Cowboys to beef up their run defense with Brent Urban

NFL free agency officially kicked off Wednesday afternoon with the start of the league’s new year. But news of pending signings has been plentiful since Monday, the beginning of the legal tampering period. And on Thursday, the Dallas Cowboys started to address their porous run defense.

In 2020, the Cowboys fielded the second-worst run defense in the NFL allowing an average of 158.8 yards per game against their opponents last season. With the hiring of a new defensive coordinator in Dan Quinn this offseason, the team figured to make some moves to address their defensive line deficiencies.

The Cowboys started to do just that earlier today with the news the team had agreed to terms with former Houston Texans’ defensive tackle, Carlos Watkins, on a one-year deal. The retooling continued later in the day with the news Dallas had also agreed to terms on another one-year deal with former Chicago Bears defensive tackle Brent Urban. That announcement actually coming from his wife, Kate Urban, via Twitter.

The impressive 6-foot-7, 300-pound Urban was originally a fourth-round selection by the Baltimore Ravens in the 2014 NFL Draft out of Virginia. He started just three games in his first four injury-plagued seasons with the Ravens.

Urban became a full 16-game starter in 2018 for Baltimore, racking up 27 total tackles and 0.5 sack. The following year, he followed former Ravens defensive coordinator Dean Pees and signed with the Tennesse Titans as a free agent, only to be released during the season.

Urban would find a new home with the Chicago Bears a couple of days later and played all 16 games in the Windy City last year, starting in half of them. The 29-year old defensive lineman is coming off his best season as a professional, recording 2.5 sacks, 36 tackles, and four quarterback hits for the Bears. Now he’ll join a new team in Dallas that’s in desperate need of run stuffers.

According to Pro Football Focus, Brent Urban scored a high run defense grade of 83.7 based on his play over 193 defensive snaps against the run last year.