The Dallas Cowboys have DaRon Bland and Trevon Diggs, who will return from a torn ACL, and they just resigned Jourdan Lewis, who played well for the team in 2023.
Stephon Gilmore seems too expensive to bring back, even though I would love to have him back for one more year. He was great at filling in for Diggs when he went down with an injury.
Lewis signed for. Per reports, Lewis signed a one-year deal worth $2.8275 million guaranteed. His base salary is just $2.66 million, and he’ll count less than $2 million against the salary cap.
Before everyone starts commenting on this post, let me begin by saying the pass rush with Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawerance is special, but the cornerback room is the only room that could be complete in 2024.
Still A Weakness?
We have to be honest here. Yes, Bland was an All-Pro, but he did that with his ball-hawking skills.
Teams started to test him at the end of the season, but in the playoff loss to the Packers, he did not look so good against Jourdan Love and the young Green Bay wide receivers.
Because we don’t know how long Diggs will need to trust that knee and get back to being the lockdown guy he was, if the Cowboys aren’t going to spend on outside free agents, I say bring Gilmore back!
Gilmore’s value could fall between $8 and 11 million. Given how slowly the cornerback market has moved in free agency, he could go cheaper.
Kendall Fuller, who’s on a similar level to Gilmore, got $8.5 million per year from the Dolphins.
Patrik Walker of DallasCowboys.com reported after Lewis signed that Dallas is “very much in on” trying to re-sign Gilmore.
Just about a month ago, Gilmore was on Dallas radio with Brandin Cooks (who has one more year on his current deal), saying he wanted to come back because this team has “unfinished business.”
Jerry, please do us all a favor and at least make the intelligent choice here and bring back a guy who showed he still had it from his play last year.
With the great deal that Dallas got Lewis and newly signed Eric Kendricks for, they have plenty of room to bring back a solid player who will help the secondary under Mike Zimmer.
Lack Of Depth
If they don’t resign Gilmore, this defense could tire quickly.
Half of the defensive line is now in Washington; the last thing they need is not to have enough bodies to hold down some of the good offensives they will see in 2024.
If Diggs, Lewis, Bland, and Gilmore resigned, the cornerback room could be the best group on the team.
They should use most of this draft on offense, with the outside chance of taking a linebacker at some point—maybe in the 2nd or 3rd round—but they will probably go offensive line, running back, and hopefully a wide receiver.
Kendricks helps with LVE retiring because of his neck, but this team cannot bank on him, saving them in the run defense.
I am tired of this team trying to win by drafting players, yes, a lot have been good, but you are wasting time.
Go “all-in,” like you said Jerry and do what the Rams did a few years ago. Get the players in the building, win that title and then be awful for 5-10 years, I don’t care, but at least act like you are trying so we can stop blaming you.
If Dak Prescott and the other players under preform when the team is there then so be it, but it hasn’t changed in 25 years.