After visiting the Dallas Cowboys on Friday, Brandon Carr is signing with his former team to be a member of the practice squad, per Michael Gehlken. Rumors about Carr's return increased over the weekend, but it was a surprise that Carr was not headed to the 53-man roster.
The Cowboys likely have plans to promote Carr to the active roster at some point in the season to provide help to a defensive backfield that doesn't seem to have a defined starting safety opposite of Xavier Woods. Darian Thompson and Donovan Wilson will battle for the starting gig with Carr possibly taking over later.
Carr's durability might be the veteran's biggest quality as he's never missed a game during his 12-year career. His 192 straight games started is the longest streak among NFL defensive players. Although Cowboys Nation probably didn't closely follow the Ravens last year, Carr did have an important role on his team. By the way, Carr and the Cowboys will visit Baltimore in December.
Obviously Brandon Carr is not as exciting as Earl Thomas, but he did have another 16 game season, and it's not like he was just a guy that hung out on the sidelines. He played 750 snaps and over 75% of their snaps on defense for Baltimore last season.
— Kevin Turner (@ktfuntweets) September 6, 2020
Dallas Cowboys fans should not judge Carr by his time in the silver and blue, but by his 2019 campaign in Baltimore. For the Ravens, Brandon Carr made the move from cornerback to safety midseason and worked out pretty well for his defense.
As a safety, Carr stood out thanks to his man-to-man coverage against tight ends.
Brandon Carr covered tight ends man-to-man in Ravens scheme last year. That would likely be his primary value to Dallas.
— Andy Benoit (@Andy_Benoit) September 6, 2020
Despite beginning the season in practice squad, Carr could play as soon as week 1 versus the Los Angeles Rams.
Thanks to the new CBA, the Cowboys have options to get Carr on the gridiron before even promoting him to the active roster. According to the new rules, teams can opt to “call up” practice squad players to have what essentially would become a 55-man roster. However, they can only do it twice before needing to sign him to the roster for him to play.
Interestingly, Cowboys could activate Brandon Carr to the 55 man roster a couple of times without them having to cut someone. Will probably see him moved up for week one and then back to the practice squad since he doesn't have to go through waivers.
— John Williams (@john9williams) September 6, 2020
A lot of Cowboys fans were rooting for the other former Baltimore Ravens DB to land in Dallas, but Earl Thomas remains a free agent. As of right now, there haven't been any reports on any NFL team being interested in him.
However, Carr is likely an upgrade over Thompson and Wilson for the Cowboys. While both are promising young players, none of them earned the starting job during camp. It won't be long before we see Carr play even if he starts the year on the practice squad.
With Carr's addition, 16 players of the Cowboys' 17-man practice squad is officially set for the season.
Sixteen of the 17 possible players on Cowboys' practice squad are known, including veteran DB Brandon Carr. pic.twitter.com/RG7XvZuC9g
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) September 6, 2020
