Cowboys roster move: Dallas applies waived/injured designation to punter Hunter Niswander

Cowboys roster action on special teams.

It has been a busy week for the Dallas Cowboys as far as roster construction is concerned. On Tuesday the team had to drop from 90 to 85 players per NFL rules, and truly said goodbye to only two of them. This is because the Cowboys placed Reggie Robinson and Sewo Olonilua on injured reserve and applied the waived/injured designation to Anthony Hines.

Hines cleared waivers on Wednesday which means that he is now part of the team’s injured reserve. This is commonly viewed as a method of “stashing” players by NFL teams as those placed on injured reserve before the regular season begins must stay there until the season is over.

After getting down to 85 players the Cowboys made an addition by bringing in a new kicker. What goes up must come down, and that means Dallas needed to open up a roster spot. Lirim Hajrullahu takes the place of Hunter Niswander who was also given the waived/injured designation, after suffering a back injury on Monday.

Hajrullahu (pronounced HIGH-roo-lah-hoo) has been an All-Star kicker in the CFL, playing for the Toronto Argonauts and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats as both a kicker and punter throughout his career.

Niswander, who was the team’s punter for the second half of last season, has handled the kicking duties while Greg Zuerlein returns from offseason back surgery.

Niswander has also split some punting reps with veteran Bryan Anger, but his focus has been mainly on the field goals and extra points. In two preseason games, he was four of six, including making all three field goals in Arizona last weekend.

The Cowboys are now at 85 players once again and seemingly have their kicking situation stabilized. While Hajrullahu is part of the group now, it seems like kicking and punting will be done by Greg Zuerlein and Bryan Anger, respectively, throughout the season.

If Hunter Niswander clears waivers he will revert back to the Dallas Cowboys’ injured reserve.