From Jerry Jones to Micah Parsons, the Dallas Cowboys are adamant they can make a playoff push. All they need to do is win their final five games and hope the seven teams above them in the standings utterly collapse during the home stretch.

Easy enough, right?

While players and coaches shift their focus to the Cincinnati Bengals, the front office should absolutely have an eye on 2025. Most of the roster turnover won’t occur until after the season, but there is nothing standing in the way of signing deserving players to extensions.

Jourdan Lewis, Rico Dowdle and Osa Odighizuwa are prime candidates, but this regime does not frequent in handing out mid-season extensions. Fine. Whatever. But what about claiming discarded players off waivers?

The Cowboys weren’t bothered to put in a claim on former first-round cornerback Emmannuel Forbes, who was cut by Dan Quinn in Washington. They were caught with their pants down again when the 49ers claimed running back Israel Abanikanda from the Jets.

Cowboys blew it again letting 49ers claim RB Israel Abanikanda

Cowboys fans have long had their eye on Abanikanda.

They sought to steal him from the Jets in August during roster cuts given New York had a deep running back stable – and Dallas had anything but a wealth of RBs – but he surprisingly made the team. That decision did not age well as Abanikanda has been a healthy scratch in every game this season.

Abanikanda didn’t pan out in New York, but he was electric in the preseason. His 90.1 rushing grade ranked first among RBs, per Pro Football Focus. He averaged 6.2 yards per carry, forced the most missed tackles (12) and had the third-most rushing yards after contact (107).

In a vacuum, the 49ers are more desperate than the Cowboys. They just lost star running back Christian McCaffrey and capable backup Jordan Mason to knee and ankle injuries, respectively. Both players were placed on IR, so San Francisco’s backfield was in shambles.

That is not a viable excuse, though. The Cowboys were higher than their NFC rival in the waiver order. They could have had Abanikanda, but like the entire 2024 offseason they played the part of spectator.

Let’s get one thing clear: Abanikanda would not have jumped Ezekiel Elliott, Dalvin Cook or even Deuce Vaughn in the pecking order. However, Elliott and Cook are free agents. Rico Dowdle is a restricted FA. That will make it easier to keep him, but his return is no guarantee.

Regardless, Abanikanda is signed through 2026 and owed just $1.03 million next year. That’s a fair price to pay for an experimental pickup. In a best-case scenario, Abanikanda impresses in OTAs and training camp and carves out a role. Worse-case he doesn’t pan out and Dallas saves $945,905 on the salary cap by cutting him loose.

It would have been the rare low-risk, high-reward move, but as we’ve learned so many times over the years the obvious does not come easy to the Cowboys.