Dallas Cowboys avoided early FA temptations, now they are rewarded

Dallas Cowboys refused to overpay departing free agents in March, now they flourish from it.

Many Dallas Cowboys fans thought the sky was falling as the front office watched and waved goodbye to safety Byron Jones and defensive end Robert Quinn early in free agency.

Who knew that those idle moments would be the reason the team has given multiple veteran defensive players a chance to run with second chances in Dallas. Jones and Quinn received a total of $82.5 million and $70 million, respectively.

That’s a lot of money to pay for defensive players, but two players who could be somewhat worth that money depending on different team’s priorities. The Cowboys proved that they had a different strategy and direction for the future of their defense when they let the pair walk.

So, they went out and executed that strategy to near perfection so far. They’ve given themselves enough seeds in the garden to be able to harvest throughout the season, not relying on just a few seeds.

The Dallas Cowboys continue to execute the strategy to near perfection

Not every single veteran defensive player that the organization signed after free agency got rolling along is going to have a major impact on the defense. If that was the case, every single team would be a Super Bowl contender.

But what is the case is the amount of talent and experience that the team has been able to add without going for the major dive into the cap space pool. It’s evident the strategy is working, with an injury already proving to not be a dagger to the defense.

Defensive tackle Gerald McCoy has already been taken off the Dallas Cowboys books due to an injury that ended his 2020 season. The sky wasn’t falling though. It was seen as a sigh of relief the Cowboys didn’t put all of their candy into one bag, they have other options to try and fill the slot left vacant by the injury.

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Just from their cheap free agent signings, the team can look for production from defensive tackle Dontari Poe, or defensive ends Aldon Smith and Everson Griffen. Out of those three players, the odds are one or two of them are going to be able to take the opportunity of having a lot of snaps on the Dallas defensive line and be able to put up numbers and stops.

The same story is true for the number of snaps that veteran safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix is going to be receiving. He has been given a contract where the weight of expectations is low but the chance of him succeeding due to the opportunity is there.

That leads to the major news of the weekend and into this week. The release of seven-time Pro Bowl safety Earl Thomas III from the Baltimore Ravens for conduct issues.

An ESPN article outlining the release, notes that the Cowboys are the leading candidate to sign Thomas. There are a lot of differing opinions if the move would be worth it for the Dallas defense, and obviously the front office will weigh their options.

But the moral of the story is a smart offseason by the organization has led America’s Team to be in a position to add another piece to the puzzle, seeing what combination will end up winning out and leading to success.