Everybody knows there are not truly 53 roster spots up for grabs… so we need to take a look at how many the Dallas Cowboys have.

We recently attempted to project the Dallas Cowboys 53-man roster before the team has even had one day of training camp practice. Although these projections are entertaining, they’re not very factual. That’s because there’s really no way to accurately predict what the coaching staff is thinking, or how individual players will perform during these practices.

Doing this type of exercise is a good way to sift through the roster to help find out which players have likely already secured roster spots. Then we can better determine how many spots are still up for grabs. Based on our findings, we believe there are 35 roster spots locked down, leaving 18 remaining to fill to complete the 53-man roster.

It’s unlikely everyone will agree with this current assessment of the Cowboys roster and the players who have already locked up their spots, but here is how we think things stand right now.

Quarterback

Dak Prescott, Trey Lance

Dak Prescott is the unquestioned QB1 and Trey Lance should be his primary backup in 2024. This could be the only QBs the Cowboys carry on the 53-man roster.

Running back

Ezekiel Elliott

Ezekiel Elliott is the only RB we believe who has secured a roster spot so far, however, we were somewhat reluctant not to put him on the roster bubble with the rest of his peers at the position.

Wide receiver

CeeDee Lamb, Brandin Cooks, Jalen Tolbert, KaVonte Turpin

There’s little doubt CeeDee Lamb, Brandin Cooks, and Jalen Tolbert are the Cowboys top three WRs right now heading into training camp, so they’ve secured their spots for sure. KaVonte Turpin’s spot is also secured due to his special teams value as a return man.

Tight end

Jake Ferguson

Jake Ferguson is head and shoulders above all of the other TEs currently on the roster and the only one who has secured a roster spot. We considered Luke Schoonmaker seeing as he’s a former second-round pick, but his inability to remain healthy gave us pause.