Should Dallas Cowboys’ Jerry Jones and Rob Ryan Be Interested in Free Agent Safety LaRon Landry?
As Dallas Cowboy’s Owner and GM Jerry Jones, Head Coach Jason Garrett, and Defensive Coordinator Rob Ryan prepare for the 2012 NFL Free Agency period (it starts March 13th), the general consensus is that the Cowboys should be looking for upgrades to the interior of the OL, the secondary, and perhaps the pass-rush. The Cowboys have struggled to get any production out of their safeties for years. Our fan question this week asks about a specific player, one who Cowboy fans are quite familiar with. There is a survey at the end that asks what you think the Cowboys should do at safety.
Our question this week comes from a fan with a rather impressive pedigree: he is a 3rd generation Cowboy fan! Hats off to Randy’s father and grandfather for getting him started off right in life!
If you have questions for the writers at The Landry Hat, please submit them to cjlandryhat@hotmail.com
"Randy Banks, Waldorf, MD, 3rd generation Cowboy fan: Do you see the cowboys making a play for Laron Landry? I see him as the missing piece in the secondary.Hard hitter and mean!! He would really make teams think twice about throwing all over the place."
Todd Toombs: Short answer is that it’s very unlikely. Landry was put on IR by the Redskins last season and has a very uncertain situation with his injured Achilles tendon. When healthy, he’s a very capable player. But, he probably should have already had surgery instead of going with the alternative medicine approaches he seems to be trying. If he does come back healthy, he likely re-signs with the Redskins for a minimum, 1-year contract until he proves he’s healthy. If another team lures him away, they will likely be over paying and be taking a big risk with his Achilles not fully recovered. He’s only been on the field for 17 games in the last 2 seasons so this is probably a player the Cowboys just can’t afford to chase.
Johnathan Barger: As much as I would love to see a good safety in our backfield, I think that Jerry has been burned too many times by lofty contracts for safeties who underperformed. The Boys’ are rumored to have about 20 million in cap space and Landry would eat up at the very minimum 4-5million of that. Considering that we still need to re-sign Laurent Robinson and possibly Anthony Spencer, I don’t see the play for Landry working out cap figure wise. Even with all the dead money rolling into 2012, we still have some room to make some changes, but I don’t think a high dollar safety is one of them.
C. Joseph Wright: It seems like Landry has elected to not have a surgical operation to repair his left Achilles tendon; he has opted to experiment with what the media is describing as “alternative medicine procedures and treatments.” I don’t expect that anyone will be making any moves to sign him until he can prove that his Achilles has healed, and that doesn’t look like it will be any time soon. The Redskins have publicly said that they are content to let him test the Free Agent market; Landry has said that he is willing to sign a one-year deal to prove he is healthy and then negotiate a multi-year. LaRon is still only 27 years old.
If LaRon is healthy in time for the 2012 NFL season, then it is hard to imagine that he wouldn’t be an upgrade over the existing safeties in Dallas. If that was the case, then I would expect that the Cowboys would be interested in Landry if he was ‘reasonably priced.’ As much as I think it may be worth it to ‘take a shot’ on Landry if he was healthy and would play on a one year contract for a salary near the minimum, I think it would be foolish to count on him being healthy enough to be your starter for 16 games.
Erasmus: I am really of two minds on LaRon Landry. Part of me thinks that being a relative of Coach Landry, however distant, he should be playing in Dallas just to avoid upsetting the cosmic order of the universe. But part of me thinks, when I look at his picture, that he looks like a gangsta rapper that may not fit into Garrett’s idea of the “Right Kind of Guy.”
Mark Contreras: I’m not against the move because I think almost anyone would be an upgrade over the garbage the Cowboys have thrown out at the safety position since Woody retired. However, the name LaRon Landry doesn’t exactly have me running to the Pro Shop to buy his jersey. I guess it depends on how much he’s asking because I’m not overpaying for that guy if I’m Jerry Jones.
If you have questions for the writers at The Landry Hat, please submit them to cjlandryhat@hotmail.com
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