The Dallas Cowboys made multiple roster moves ahead of their Week 7 matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles. The changes touch both the 53-man roster and the practice squad, and they include a quarterback.

At 2-4, Dallas can’t afford to waste a roster spot right now. These moves reflect that, from depth at quarterback to rewarding a core special teamer.

Cowboys add Kyle Trask to the practice squad

The Cowboys are signing quarterback Kyle Trask to the practice squad.

Dallas carried three quarterbacks until the Eagles poached Joe Milton off the practice squad last week. Trask now fills the spot Milton left behind.

You might remember Trask from his college days with the Florida Gators. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected him in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft. He has since spent time with the Atlanta Falcons and the Carolina Panthers, and Carolina released him as part of its final roster cuts before the regular season.

This is Trask’s return to the NFL.

Don’t expect him to push for QB2 snaps, though. Trask has appeared in seven games in his NFL career and attempted only 11 passes across those appearances. Despite his second-round pedigree, he has never really gotten a chance to play in a major way. He has spent most of his career as a backup.

For the Cowboys, this move is about depth. They like to carry three quarterbacks, and signing Trask gives them a 28-year-old option in case it’s ever needed.

Sam Howell remains the backup behind the starter. Howell beat out Milton in the preseason quarterback battle, and nothing about the Trask signing changes that.

Juanyeh Thomas earns a spot on the 53-man roster

Here’s the move that might matter most on Sundays (or Monday, in this case).

Dallas is signing Juanyeh Thomas to the 53-man roster after elevating him from the practice squad three consecutive times. Teams can only lean on elevations for so long, and Thomas has made the decision an easy one.

He has become a core special teamer. In the Cowboys’ Week 6 loss to the Green Bay Packers, Thomas played 95% of the special teams snaps. The week before, on Thursday Night Football, he logged 91% of them.

Those numbers tell you how much the coaching staff trusts him on that unit. That’s why he’s getting a permanent spot.

Caelen Carson’s time in Dallas comes to an end

Thomas’ promotion comes at the expense of cornerback Caelen Carson.

The Cowboys drafted Carson out of Wake Forest in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL Draft. The hope was that he would bring flexibility to the cornerback room, with the versatility to play both inside and outside.

It never worked out. Carson never looked like the player Dallas thought it was getting out of college. When he did play, it was mostly out of necessity, and a rough preseason in August didn’t help his case.

Now he’s out of the picture only three years into his Cowboys career. We’ll see where he lands next.

These moves set the stage for Monday Night Football against Philadelphia, and the stakes couldn’t be much higher for the Cowboys. At 2-4, this is a must-win game. The good news is that the NFC East seemingly has no team interested in winning it at this point. Nobody has grabbed control of the division, and that leaves the door open even for the lowly Cowboys.

The Cowboys are trying to be the team that rises above all of their problems. Whether they can pull it off starts with the Eagles.