CeeDee Lamb can help score the points. Joey Porter Jr. can help prevent them. Tuesday’s Cowboys report put both at full participation, but the rest of the defensive list made a broader celebration premature.
CeeDee Lamb and Joey Porter Jr. participated fully in Dallas’ walkthrough before Thursday’s meeting with Tampa Bay. Durant, DeMarvion Overshown and Shelton did not participate. Tampa also added kicker Chase McLaughlin as a new nonparticipant with a right groin/hip issue.
That is useful news for Dallas, but it is not a license to declare the defense whole. Lamb’s return to full participation helps an offense producing 30.5 points each week. Porter’s status matters because the Cowboys intend to increase his workload. Yet a Tuesday walkthrough is not the same thing as Thursday clearance, and three Cowboys defensive absences still shape the week’s preparation.
Porter’s first Dallas appearance showed why a larger sample is justified—and why patience remains necessary. Acquired from Pittsburgh on Sept. 30 after missing training camp and the first three games, he played 24 defensive snaps in Sunday’s 34-30 victory over Houston. Nineteen came in coverage.
He faced one target, which was incomplete, and five of his matchups were against Nico Collins without a target on those particular plays.
That was a functional introduction, not a finished evaluation. Collins finished with two touchdowns and 118 receiving yards from seven catches overall, a line that cannot be pinned on Porter’s limited assignments. The distinction matters. Porter’s quiet target count says he was usable in a narrow role; it does not establish that Dallas has solved its coverage problems.
Brian Schottenheimer said the cornerback’s playing time should rise Thursday, while Porter has described himself as increasingly comfortable but still learning the defense. Those developments point toward a sensible football decision: expand the assignment in steps. Porter can receive more boundary work without being handed every communication responsibility in a defense that is still missing pieces from the practice field.
The matchup also puts pressure on Dallas’ coverage calls. Tampa safety Tykee Smith has identified the movement of Lamb and George Pickens as a way to create favorable matchups. His explanation centered on alignment, communication and disguising coverage so Dak Prescott cannot spot the answer early and change to the preferred play.
That is Tampa’s stated emphasis, not proof that the Buccaneers will execute it perfectly Thursday. Still, it makes Lamb’s participation especially important: Dallas needs its best receiver moving through that chessboard, not waiting outside it.
Lamb’s Houston performance showed both his value and the danger of overreliance. He caught 17 passes, including Prescott’s 12-yard touchdown at the final second. Dallas managed six points before halftime and 28 afterward.
Lamb now leads the league with 37 receptions and 498 receiving yards, along with four touchdowns, according to Tampa’s preview. Those numbers make him the offense’s central problem for opponents. They do not make another enormous target total a reasonable substitute for balanced execution.
The remaining absences put attention back on Dallas’ defensive combinations. Dallas has four sacks through four games, while its offensive line ranks sixth in the league at avoiding sacks on pass plays. Protecting Prescott and disrupting the other quarterback are different jobs; the Cowboys have handled the first more cleanly than the second.