Data as of June 26 | Current Cheatsheets | Current Projections

NR = Not ranked

QB Tony Romo

Coming off the a career year in 2012 in which he established career-highs in completions (425), attempts (648) and yards (4,903) while throwing for 28 touchdowns, much was expected of Romo in 2013. However, he crash landed, failing to top 4,000 passing yards. That marked the first time Romo failed to reach that plateau while playing at least 15 games in a season since his first year as a starter in 2006. Thankfully, he threw 31 touchdown passes which saved his fantasy season as he averaged a respectable 21.3 PPG. Having undergone back surgery to repair a herniated disk, Romo rates as a major question mark entering the 2014 season. With Dez Bryant in tow, he has one of the top wide receivers in the game at his disposal but Miles Austin was released and Jason Witten will be entering his 12th year in the league. Wide receiver Terrence Williams has tantalizing potential but you can expect growing pains from him in his second season in the league. While Romo has the potential to approach 5,000 passing yards and 30 touchdowns, there are enough red flags here to rank him as a lower tier QB1 at best.

RB DeMarco Murray

An elite talent, Murray finally put it all together in 2013, reaching career highs in every major statistical category with 1,124 rushing yards, nine rushing touchdowns, 348 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown. Better yet, he did all of that in just 14 games. Or is that better? The one knock on Murray since his collegiate days at Oklahoma has been his inability to stay healthy and that proved to be the case once again last season. During his first three years in the league, Murray has missed 11 games and played banged up in a number of others. However, he was remarkably consistent in 2013, reaching double digit fantasy points in 10 of his 14 games (he had nine points in two other games) and finishing the season on a tear, with 832 total yards and seven touchdowns over his final seven games. Murray rates as a lower tier RB1 but it’s hard to draft him there given his significant injury history.

RB Lance Dunbar

While the Cowboys wanted to hand their backup running back job to Dunbar last season, hamstring and knee injuries prevented that from happening. Dunbar was reasonably productive in the seven games that he did play, gaining 150 rushing yards and averaging 5.0 yards per carry while chipping in 7 receptions for 59 yards. He will battle second year player Joseph Randle for the backup job in training camp. The truth is that even if Dunbar wins that role, he offers little fantasy upside given his size (5’8” and 191 pounds) and inability to stay healthy.

RB Joseph Randle

Taken in the 5th round of the 2013 NFL Draft out of Oklahoma State, Randle had a glorious opportunity to lock down the backup role behind DeMarco Murray with Lance Dunbar suffering an injury-plagued season. Unfortunately, the 6’1”, 200 pounder failed to live up to expectations, averaging just 3.0 yards per carry and performing poorly in the three games where he received a significant workload. By season’s end, Randle was an afterthought, touching the ball just once over the final seven games of the season. Randle lacks ideal size and will enter training camp third on the depth chart behind Murray and Dunbar.

RB Ryan Williams

Three years into his career, Wiliams has done exactly nothing to justify the Cardinals having used a 2nd round pick to acquire him in the 2011 NFL Draft. A torn patella tendon caused Williams to miss his entire rookie campaign and he missed 11 games in 2012 due to a shoulder injury. Last year, he was surpassed on the depth chart by Rashard Mendenhall and a pair of rookies and failed to play in a single game. Not surprisingly Williams was giving his walking papers and the Cowboys took a low cost flyer on him. Don’t expect it to pay off.

WR Dez Bryant

Success in the NFL doesn’t always come easily for some players despite their talent level and once it does happen, fantasy owners aren’t always ready to trust them as soon as they should. Don’t make that mistake with Bryant. While he displayed tantalizing talent during his first two years in the league, it was also clear that he wasn’t being asked to learn the Cowboys entire offensive playbook. However, over the last two years, Bryant has put in the time to turn himself into one of the league’s leading playmakers at wide receiver, topping 90 receptions and 1,200 yards in each of those seasons while catching 25 touchdown passes. There isn’t much he can’t do on the football field. Better yet, offseason reports out of Dallas indicate that Bryant is in the best shape of his career and that new offensive coordinator Scott Linehan plans on force feeding him the ball. If you’re wondering what that means, take a look at the 12 targets per game Linehan gave to Calvin Johnson over the past two years (Bryant averaged 10 last season). Bryant rates as a top 5 fantasy wide receiver with the potential to rank first at season’s end.

WR Terrance Williams

As a rookie, Williams, the Cowboys 3rd round pick out of Baylor, was handed a solid opportunity with the continuing injury problems of Miles Austin and he performed admirably. Although considered a raw prospect coming out of the draft, the 6’3”, 205 pound Williams hauled in 44 of his 74 targets for 736 yards and five touchdowns. His completion to target percentage of 59.5% was solid considering he was often used as a deep threat, as evidenced by his 16.7 yards per reception average. With Austin a salary cap casualty, Williams steps into the Cowboys starting line up in 2014 and he has the potential to have a breakout season. Consider Williams a low end WR3 with solid upside and an excellent prospect in dynasty formats.

WR Devin Street

With little depth behind Dez Bryant and Terrence Williams, the Cowboys used a 5th round pick in this year’s draft to acquire Street. The Pittsburgh product has decent size at 6’3” and 195 pounds to go along with respectable speed. However, he wasn’t an extremely productive player in college, failing to crack the 1,000 receiving mark, and rates as a project in the pros. With head coach Jason Garrett in love with the passing attack, Street rates a lower tier prospect in dynasty formats.

WR Cole Beasley

Some players are solid producers but you just know they will never have any fantasy value. With that, we present third year Cowboys receiver Cole Beasley. Beasley showed solid improvement during his second year in the league, catching 39 of his 55 targets for 368 yards and a pair of touchdowns. However, he is clearly nothing more than a slot receiver and with the other big name talent amongst the Cowboys receivers, he is never going to warrant the workload (read: targets) to have solid fantasy value.

WR Dwayne Harris

Harris, the Cowboys 6th round pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, contributed nothing as a rookie, was marginally productive in 2012 (17 receptions for 222 yards and a touchdown) and fell off the map in 2013. Rookie 5th round pick Devin Street was added to the roster and Cole Beasley was solid in 2013 so Harris will have his work cut out for him to win the top backup spot in training camp. Even if that happens, we’re not excited by his fantasy prospects.

TE Jason Witten

At 32 years of age, Witten is clearly in the twilight of his career although a quick look at his production in 2013 doesn’t reveal that. Despite seeing his targets drop from a career high 147 in 2012 to just 111, he still managed to catch 73 passes for 851 yards and eight touchdowns. Unfortunately, we all get old and Witten is clearly not as nimble as he once was. While his ability to stretch the field is pretty much gone, he remains a solid option on short and intermediate routes. The presence of new offensive coordinator Scott Linehan neither helps nor hurts Witten’s fantasy value in 2014. Consider him a solid option and perhaps the best tight end available after the big four at the position are off the board.