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<\/p>\nFRISCO – All things considered as it regards the 2024 NFL season, the Dallas Cowboys have little reason for optimism.<\/p>\n
Their most important player and team leader Dak Prescott is injured and out for the season.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The head coach is a lame duck. The locker room is coming to understand the “Blow It Up” realities of their short-term future here.<\/p>\n
And Dallas is 3-6 and set up to be underdogs on “Monday Night Football” this week against the Houston Texans and underdogs again next week against coach Dan Quinn’s Washington Commanders … all of which would set up Dallas to be a dismal 3-8 when the equally woeful New York Giants come to town for Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n
But under the sincerely (if unjustified) optimistic personality of owner Jerry Jones, there is always sunshine to be sold. (Especially when it comes to the unused window curtains at AT&T Stadium).<\/p>\n
And so the much-delayed return to the field of star cornerback DaRon Bland – which to the logical observer is a very troubling thing, given that we know for a fact he was ramping up near a return in the second week of October before the Week 6 loss to the Detroit Lions – is being painted as something positive. ”<\/p>\n
He had a really good week,” COO Stephen Jones said on Friday via 105.3 The Fan. He did? We believe Bland endured a setback of sorts before that Lions game.<\/p>\n
And now, fast-forward to this week: CowboysCountry.com has the official injury report from Thursday; Bland, sidelined since August due to a foot injury, did not practice.<\/p>\n
We also have the official injury report from Friday.<\/p>\n
Again, the playmaking cornerback did not practice. Which part of that merits any report that Bland “had a really good week”?<\/strong><\/p>\n Bland, obviously, has yet to play this season. There are some observers who wonder, as we near the end of this dismal campaign, if he should bother coming back at all.<\/p>\n As a competitor, Bland obviously wants to play. And in addition to that? He’s got one year left on his cheap rookie contract, so as a businessman he should want to play, too.<\/p>\n He is now on the clock in a sense as his 21-day practice window will be expiring on November 20; if he’s unable to be activated by that date, he will miss the remainder of the 2024 season.<\/p>\n Stephen Jones’ maybe-unintentionally deceptive optimism about next week comes with some truth about this week.<\/p>\n “It’s not going to be good enough to roll him out there Monday (night),” Jones said, “but he’s getting real close. Feeling better about where he is.”<\/em><\/p>\n Following Monday?<\/strong><\/p>\n Dallas has two days in which to activate Bland … or else he will be done for the year and looking forward to having a “really good” 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" FRISCO – All things considered as it regards the 2024 NFL season, the Dallas Cowboys have little reason for optimism. Their most important player and team leader… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\n