Dallas Cowboys signing Everson Griffen signals a new era

Signing Everson Griffen signals a more aggressive era for the Dallas Cowboys

It’s a new era for the Dallas Cowboys. That much has been clear for a while and the Cowboys haven’t even played a single down of football yet under new head coach Mike McCarthy. This week’s signing of free-agent defensive end Everson Griffen is just the latest in what’s been a long line of signals that a new era in Dallas has finally arrived.

Signing Everson Griffen, a four-time Pro Bowler formerly of the Minnesota Vikings is gigantic for the Cowboys. Ever since the team cut future Hall of Famer DeMarcus Ware after the 2013 season, they have largely ignored their pass rush.

Since Griffen came into the league in 2010, he has totaled 74.5 sacks, 86 tackles for a loss, and nine forced fumbles. He’s been a bedrock of Minnesota’s defense and one of the better edge rushers in the league for much of the last decade.

Griffen can be an absolutely destructive force off the edge. Playing him on the opposite side of DeMarcus Lawrence should make the mouth of every Cowboys fan salivate and make every opposing quarterback cringe.

This type of signing is exactly what Dallas has been resistant to do for much of the past decade. Instead, they’ve opted to trust veteran holdovers or former late-round draft picks. This is precisely why the team needed to make this type of move so badly.

Outside of defensive linemen DeMarcus Lawrence and Tyrone Crawford, every time the Cowboys have tried to address the pass rush through the draft it’s been mostly an outright failure. Those missteps have been highlighted by spending the teams’ top draft picks in 2017 and 2019 on defensive end Taco Charlton and defensive tackle Trysten Hill.

Charlton never even finished his rookie contract in Dallas and is likely going to go down as one of the biggest busts in recent franchise history. The jury may still be out on the second year Hill, but he struggled mightily to earn snaps on a mediocre line last season.

From 2010-2019, the Cowboys drafted six defensive linemen with one of their top three draft picks. Of those six linemen only Lawrence, Crawford, Hill, and the still indefinitely suspended Randy Gregory remain on Dallas’ roster.

In a big departure from previous years, the Cowboys have made some strides to upgrade their line through free agency this offseason. Bringing in veteran defensive tackles and former Pro Bowlers’ Gerald McCoy and Dontari Poe to help shore up the middle of the defensive line and stop teams from running all over them.

For only a one-year deal worth $6 million, Griffen is a team-friendly steal for Dallas. That number is less than what the Cowboys will pay Crawford to provide depth to the defensive line this season.

Worst case scenario, Griffen is a shell of his former self and the Cowboys can wipe their hands clean at the end of the season. Best case scenario, he continues to play at an elite level and the combined force of Griffen, Lawrence, McCoy, and Poe gives Dallas their best and most productive line in years.

Between McCoy, Poe, and the selection of wide receiver CeeDee Lamb during this year’s draft, optimism is high in Dallas. The start of the McCarthy era already just feels different from the one that preceded it. A year ago the Cowboys never would have drafted the best player available as they did with Lamb, and they never would have signed a player of Griffen’s caliber in free agency.

Instead, the team would opt to lean on the players currently on the roster instead of signing someone like a Griffen. That’s also the kind of thinking that made the Cowboys just outright ignore major areas of need for much of the last decade.

The times are changing for the Dallas Cowboys. And with aggressive but low-risk signings like that of Everson Griffen, it’s hard to think it’s for anything but the better.