Cowboys have overcome injuries at cornerback and now have to do it again

FRISCO, Texas — Caelen Carson is next in line in a third consecutive season of the Dallas Cowboys having to fill in for a significant injury at cornerback.

If the name isn't familiar, recent history says it could be soon.

Dallas was without nickel cornerback Jourdan Lewis for most of 2022, when DaRon Bland emerged as a rookie and set the stage for a record-setting 2023 after Trevon Diggs went down with a knee injury.

Carson is expected to start the opener at Cleveland on Sunday as a rookie fifth-round pick because Bland, who set an NFL record with five interception returns for touchdowns last season, is sidelined at least the first four games following surgery for a stress fracture in his foot.

Bland was a rookie fifth-rounder when he led Dallas with five interceptions two years ago.

“We’ve seen guys step in and become, I don’t want to say household names, because we don’t care about that,” safety Malik Hooker said. “There’s guys that built their confidence up, not only within themselves, but with the organization and our team, with going out there and stepping in there and making plays.”

The Cowboys lead the NFL with 59 interceptions since the start of 2021, when Diggs was an All-Pro after tying the franchise record in the first 11-pick season in the league since Everson Walls did it for the Cowboys in 1981. Dallas has been a 12-5 playoff team each season.

Diggs was in his second year when he led the NFL in interceptions, just as Bland was last season when he finished with a league-leading nine.

Not exactly the kinds of numbers to expect in consecutive years of a starting cornerback missing at least 10 games because of an injury.

“I don’t even think it’s circle the wagons,” Lewis said. “I feel like the production is still there regardless of whoever’s out. Trevon was out, (Bland) stepped up. We’re always going to turn the ball over. I feel like that’s a staple of what we do.”

Lewis broke his foot two years ago, an injury so complex there were questions of whether he would play again. Turned out to be a good thing he did when Diggs tore a knee ligament in practice after just two games last season.

Bland was complaining of discomfort during training camp this summer, and the team announced his injury the day of the preseason finale. By then, Carson had already emerged with his work in the offseason and in California.

“He has a quiet confidence about himself,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “Since he’s arrived here, I haven’t seen him really take a step backward. He competes, very instinctive, very aware.”

Bland came to the Cowboys from Fresno State, which added to the intrigue as he closed in on his NFL record without the college pedigree of many teammates, including Diggs with his Alabama background.

That's another part of the possible replay with Carson, who played all four years at Wake Forest even as the transfer portal boomed.

“I just feel like nothing changes,” Carson said. “More people, and it’s on television. But at the end of the day, you’ve been doing this since you were 5 years old.”

Before Bland's injury, the Cowboys acquired Andrew Booth from Minnesota for Nahshon Wright in a trade of cornerbacks. Booth, a third-year player, didn't blossom for the Vikings as a second-round pick in 2022.

Dallas also has fourth-year man Israel Mukuamu, who started his NFL career as a safety. Hooker remembers Mukuamu filling in effectively at cornerback, which is how he is listed now.

The emergence of Bland made Wright, a third-round pick in 2021, expendable, and kept Mukuamu in a backup role. The lesson of Bland is something the Cowboys can teach to Carson, and others.

“I think it’s definitely something you can point to,” McCarthy said. “And I think anytime you have a situation that occurs and you can point internally to how you’ve handled it, that’s part of that five-year growth that I’m talking about.”

Or in Carson's case, a test of first-year growth.

“It’s an opportunity of a lifetime,” he said. “You wait for this moment as a child, and it happened to be my first game.”