The Dallas Cowboys commitment to turning over their secondary was realized fully at last year’s NFL Draft. With the team grabbing two starters in Chidobe Awuzie and Jourdan Lewis, the two second-year players are now set to play with Byron Jones at cornerback in Kris Richard’s defense. This retool unexpectedly began the year before though, as the Cowboys stole Purdue’s Anthony Brown with the 189th overall pick.
Brown was a sensation in his first year, providing the hope that the Cowboys could find more young cover players like him. Brown defended eight passes as a rotational cornerback, playing with the type of ball skills and speed that the Cowboys defense had been missing.
Regressing a bit to his draft status in 2017, Brown was frequently turned around on the outside and beat over the top. It was his struggles that opened the door for Awuzie to earn a starting outside CB spot after returning from injury.
New Passing Game Coordinator and Secondary Coach Kris Richard has already earned plenty of respect on the Cowboys staff. His experience speaks for itself, as Richard was the architect to the Seahawks ‘Legion of Boom’.
A Super Bowl winning defense built with size and length on the back end, the prospects of Awuzie and Jones lining up on the boundary for Dallas is incredibly exciting. For a defense that will still pride themselves on keeping passes in front of them, these two outside cornerbacks are hard to run away from or stretch the field against.
Where Anthony Brown was able to regain some confidence last year was in the slot. As an inside defender, Brown trusted his quickness and technique more to give the Cowboys value down the stretch. This is also where Jourdan Lewis has a chance to become one of the best players at the position across the league, starring as a Nickel player at Michigan.
Lewis’ play on the outside may have caused Cowboys Nation to forget about just how much better he sticks to slot receivers, with the beloved “position flex” to line up anywhere and compete.
With so much depth to address elsewhere on the roster, Lewis and Brown may be competing for the same spot – with Jourdan’s already secured. While it is still very possible that Richard sees enough in Anthony Brown to keep him around for 2018 and beyond, roster spots in Dallas are only getting harder to earn.
As we begin the incredibly long process of projecting the Cowboys eventual 53 man roster, Anthony Brown feels like one of the bigger names that could miss the cut. There is plenty of promise left in Brown’s game, but in two off seasons worth of work the Cowboys have found more blue chip players in the secondary.
Considering the numbers the Cowboys keep at CB could be a direct reflection of the depth they want at DL and LB, Rod Marinelli’s defense is going to look better on paper than it likely ever has in Dallas.
Whether or not this includes third-year Cornerback Anthony Brown is going to be something I’ll be very interested to keep track of.
I think they will give him a shot as the fourth man but if he struggles early they will go a different route
I think it’s fair to say that he “hasn’t” lost his spot, but that he possibly could. One clear message I’ve seen through the draft and the players they have brought in, is that there will be all out competition at some spots and everybody has an audition. Roster spots are not to be handed out like participation trophies but will be earned as medals of war. In the case of CB, you can probably throw Marquez White’s name into that mix as well. Furthermore, Duke Thomas is in consideration too. Of course we know Jones, Lewis, and Awuzie are safe, with the rest vying for snap counts and roster spots. It’s also going to be fun to watch the competition along the D-line and the WR position where there is a gluten of players.
This article questions whether he could stay on the team as a 4th corner but mentions no one that would take his spot. It almost implies that they would only keep 3 corners on the roster. Cutting an inexpensive backup corner on his rookie contract would be dumb. We will keep at least 5 cornerbacks so I do not understand this article.
Not even close. He will easily be on the roster. Brown has a bad habit of depending on his speed. He takes chances. Keep his eyes on the opposing QB and the result is he gets burned. With some coaching up from Kris, Anthony should be able to correct it. There is a big difference between not starting and not making the roster.
His spot is slot where it always shoulda been. Him and Lewis will both play Nickel and Dime packages. He aint lose no spot, the coaching staff needs to understand he’s no outside corner, its ok to accept him as a solid slot corner, keep him there