The start of the new league year (March 17) and NFL free agency is less than two weeks away and drawing closer by the minute. Teams will soon be placing franchise tags and tenders on pending free agents and Dallas Cowboys Wide Receiver Cedrick Wilson falls into the latter category as a restricted free agent.
In the NFL, a restricted free agent (RFA) is a player with three accrued seasons (playing in at least six games a year) who has an expiring contract. The Dallas Cowboys have a few players that fall into this category, including WR Cedrick Wilson. He’s not alone of course, but that’s who we will focus on today.
The Dallas Cowboys have decide how much value they place in Cedrick Wilson considering he’ll probably be nothing more than a WR4 for them in 2021. That’s the same role he played last season in which he hauled in 17 receptions for 189 receiving yards and two touchdowns. That’s not terrible production considering who he’s playing behind, but probably easily replaceable.
Considering the depth of the 2021 WR draft class the Dallas Cowboys could simply choose to let Cedrick Wilson walk and try to replace him at some point in the draft. But, if they value his versatility to play any WR position and his special teams ability they’d have to choose one of the three available tenders to secure his services.
Each tender comes with its own price tag. The first-round tender comes in at a whopping $4.7 million, the second-round tender is $3.3 million, and the right to first refusal is $2.1 million. Anyone of these is a lot of money to pay a WR4, but if the Cowboys want to keep Wilson their only real option is probably the right to first refusal tender.
Again the question arises…How much do the Dallas Cowboys value Cedrick Wilson? Is he worth keeping around as the WR4 carrying a price tag of $2.1 million as a one-year rental? I honestly can’t answer that. I can make an argument for both keeping and letting him walk, but as to what the Cowboys will do is completely up in the air.
Deciding what to do with Cedrick Wilson is just one of many tough decisions the Dallas Cowboys will face in a little under two weeks time when free agency officially kicks off. I’d personally like to see him stick around because I do believe he provides value and insurance, but that $2.1 million price tag could be too big of a pill for the Cowboys to swallow.
