Roster construction in the NFL means you are always looking at how to improve your roster or to get something for players who may not be in your team’s long-term future. Stephen Jones and Will McClay talk about roster building being a 365 day a year process as they look at players on other teams and college players they might be interested in order to improve the overall depth of their roster.
As it stands right now, this is the deepest team that the Dallas Cowboys have had during the Jason Garrett era. Smart front offices, which the Dallas Cowboys are, will look to take advantage of the depth they have at one position in order to improve another position or get draft capital.
Maliek Collins, Defensive Tackle
The defensive tackle position is pretty deep this year after lacking depth during the stretch run of 2018. Maliek Collins, the Dallas Cowboys 2016 third-round pick has been a solid player for the team in his three seasons, but injuries have kept him from fulling realizing his potential.
After having five sacks his rookie season, he’s fallen off a bit in the last two seasons leading to the selection of Trysten Hill in the second round of the draft in 2019. Collins will be a free agent after the 2019 season and if he were to have a standout year would likely receive a substantial offer on the free agent market.
In addition to Trysten Hill, the Dallas Cowboys have Tyrone Crawford, Kerry Hyder, Christian Covington, and Daniel Ross who could be used at the 3-tech defensive tackle spot.
Collins makes the team better, but the team wouldn’t be lost without him. After training camp, when injuries begin to set in, there might be a team in need of defensive tackle help that would be willing to send the Cowboys a mid-round pick for Collins services.
Jourdan Lewis, Cornerback
Cornerback Jourdan Lewis has found it really difficult to get playing time with the Dallas Cowboys. Some of that is due to the play of the corners in front of him; Byron Jones, Chidobe Awuzie, and Anthony Brown. Kris Richard’s preference for longer corners is the other part. This isn’t to say that Richard is a sizeist by any stretch, but if all things are equal, Richard is going to go with the longer more athletic corner.
With Mike Jackson and Chris Westry added to the fold, the Cowboys could look for a team in need of some corner help and ship Lewis off for 2020 draft compensation.
Lewis is a good player. You saw during the New Orleans game what a weapon he could be in the secondary. The problem is, he’s not going to play enough for it to consistently matter unless there’s an injury to your top three guys.
If Mike Jackson shows in training camp that he’s capable of being the primary backup at cornerback on the outside or in the slot, the Cowboys could take a chance and flip Lewis.
Mike White, Quarterback
Last week, when I put out my 53-man roster projection, I had the Dallas Cowboys going with only two quarterbacks heading into week one. After Dak Prescott, I had Cooper Rush backing him up.
The team spent a fifth-round draft pick on White in 2018 and he could beat out Rush for the backup quarterback job during training camp. If he’s unable to unseat Rush, who’s been the backup since 2017, he could find himself heading for the practice squad.
As teams are always looking for quarterbacks — see Nathan Peterman — the Dallas Cowboys could find a suitor for Mike White’s services.
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In a trade, it takes two parties to make it work. A team has to be willing to part with what you deem to be equitable value for an asset you like. It’s unlikely that the Dallas Cowboys would part with any of their talent right now because you never know what kind of injuries could hit your team. However, if they’re able to make it through training camp unscathed, it’s possible you could see them move on from players who aren’t in their long-term future.
