Cowboys Secondary Thinned: Durant, Locke Out for Weeks

Two starters down in the Dallas back end

Survivor season is a game of avoiding landmines, and a defense losing multiple contributors at once is exactly the kind of detail that should slow you down before you lock a pick. The Cowboys are now dealing with that: cornerback Cobie Durant and safety P.J. Locke are both set to miss a few weeks with injuries.

That's not a one-game blip. It's a stretch where Dallas has to patch two spots in its secondary — one on the perimeter, one in the middle of the field — and any team playing shorthanded on the back end is one you want to think twice about, whether you're picking the Cowboys or picking against them.

Why a thinner secondary matters for survivor

Cornerback and safety are leverage positions. Lose a starting corner and opposing offenses can lean on the matchup. Lose a safety and the coverage help behind everyone gets shakier. Losing both at the same time compounds the risk, and it's the kind of thing that can turn a comfortable spread into a nervous fourth quarter.

For survivor purposes, the takeaway is straightforward: uncertainty is the enemy. When a team's defense is missing two rotation pieces, its floor drops even if the ceiling stays the same. That's fine in a season-long fantasy context — it's a problem when one wrong pick ends your run.

If you're considering the Cowboys

Don't reflexively cross Dallas off your list, but demand a cushion. If the Cowboys are heavy favorites over a weak offense, a banged-up secondary matters less. If it's a coin-flip spread against a team that can throw, that's the profile of a pick to fade. The injuries push the Cowboys toward the "only if the matchup is lopsided" tier rather than a clean, sleep-easy safe survivor pick.

If you're considering the opponent

A depleted Dallas secondary is a small nudge in favor of whoever the Cowboys are facing — but only a nudge, and only if the rest of the matchup already supports that side. Injuries alone don't win games; use this as a tiebreaker, not a thesis.

The bottom line

Durant and Locke being out for weeks makes the Cowboys a shakier survivor option until the depth chart settles. Treat Dallas as a pick that needs a big spread to justify itself, and lean elsewhere if the game projects close. If you want to spread your risk across the slate, this is exactly the kind of news to weigh before you commit — and if you're still setting up your bracket, you can start a free survivor pool and put these reads to work. For more week-to-week breakdowns, keep an eye on our survivor analysis.