Hunter Luepke is now part of Dallas’ backfield answer, even if nobody should mistake Friday’s plan for a finished depth chart. With Tyler Goodson unavailable and Israel Abanikanda only identified as a likely practice-squad elevation, the Cowboys are preparing to distribute the vacancy instead of asking one immediate replacement to carry the entire burden.
That was the important detail in Brian Schottenheimer’s Friday update. Abanikanda was described as the likely backup to Javonte Williams, while Luepke was expected to receive additional work at running back. Neither development had been completed as a transaction or converted into a guaranteed Sunday assignment. Dallas is creating options around a problem, not announcing who will take every missing snap.
Goodson’s last game helps explain why Dallas is looking at more than one option. He rushed for 77 yards on 12 attempts in the 27–23 win at Indianapolis on Nov. 8, a 6.4-yard average. Sunday’s home game against San Francisco arrives without that recent contributor. It would be a poor plan to assume a new name can automatically reproduce his afternoon.
The vacancy also did not appear in isolation. Malik Davis was lost before the season began, leaving Javonte Williams as the established lead option and reducing the room behind him.
Kendre Miller and Jashaun Corbin remain practice-squad depth, yet Friday’s update points toward a wider answer: Abanikanda can provide a conventional reserve option if elevated, while Luepke can be prepared for backfield work without being handed a role the team has not actually assigned.
Luepke’s own rushing line is small: four carries for 16 yards this season. He has 38 NFL carries for 144 yards across his career. That makes the Friday plan an expansion of a limited part of his work, rather than a return to a familiar high-volume role.
Dallas can ask him to contribute, but expecting him to become Goodson on the strength of a fullback label would skip over the actual experience.
It does establish something more modest and more credible. Luepke’s inclusion keeps the Cowboys from making Abanikanda the automatic answer before his elevation is official. The fullback’s expanded preparation gives Dallas another player to consider as the roster takes shape, while preserving the option of using Abanikanda as Williams’ reserve if the expected move is completed.
His experience catching the ball gives the comparison another dimension. Luepke has 32 career receptions for 249 yards, alongside those 38 rushes. He has participated in both parts of the offense without becoming a high-volume option in either.
That history supports preparing him as an additional backfield choice while keeping Williams as the lead runner; it does not dictate when the ball should go to him.
That uncertainty is not necessarily a flaw in the plan. A backup vacancy often creates a choice between forcing one player into a larger job and preparing several players for different possibilities. Dallas appears to be choosing the latter.