What to watch in Dallas Cowboys preseason finale against the Los Angeles Chargers

After five weeks, the Dallas Cowboys’ training camp is finally over.

They returned home Thursday in advance of Saturday’s final preseason game against the Los Angeles Chargers at AT&T Stadium.

After facing the Los Angeles Rams and Las Vegas Raiders on the road while in camp on the west coast, Saturday’s game is the only home preseason game on the schedule.

Quarterback Dak Prescott and the majority of the veterans will sit this one out as they did in the first two preseason game. It’s an attempt to keep them as healthy as possible before the regular season opener at the Cleveland Browns on Sept. 8.

But roster spots remain up in the air at a number of positions. Players could go a long way toward securing their NFL dreams with a strong performance against the Chargers.

The continued development of quarterback Trey Lance will again take center stage for the Cowboys.

Look for Lance, who played parts of three quarters in each of the first two preseason games, to go the entire way against the Chargers.

There is little chance for Lance to unseat Cooper Rush as the primary backup to Prescott, though Mike McCarthy gave a milk toast answer when asked about the battle this week.

“I think just like anything, you play this all the way out,” McCarthy said about his backup quarterback battle. “You can never have enough good quarterbacks, and we got three good ones. We’re fortunate.”

Rush is 5-1 as a starter in the regular season.

And while Lance has made progress over the course of training camp and the preseason, there is nothing he can do in limited reps against backups with no real scheme to have the Cowboys put him on the field over a proven Rush if Prescott were to go down.

On top of that, McCarthy said Rush has had a great training camp and continues to move the ball in practice with the second team.

“Cooper is the same man every single day,” McCarthy said. “He is super consistent. He is on top of his game. I think if you look at his snaps that he has had this year, definitely quality over quantity. That’s by design with what we’ve got going on with Dak and Trey. This is clearly, in my time with him, his best camp. His decision-making has been on point. I think his footwork and some of the things he’s done have been impressive. There are not too many two-minute drills when he goes out there that Cooper doesn’t take the offense right down the field. Super consistent. I really like the camp Cooper has had.”

This is all about the Cowboys wanting and needing to Lance as many reps as possible.

He has already clinched a roster spot. Owner Jerry Jones has said as much.

Lance just needs to continuing making progress.

And maybe he will be a consideration for the backup job next year.

“I saw obvious improvement,” Jones said when asked about Lance’s preseason outing at the Raiders. “That’s promising because he does have a lot of improvement to have, but he’s got all the tools. He’s got the mettle. You saw that mettle clicking in and adjustments that he hadn’t made, let’s say as early as the week before. That’s pretty promising. The issue is after preseason, how does he get his reps without something negative happening with Dak or, in this particular case, Cooper Rush?”

Among the tight position battles to watch on Saturday are tight end, running back, cornerback and safety.

Jake Ferguson and Luke Schoonmaker are on the team at tight end. Who do the Cowboys keep behind them? John Stephens Jr., Peyton Hendershot, Princeton Fant and Brevyn Spann-Ford are vying for roster spots.

Rico Dowdle and Ezekiel Elliott and fullback Hunter Leupke are on the team at running back. How many others do they keep among Malik Davis, Royce Freeman and Deuce Vaughn?

The questions at cornerback are among Andrew Booth, Kemon Hall, Eric Scott and Josh Butler for the precious spot behind Trevon Diggs, DaRon Bland, Jordan Lewis and Caelen Carson.

And at safety, the Cowboys must figure out what to do with Israel Mukuamu and Julius Wood behind the foursome of Donovan Wilson, Malik Hooker, Marquese Bell and Juanyeh Thomas.