With all the other offseason news happening right now, if you haven’t gotten the news yet, DaRon Bland, for the second time in as many years, underwent surgery on his left foot.
The surgery was performed by Dr. David Porter, a consultant for the Indianapolis Colts. Near the end of training camp in 2024, Bland had a screw inserted into his left foot to help with a stress fracture, so here we go again.
He is expected to be ready at some point in the offseason program with the focus on making sure he is 100 percent for the start of training camp in July, a source told ESPN.
Never Fails
So with that information, it now gives us a legitimate reason to ask: Was paying him all that money just like Trevon Diggs a mistake?
Bland signed a four-year extension before the 2025 season and will now head into the first year of that pact. It was a four-year, $92 million deal.
Look, we have to be honest about this. Bland got paid based on his massive 2023 season. During that year, many thought he should have been defensive player of the year.
He set the NFL record for most interception returns for a touchdown. He had nine total interceptions, five of them went for a score, and that got him a massive deal after his rookie contract was up in 2024.
The issue I have is that this front office knew they had an injury problem. He started the 2024 season on injury reserve and missed the first 10 games of the season.
When he returned, Bland finished that season with 41 combined tackles (29 solo), five pass deflections, one forced fumble, and a fumble recovery.
He started 12 games last season after signing the contract, and honestly was not good.
Bland had one interception, six pass deflections, and 73 combined tackles, the passing rating against him was over 100!
Then guess what happened? On December 20, Bland was placed on injured reserve after suffering a foot injury that required season-ending surgery.
Just looking at all that, he got that massive deal because the front office knew what they wanted to do with Diggs. They clearly had issues, which is why he was let go after the year ended.
The Cowboys secondary is so bad that Jerry had to make sure he had one player back there signed and locked up, and it was just a waste of money.
First of all he is not worth the money. Secondly, this foot issue is a MAJOR concern, and it will not go away.
They say he will be ready for camp, but I bet you we can revisit this. He will start the year on the PUP list. They can’t cut him this offseason because it will go against the cap, badly. If Bland underperforms again in 2026 and or gets hurt, they will do the same thing they did with Diggs.
Cut him after next season.
Dallas is currently looking for a new defensive coordinator and let’s hope they hire the right guy because this secondary is pathetic.
With two first round picks in April, no. 12 and 20, they have to be able to nail these on defense and hope both guys can be day-1 starters.
Ideally, if they make the right moves in free agency, drafting both a linebacker and a guy for the secondary should be what they use both picks in the first round.
I am still a bit scared of who they will hire, a lot of names have been in for interviews, so props to them for actually doing what a front office should and not just hiring a guy that Jerry is friends with and knows will listen to everything he has to say.
Either way, the point is that the front office made another bad deal with Bland, and they are now stuck with it because, in total Cowboys fashion, he can’t stay on the field after getting a bag.
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Its all hindsight now, but some of us never wanted Lewis to leave and knew how important he was to the defense. Steele is another one who got signed long term while hurt. Im not sure how much longer until teams start looking at guaranteed contract or money and start making them more performance based. Its not just with our Cowboys its with a lot of teams and players. Remember how bad we supposedly wanted Pitts the T.E. he is a good example of just not performing to earn his contract. At some point owners are going to get together and start putting some kind of performance based clause in and not so much guaranteed money.
The core problem is not contracts to injured players, it is the Dallas medical staff failure to successfully evaluate injured players and failure to successfully rehab players. Going back a decade, the Dallas medical team has told Jerry that injured players would be ok if drafted and none have had more than a season or two of performance before the pre-existing injury ended the career. then, players injured after being drafted are cleareed medically to play whne even layman fans can see the player limp around ineffectively. Worse, injured players keep re-injuring their rehabbing injury. The isswue about contracts to injured players is the tip of the medical problem in the Dallas management because the real issue is the medical opinions and actual rehab care.
Errors just keep piling on our GM. How long before we get a REAL one ?