Some of Cowboys’ bubble players figure no use to sweat cut-down day

The Dallas Cowboys sat 33 players for the exhibition finale against the Houston Texans on Thursday night. Most of those 33 were healthy, and all of them are expected to make the team.

That left 38 players competing for 17 spots, not counting the three special teams jobs that already are claimed.

The Cowboys began cutting their roster Friday, needing to reduce it to 53 by 3 p.m. Saturday. Defensive end Ben Gardner tweeted of his departure, and running backs Ben Malena and Gus Johnson and fullback Ray Agnew also received walking papers, according to a source.

“We have to do what’s in the best interests of the Dallas Cowboys. We’ll have some hard decisions to make. We’ll have some really good discussions. But we appreciate the effort of all these guys. They certainly practiced hard over the course of training camp and played hard through these preseason games.”

Dustin Vaughan, Davon Coleman and Lucky Whitehead were among the players who sought to make an 11th-hour appeal with their play in the final preseason game.

Dustin Vaughan

Vaughan played the entire game against the Texans, completing 11 of 20 passes for 115 yards and a 71.9 passer rating.

Vaughan, who served as the third quarterback behind Tony Romo and Brandon Weeden last season, had 26 drives during the preseason, not counting kneel-downs, and scored on only three. He finished 35 of 67 passing for 343 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions for a 54.5 passer rating.

“There are a lot of guys who think they’ve shown enough, but the fact of the matter is that the brutal reality of the NFL is that it is out of our control now,” Vaughan said. “You hope you’ve shown enough, and, yes, I think I did, but you leave it up to the coaches to make that decision.”

“I think there will be a lot of conversation,” quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson said. “We’re deep at a lot of other positions. We’ll just have to see how the numbers work out.”

Lucky Whitehead

Whitehead became the favorite to win the fifth receiver/returner role the day he signed as an undrafted free agent, and it didn’t hurt that he has drawn praise from owner Jerry Jones.

“I feel great about it,” Whitehead said. “… I think I did everything I could. It’s not in my hands anymore.”

“Of course it’s going to be stressful, because it’s not in your hands anymore,” said Whitehead, who played 50 snaps on offense and seven on special teams against the Texans. “But I feel like I put in a lot of hard work, and I just want to show them I belong here. It’s not up to me anymore. I’ve just got to sit back and wait.”

Davon Coleman

He and Ken Bishop might be in competition for the final defensive tackle spot. Coleman played 41 of 66 plays against the Texans and had three tackles, a tackle for loss and a quarterback hit.

His quarterback hit knocked Texans third-string quarterback Tom Savage out for a few weeks with a shoulder injury.

Coleman, Tyler Patmon and Vaughan were the three undrafted rookies to make the team out of training camp last year. Coleman played in two games as a rookie, with four tackles, before being released and signed back to the practice squad.

He isn’t sweating cut-down day, because he surmises, he has no control over it.

“I’m going to say yes [he’s done enough to make the team], but I really don’t think too much about it,” Coleman said. “I’ll let them handle that. That’ll just stress me out.”

This story was originally published September 4, 2015 at 6:18 PM with the headline "Some of Cowboys’ bubble players figure no use to sweat cut-down day."