As the Dallas Cowboys get ready to play their eight game of the season after acquiring former Oakland Raiders’ WR Amari Cooper, there’s another player in the market that the front office should be considering signing to help this already talented defense out.
The Raiders recently released edge rusher Bruce Irvin, continuing their trend to get rid of talented players as they aim to rebuild their team for the future years under Jon Gruden. The Cowboys already went after one of their players on offense, and now they have a unique opportunity to go after a vested veteran from the same team that would help on defense.
Bruce Irvin isn’t a guy who’ll get you double digit sacks in a season, in fact he’s never achieved that in his NFL career, but he’s a guy whose presence is felt on the field even now at 31 years of age and is coming from an eight-sack performance in 2017 (he already has three in 2018).
The so-called “Hot Boyz” defense is mostly a young unit, but there definitely is reason to believe adding someone like Irvin would be huge for this football team.
As promising as the Cowboys pass rush is with Randy Gregory, David Irving and DeMarcus Lawrence leading a loaded front seven, Gregory and Irving are dealing with injuries and are missing time. Not to mention Lawrence is currently in a three game cold streak in which he hasn’t been able to record a single sack. Even with all of them being healthy, Irvin could be a great third down player to send after opposing quarterbacks.
The Cowboys have enough cap space to bring Irvin under a one-year deal. That wouldn’t be any problem. Of course, Bruce Irvin will have to go through waivers before being a free agent, though.
Kris Richard is no stranger to Bruce Irvin, by the way. The pass rusher played for the Seattle Seahawks in 2015, so add the fact that if Richard wants Irvin, the wheels could very well be in motion to bring him to Dallas. For years we’ve seen different veteran players be available and the Cowboys flat out passing on them, but this year it could be different.
Through seven games, it’s been the defense and not the offense that’s been winning the football games for Dallas. The front office has already made moves to try to bring the offense to life and Cowboys Nation is hoping trading for Cooper and firing OL Coach Paul Alexander will prove to be enough to help the offense actually work.
Even still, there isn’t anything wrong to continue to build upon your strength which is currently the defensive side of the ball.
It sure would make for an interesting scenario, being perhaps the most aggressive approach from the front office in quite a while. Trading a first rounder for a player, firing a positional coach midseason and signing a veteran free agent? I don’t know about you, but I’d feel better about this team simply trying to upgrade the roster.
