The Philadelphia Eagles will look to get their offense clicking again on Sunday afternoon when they face, on paper, one of the worst defenses in the league, in the Dallas Cowboys.
While recent acquisitions made this unit look strong against the lowly Las Vegas Raiders on Monday Night Football in Week 11, the Cowboys cut a starter for much of the 2025 campaign on Saturday in what can only be described as a surprise move, given the timing and draft compensation that changes hands to acquire the defender during the offseason.
According to Calvin Watkins of The Dallas Morning News, veteran CB Kaiir Elam has been released by Dallas on Saturday, just hours before the team's scheduled game against its NFC East rival.
Cowboys Waive 7-Game Starter Kaiir Elam Hours Before Week 12 Tilt
With rookie corner Shavon Revel Jr. and second-year defensive back Carlen Carson healthy and ready to play, defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus leaned on them over the veteran defender during their lopsided victory over the Raiders.
Apparently, that was all the coaching staff and front office needed to see out of the rookie and second-year corners to feel comfortable letting Elam go now, despite there still being a third of the season left to play and Dallas trading multiple draft picks to acquire Elam during the offseason.
Now, those two will look to contain veteran wideouts DeVonta Smith and AJ Brown. Despite the struggles Philadelphia has endured on offense this season, that is still a tall task for any set of CBs, let alone a pair of players with a combined total of 11 games played at the NFL level. There is having faith in your scouting department and coaching staff, then there is setting up players to fail. It won't take fans on both sides long to determine which side of the equation these young corners will fall on.
The reality of the situation is that Dallas is attempting to fix its defense on the fly after the additions made at the trade deadline. Even if these are the right pieces, it will take time for them to gel and come into place as intended. That is only more difficult to do when attempting to make those changes to personnel in-season, as Dallas is, and provides Hurts and the Eagles' passing attack a prime opportunity to take advantage of the lack of experience the Cowboys will have on the outside.
It didn't take fans long to understand that the deal for Elam was a mistake; he was catching heat as early as September for his lackluster play on the field. While it is too late to fix the error with an outside addition, Dallas is willing to bet on its scouting department and hope that the two youngsters in the secondary can get the job done if given the opportunity.
Philadelphia will be hoping that the scouting department was as ineffective as the braintrust in charge of Dallas' other offseason acquisitions. If these young corners struggle against the high-end WR options the Eagles have at their disposal, Hurts could be in for a career day in a game the Eagles would love to comfortably win.