'We had plans to get him more involved' Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy has heartfelt reaction to brutal injury

Dallas Cowboys tight end John Stephens Jr. tore his ACL on Wednesday's practice, putting his 2024 season to an end before he even got to debut in the regular season. 

Such season-ending injuries always hurt but the fact that it happened to Stephens Jr. is just brutal: The second-year player didn't get to play as a rookie after suffering a preseason torn ACL on the same knee when he was considered on track to make the 53-man roster as an undrafted rookie.

Now, Stephens Jr. is looking at 2025, putting his football future in a tough spot with back to back ACL injuries to start off his career. 

To make matters even worse, Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy told reporters on Thursday that the team planned to increase his role after the bye week after making him inactive for each of the first six games of the season. Stephens Jr. also dealt with a hamstring injury early in the season.

""Very disappointed," McCarthy candidly told reporters. "You know, I think to a man, you could just feel the energy sucked out of practice at that moment. I cannot say enough about him; you talk about a young man with a very bright future, and this is just another setback, unfortunately.

For someone like Stephens Jr., who has yet to make his regular season debut, to suck out the energy out of practice, it says a lot about the character of the player in question. Cowboys coaches and players know how hard Stephens Jr. worked to not only come back from a torn ACL last year but to put himself in the 53-man roster conversation once again. 

"Just the work that he put in," McCarthy added. "He's here every day, did everything that was asked of him. Frankly, we were trying to get him more work. Coming out of the bye week, we had plans to try to get him more involved, so it was a very unfortunate injury yesterday."

The Cowboys will continue with the tight ends they've used this season, from Jake Ferguson to Luke Schoonmaker, and undrafted rookie Brevyn Spann-Ford, as well as some help from fullback Hunter Luepke, who keeps playing multiple positions as he keeps earning larger and larger snap counts every week.