Cowboys' Andy Dalton, Ezekiel Elliott, Amari Cooper Fantasy Stocks After Week 6

The Dallas Cowboys offense was supposed to be the stuff of dreams for fantasy football players this season with Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, Amari Cooper, CeeDee Lamb and Michael Gallup making plays all over the field.

Instead, Prescott suffered a season-ending ankle injury in Week 5, and the offense was abysmal in the team's 38-10 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Monday.

Here is a look at the numbers from the key playmakers:

• Andy Dalton, QB, DAL: 34-of-54 for 266 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT
• Ezekiel Elliott, RB, DAL: 12 carries for 49 yards; 8 catches for 31 yards; 2 lost fumbles
• Amari Cooper, WR, DAL: 7 catches for 79 yards, 1 TD

Let's get something out of the way: You are not going to take Elliott or Cooper out of your starting lineup.

Elliott is still the three-time Pro Bowler who led the league in rushing yards in two of his first three seasons, while Cooper is the No. 1 option in the aerial attack and eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards in four of his first five seasons.

Still, Dalton lowers the ceiling for both with defenses stacking the box to stop Elliott and the reality he will not be as effective in getting Cooper the ball when compared to Prescott.

It is also fair to worry about Tony Pollard cutting into Elliott's playing time if the latter continues to fumble. He lost two fumbles in Monday's game and has put the ball on the ground five times already in 2020.

All those concerns are not enough to outweigh the players' ceilings, but fantasy players should at least expect more inconsistent results with Dalton behind center.

There was a silver lining for Cooper in the latest loss. He caught a touchdown pass in garbage time. That is going to be a regular occurrence with a defense that entered play dead-last in the league in points per game allowed (36.0).

Dalton threw 54 passes, which should catch the eye of fantasy players even if he did toss two interceptions and is clearly not in Prescott's league.

Dallas is going to be throwing the ball a lot, which means garbage-time points for Dalton and Cooper. That makes Dalton, who is a three-time Pro Bowler and far more established than the typical backup quarterback, a streaming option when fantasy players are accounting for byes, injuries or favorable matchups.

And Dalton will have plenty of favorable matchups in the NFC East.