For the Cowboys, whose brief glimmer of hope after the November trade deadline has now given way to the reality of a three-game losing streak, the 2025 season somehow does not feel like a complete failure. At 6-8-1, it’s still possible for this season to end worse than last year’s 7-10 campaign, but no matter the record, there is much more cause for hope coming out of this year’s sub-.500 record than there was out of last year’s.
The addition of defensive talent, two first-round draft picks in 2026, the play of new guys like George Pickens and Javonte Williams (both will be free agents, but could return)–there is a much better vibe with this team than there was at this time in 2024.
One late addition to that ledger: wide receiver Ryan Flournoy, a sixth-round pick in 2024 who appears to be a godsend in the receivers’ room, a quality No. 3 option to go with the star duo of Pickens and CeeDee Lamb.
Cowboys Get Bad News on Ryan Flournoy
But the Cowboys got bad news on Flournoy, who got the scoring started in the loss to the Chargers with a touchdown, and had two catches for 18 yards. He left the game with a leg injury, though there are big fears, too, about the possibility that Flournoy has a concussion.
With just over nine minutes to play in the second quarter on Sunday, Flournoy made his second catch, a 13-yarder from Dak Prescott. He went to the turf on his backside, and as he sat, trying to stand up, Denzel Perryman of the Chargers came in, head-first and out of Flournoy’s sightline, and delivered a helmet-to-helmet blow to the side of Flournoy’s head.
In the wake of the hit, Tom Christ, who gives online diagnoses of sports injuries and describes himself as a doctor of physical therapy, wrote of Flournoy, “Concussion screen incoming after a head to head hit.”
As NFL Network’s Jane Slater wrote on Twitter/X: “Cowboys WR Ryan Flournoy injured his knee. His return is questionable per a press box announcement.”
That was later downgraded to out.
Cowboys Have One of the Best WR3s
Flournoy came into the game against the Chargers having been a revelation for the Cowboys, with 16 catches for 189 yards in his last three games. He has been one of the better WR3s in the league, a huge step taken from the relative obscurity in which he spent his rookie season.
Flournoy’s statement game came against the Lions, a game in which Lamb suffered a concussion after a fall to the turf. Flournoy had nine catches for 115 yards and a touchdown in that one. But it came in a loss, which stung for him.
“It’s not sweet, it’s bitter. I did all that to win,” Flournoy said. “None of them stats really impressed me. I just want to go out there, play with these guys, have fun and just win.”
That might happen yet … in 2026.
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