FRISCO, TX – The Dallas Cowboys waived wide receiver Dennis Houston on Tuesday morning to make a roster spot available for the possibility of Michael Gallup to return for this week’s game against the Giants.
The shining star at training camp now is looking at a very different outcome. Houston performed very well at training camp and head coach Mike McCarthy and Jerry Jones were very pleased with him. Quarterback Dak Prescott told us that he was only where he needed to be when he was trying to target him.
“When you break the huddle he’s lining up in the right spot, no matter what position he’s in. This goes way back to the spring, running the routes at the right depth every time he’s firing off the ball. He’s giving good looks. He’s where I expect him to be on each and every play and he’s coming back and asking about things, communicating about things. ” Prescott told us at Training Camp.
Houston started the first two weeks over the third-round pick out of South Alabama Jalen Tolbert. In week one Houston was targeted five times and caught two of them for a total of 16 yards. In week two he was targeted one time and failed to get a reception.
Being waived means that any NFL team has the right to take his rookie contract and place him on their 53-man roster. If he clears waivers the Cowboys can put him on the practice squad, that looks like it’s going to be a high possibility so Houston can continue to grow with the team and develop but nothing has been done at this time.
Waiving Houston opens a roster spot for either Jalen Tolbert or Michael Gallup for Monday night’s game in New York. Gallup has been out with an ACL injury that he got back in January. McCarthy told us in the press conference on Wednesday morning that Gallup will take a full slate of reps in practice today and get every opportunity this week to possibly return on Monday.
The other option is Tolbert. Tolbert has been inactive the first two games of the season when originally McCarthy told us he would most likely see early minutes. There are two reasons the front office decided to hold him back for the first two games. One, the Cowboys put way too much on his plate in the beginning of his career and wanted him to learn all three wideout positions due to how well he did in training camp. Second, he had a hamstring injury late in the summer that slowed him down a bit.
McCarthy has told us that Tolbert has really improved over the coming weeks and with Houston’s release it could mean that Tolbert has produced enough in practice to be ready for Monday night’s game.
