OTAs are in full swing at The Star in Frisco as the Dallas Cowboys begin the trek to make us forget how the 2023 season ended.
Good luck with that. We haven’t forgotten and likely won’t stop talking about it well into the 2024 season. Every time an opponent’s receiver is standing wide open we will go back to the slaughtering at the hands of Matt LeFleur, Jordan Love, and the Packers.
I can still see Stephon Gilmore in coverage giving up a touchdown and throwing his hands up in despair. Gilmore is one of the players the Cowboys did not re-sign after his contract expired.
He is still a free agent and who knows? Maybe the Cowboys are just waiting until closer to the season to add him back to the roster and bolster the secondary for new DC Mike Zimmer.
Speaking of the secondary, Gilmore’s departure created somewhat of a depth issue for Assistant Head Coach and Defensive Passing Game Coordinator Al Harris.
Dallas has two bonafide superstars on the boundary with Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland, but who steps up behind them? The battle for the CB3 spot will be fierce, and Zimmer will make the players work for it.
Let’s take a look at the Cowboys’ full cornerback situation and try to determine who will be on the field with the 1st team when they line up in the Nickel formation against the Cleveland Browns in Week 1.
The Superstars
This section is reserved for the two All-Pro cornerbacks that the Cowboys are proud to have on the field at the same time this fall.
Trevon Diggs
Let’s start with the player who is more senior. Trevon Diggs has established himself as one of the premier cornerbacks in the NFL.
He broke out in his sophomore season, putting the league on notice with a franchise record-tying 11 interceptions in 2021. That earned him an All-Pro nod for the first time in his career.
Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that the pre-injury Diggs will show up on the field for the Cowboys. He is recovering from a torn ACL suffered early last season.
Reports say he is moving well, but they said the same about Terence Steele and Michael Gallup and we all saw how that played out.
DaRon Bland
On the opposite boundary, the Cowboys have the supreme luxury of lining up yet another All-Pro.
DaRon Bland, much like Diggs, used his sophomore campaign to show the NFL they should not have let him fall to the end of the 5th round in the 2022 NFL Draft.
Bland put his name in the record books by setting an NFL record with five interceptions returned for touchdowns in a single season. He will be only 25 years old when the season starts.
The Favorites for CB3
Beyond Diggs and Bland on the depth chart are mostly question marks. One veteran mixed in with youthful and unproven players leads the way.
Jourdan Lewis
The favorite to win the Nickel cornerback job is the player who has locked down that role since he was drafted out of Michigan in 2017.
Jourdan Lewis is the Cowboys’ longest-tenured cornerback and a valuable veteran presence in a cornerback room full of younger players. Dallas re-signed Lewis to a one-year deal before the draft.
It may appear on the outside to be one of the patented one-year deals for an over-the-hill veteran, but Lewis can hold his own.
He has been beating the odds his entire career and I see no reason he can’t beat them again to win the starting Nickel position.
Caelen Carson
Caelen Carson is the newest addition to the cornerback room. Drafted in the 5th round from Wake Forest, Carson brings physicality to a team that desperately needs it.
He is sticky in coverage, but another trait just may win him the job over Lewis and all other challengers: his ability to tackle.
Carson is not afraid to put his head down and take on ball-carriers. That’s a trait that Lewis has always been able to hang his hat on.
If Carson can perform close to the same level in coverage as Lewis, it may be enough to prompt Harris and Zimmer to throw him into the fire.
On the Outside Looking In
There are a few players who I won’t go in-depth about because I truly don’t feel they have the chops to win the CB3 job over the favorites.
Players like Nahshon Wright and Israel Mukuamu have been given chances to perform but have failed to show the consistency to be trusted.
Wright has shown flashes, even intercepting a Joshua Dobbs pass in a game at Tennessee a couple of years ago. However, he has more bad plays than good, and can’t carve himself a role outside of special teams.
Israel Mukuamu is another interesting prospect. He got his chance to shine at the end of the 2022 season. He was a chess piece used to help stifle the mighty Tom Brady and the explosive Buccaneers offense.
He was a no-show in 2023, though, and we all wanted an explanation that we have yet to receive.
Someone is going to step up into the CB3 role, and it most likely will be the veteran Jourdan Lewis or the rookie Caelen Carson.