Dallas Cowboys Sign Troubled But Elite Pass Rusher Greg Hardy

According to various sources, the Dallas Cowboys have agreed to terms with troubled but elite pass rushing defensive end Greg Hardy. The 26-year old is considered to be the best pass rusher left in free agency.

The Cowboys defense was considered the team’s weak link in 2014, ranking 19th in the NFL. Although their defensive group performed admirably under fiery defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli, in the end the D in Big D simply didn’t have enough talent on that side of the ball.

But that all changed on Wednesday, as Hardy has agreed to join America’s Team on a heavy incentive-based one-year contract. Amazingly, the reported salary cap hit is only $3.2 million.

The former Carolina Panthers defensive end made the trip to Valley Ranch on Tuesday, meeting with front office personnel as well as members of the coaching staff. After Tuesday’s meetings, Hardy had dinner with members of the Cowboys’ staff as negotiations were being hammered out.

According to Mike Fisher of FOX Sports, the day’s events had little to do with the troubled defensive end’s off-the-field issues.

Hardy is an elite pass rusher. A Pro Bowler for the first time in 2013, the former sixth round pick out of Mississippi in 2010 recorded 124 tackles and 27.0 sacks in his last three seasons. Last year, Hardy played in only one game due to a league suspension.

Now that the Hardy signing has been announced, what will be the public backlash from signing the infamous player? Back in May, he was arrested and charged with assaulting and threatening to kill his then ex-girlfriend, Nicole Holder.

Two months later, a judge found Hardy guilty and sentenced him to 18 months probation after suspending a 60-day jail sentence. But that decision was appealed and set aside pending a jury trial. All the charges were eventually dropped last month when Holder refused to cooperate with the district attorney after apparently receiving a financial settlement.

Despite the controversy, even Cowboys’ starting safety Barry Church thought signing a player like Hardy was worth the risk because of his ability to get to the quarterback.

"“He could make not only my job a lot easier, but everybody on the back end’s job a lot easier,” Church told KESN-FM 103.3 via the Dallas Morning News on Friday. “When you have a guy like that who can pressure the quarterback and consistently get back there and make the quarterback throw errant passes and tips and overthrows, that’s what we love back there in the secondary. It’ll definitely give us an opportunity to cover the receivers a lot less time than what we had to last year. From what I understand he’s a great teammate, a great guy, we all make mistakes here and there. I’m sure he’s going to get his second chance with a team here coming up soon, hopefully it will be with us.”"

But signing Hardy is just the beginning of another waiting game. The former Panther is currently on the Commissioner’s Exempt List pending the league’s own investigation to determine if the defensive end violated the league’s personal conduct code. Peter King of the MMQB.com said on Monday that he believes Hardy will face a six game suspension before being able to dawn the Star for America’s Team.

"“…there are two distinct problems with taking (Greg Hardy) on: a) Teams believe there’s a good chance Hardy will be suspended for the first six games of the season because of the domestic-violence incident that caused him to be placed on the commissioner’s exempt list last year; b) the public battering the team would take would potentially be intense and distracting.”"

If Hardy is indeed suspended for the first six games of the regular season, it is unclear if he would be able to participate in Dallas’ offseason programs including mini-camps, OTAs, training camp and the preseason. One thing that is sure is when Hardy actually joins the Cowboys’ defensive line, their pass rush instantly becomes elite.

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