The Cowboys have added another pass rusher to their 2022 roster, agreeing to a one-year contract with Dante Fowler. The 27-year-old defensive end played for Dan Quinn in Atlanta in 2020.
The third-overall pick in the 2015 Draft, Fowler tore his ACL during minicamps and missed his entire rookie season with Jacksonville. He came back to play in all 16 the games the next two years and had eight sacks in 2017.
Dante’s best year came in 2019, one year after being traded to the Rams. He posted a career-high 11.5 sacks and parlayed that into a lucrative free agent contract with the Falcons in 2020.
DE Dante Fowler has agreed to terms with the Cowboys on a one-year deal, a source tells @dmn_cowboys
— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) March 19, 2022
Dan Quinn reunion: Cowboys have agreed to terms with former Falcons DE Dante Fowler, source said. They were together in Atlanta during 2020 season. Fowler had 11 1/2 sacks with Rams in 2019. @toddarcher first reported.
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) March 18, 2022
Dante hasn’t enjoyed the same success in Atlanta. He only put up three sacks in 2020 and 4.5 last season. But clearly, Dan Quinn still feels good enough about Fowler’s potential to add him to the mix in Dallas.
Fowler’s connection to Quinn may run deeper than just that one season with the Falcons. When he was drafted by Jacksonville in 2015, Gus Bradley was the head coach. Quinn worked under Bradley with the Seattle Seahawks when Gus was defensive coordinator and Dan coached the defensive line.
With Dorance Armstrong getting re-signed yesterday, Quinn’s Cowboys defense now has roughly the same DE group as last year. Fowler may not be able to replace everything Randy Gregory did, but hopefully the combination of he and Armstrong can form an effective rotation.
If nothing else, these moves help to shore up a key position before we get to the 2022 Draft.
Dan Quinn sems to get the most out of his players .I think its a good move as long as he is healthy.And it dosent confine then into a long term contract if it dosent work out
Excellent signing. And, far, far , far better than the ridiculous Gregory contract the Boys were saved from.
Fowler is a high upside player at minimal cost.
Great signing!
I like it…. I think he can be better than Gregory!! I really don’t understand what the big deal with Gregory is anyways, he wasn’t all that good!! He had 6 sacks twice in his career and that’s it, and I don’t think he’s even played a full season in his career either…. Between suspensions and injuries, he’s missed more time than he’s played!! If Fowler can get back to the way he played with the Rams we’ll have a better player than Gregory ever was!! If he matches Gregory’s production then we’ll just have another Gregory, but if he don’t do either then he’s only on a 1 year contract so no harm done, we can let him go after this season!! And it’s not gonna take a rotation of Fowler and Armstrong to replace what Gregory did…. But the end of last season Armstrong was able to come close to matching what Gregory did by himself and he didn’t even play near as much as Gregory did!! And Armstrong is still young too, so I think Armstrong will only get better, and he will be better than Gregory has been for us!! At the end of last season Armstrong only had one less sack than Gregory while playing way less on defense than Gregory did!! So this duo of Fowler and Armstrong could possibly be a better duo than Gregory and Armstrong was, since Armstrong is getting more experience plus Fowler has had a season with twice as many sacks as Gregory ever had already…. We just need him to get back to that kinda play with us!! I’m done rambling now, everybody have a good day!!
Cowboys are doing a good job of not giving these past their prime players, obscene contracts. For those complaining about them not signing any “big names”. Who exactly should they have overpaid for? I like most of the moves they have made, and they still have money for a few more, or let it the money roll over. Don’t need to spend the money just for the sake of doing it.
No reason why some of these young players can’t take it to the next level, and improve the overall team.