Dallas Cowboys: Bargain shopping at the infirmary

FS – Malik Hooker

The Indianapolis Colts spent their first-round selection on Ohio State safety Malik Hooker in hopes of shoring up the back end of their defense. When Hooker wasn’t injured, which was early and often, he was playing in the worst possible position.

Hooker excels when he is left alone as the single-high safety. If your ears perked up as soon as you heard that statement then you are probably aware that new Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn is a huge proponent of leaving a ball-hawking free safety high in his base defense.

Quinn likes to bring his strong safety down to help support the run ( kinda like safety Kam Chancellor) but can also have that player either spy on a certain player or bail into coverage right at the snap. This leaves the free safety alone to help with any deep passes so a free safety with range is critical.

Former Seattle Seahawks safety Earl Thomas was great at playing this single high safety position but you cannot just throw a person back there and expect it to work. Thomas is an option back there but signing Hooker cannot be overlooked.

First, keeping Hooker as the single high man keeps him away from the line of scrimmage where he is more susceptible to getting injured. Second, his smaller pricetag would allow the team to take him off the field when the team goes into their cover three alignments if necessary.

Hooker was the 15th overall selection in the 2017 NFL draft has had a major injury almost every year since entering the league. Paying a player to not play on your team is not good business but at some point, the player has to either shake off the injury label or call it a career.

Signing him would either be a coup for Dallas or could put an exclamation point on a player whose career is just marred by injury. At the very least the league would know whether this guy can be depended on or if he is fool’s gold.

Hooker, who is extremely talented, could be looking for a one-year prove-it deal and I cannot think of a better place for a former star to shine than in Dallas. His price will be debated but a one-year deal with a base salary of $2 million dollars plus incentives could be enough to lure this player to big D.