Cowboys’ Marist Liufau suffers forearm injury in preseason loss to Saints

The Dallas Cowboys concluded their 2026 preseason with a loss to the New Orleans Saints, and the game brought an added concern for the Cowboys when linebacker Marist Liufau reportedly broke his forearm. The injury status matters for any team looking to establish depth along the defensive front and second level, because preseason reps are often where coaches sort out roles for the regular-season rotation.

Liufau’s injury came in the context of a late-stage preseason snap count, when teams use the final week to evaluate the players who will be most likely to carry over onto the opening-day roster and the practice squad. When a player goes down with a significant limb injury, it typically affects not only the short-term depth chart but also the evaluation plan for the rest of camp, since snaps have to be redistributed among the remaining linebackers.

For Dallas, that means the coaching staff will need to reassess who can absorb additional time in the middle and on the edges, particularly against formations that expose coverage responsibilities. Linebackers can be asked to handle multiple tasks in a single series, including run fits and pass coverage checks, so losing a player during the preseason can ripple into how quickly others adjust to expanded duties.

The report also frames the injury as serious enough to sideline Liufau “for a while,” emphasizing that the Cowboys’ immediate roster decisions may be limited by the timeline for forearm healing and any subsequent conditioning work. Even if an injury does not end a player’s season, the road from a broken forearm back to full contact football can be measured in weeks rather than days, depending on the specifics of the fracture and the medical clearance process.

The Cowboys and Saints matchup itself is still part of the preseason’s broader purpose, which is to measure team fundamentals under game conditions: assignment consistency, tackling execution, and situational discipline. With Liufau hurt, Dallas will likely focus more heavily in practice on next-man-up readiness, including how quickly linebackers communicate and reset roles when a primary option is unavailable.

For New Orleans, the win is less about the preseason result and more about what it can reveal about depth and execution across the field. But injuries in the preseason always carry an extra layer of uncertainty, since the games determine which units can build cohesion under live contact and which players may need additional time in the next phases of training.

What to watch next for Dallas is clarification on Liufau’s specific diagnosis and timeline, along with how the Cowboys’ remaining linebackers are deployed in the days following the preseason finale. Team announcements, practice availability, and the way Dallas manages reps in the early regular-season build-up will provide the best indicators of how quickly, or whether, Liufau can return to meaningful football.