OXNARD, Calif. — Phil Mafah, Israel Abanikanda, and Jaydon Blue came out of Saturday’s preseason opener with injuries, Dallas Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Monday. Mafah and Abanikanda have rib injuries. Blue has a shoulder injury.
Dallas announced Mafah out with a chest injury as the fourth quarter began Saturday night at Lumen Field. After the 17-7 win over the Seattle Seahawks, Schottenheimer said Mafah was doing OK and described the team as coming out of a physical game with a few bumps and bruises.
“We’ve got a few guys banged up from the game,” Schottenheimer said Monday. “Phil’s ribs. Izzy’s ribs. Jaydon’s got a shoulder.”
How The Backfield Split The Carries
Blue started and rushed 8 times for 19 yards, catching both of his targets for 15 yards. He returned a kickoff 23 yards. Malik Davis led Dallas with 7 carries for 39 yards. Abanikanda ran 7 times for 36 yards. Mafah carried 4 times for 9 yards and caught 1 pass for 6 yards before Dallas ruled him out.
Javonte Williams did not dress. In February, Dallas re-signed him to a three-year, $24 million contract.
Going back through the film Monday, Schottenheimer said Dallas did not block well in the first half and was not efficient running the football. He said there was not much there for Blue and Mafah before halftime.
“Some of that is the fact that they’re pretty big and stout in there, and we didn’t have a lot of perimeter runs up, Nick, to get the ball on the edge,” Schottenheimer said. “I would say, again, it was probably an eight iron that we showed in the game, but I thought you look at certain guys like Malik Davis, you know, that I talked about, I mean, his ability to move the chains, and Izzy ran really, really hard, but there really wasn’t in the first half a lot there for guys like Jaydon and Phil. They were battling uphill a little bit, but we figured it out in the second half.”
The Backup Competition Behind Javonte Williams
Two days before the opener, Schottenheimer described Blue and Mafah as being in a “tight battle” for the backup job.
The first unofficial depth chart listed Williams at the top, followed by Blue, Mafah, Davis, Abanikanda, and Jashaun Corbin. Dallas used no “OR” designations between any of the names.
Dallas drafted Blue 149th overall in the fifth round of the 2025 draft out of Texas. He appeared in 5 games as a rookie, carrying 38 times for 129 yards and 1 touchdown and catching 1 pass for 5 yards. In Week 18 against the New York Giants, Blue ran 16 times for 64 yards and a score.
Mafah went 239th overall in the seventh round of that same draft, on a pick Dallas acquired from the Tennessee Titans. As a senior at Clemson, he rushed for 1,115 yards and scored 8 total touchdowns, playing the season with a torn labrum in his left shoulder. Surgery in December 2024 kept him out of the Scouting Combine and Clemson’s pro day. His first NFL preseason ended with a shoulder injury against the Atlanta Falcons.
Abanikanda joined the Dallas practice squad Nov. 30 and signed a futures contract in January. The New York Jets drafted him in the fifth round in 2023. He has 70 rushing yards and 7 catches for 43 yards in regular-season play.
Corbin was the late addition to the room, signing Aug. 7 after two UFL seasons. He led that league with 514 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns for the San Antonio Brahmas in 2025 and ran for 438 yards with the Orlando Storm this year. Corbin has appeared in 6 NFL games, all with the Giants in 2023, with 1 carry and 3 receptions.
Dallas hosts the New Orleans Saints for a joint practice in Oxnard on Tuesday. The Cowboys face the Arizona Cardinals on Aug. 22, with kickoff at 9 p.m. CT.
