect complement to Javonte Williams. Blue brings something Williams doesn’t: breakaway speed that can turn routine carries into big plays and create mismatches as a screen-pass option in the passing game.

He’s probably not a 30-touch workhorse. But as a changeup back who can rip off explosive runs and keep defenses honest, that version of Jaydon Blue would make the Cowboys’ backfield significantly more dangerous. Whether that version shows up in training camp is the only question that matters now.