While the Dallas Cowboys have already taken care of a couple of players who were set to become unrestricted free agents when the new league year starts next week, signing running back Javonte Williams to a new three-year contract and placing the franchise tag on All-Pro wideout George Pickens, Jerry Jones & Co. still have plenty of decisions to make, one of which involves edge rusher Sam Williams.
Now, the general consensus among fans of America's Team seems to be that while Williams has shown flashes of brilliance here and there since being taken in the second round in 2022 with the No. 56 overall pick, the Ole Miss alum simply hasn't lived up to that draft status. As such, most seem to feel that Dallas bringing Williams back would be a mistake.
That said, Cowboys insider Todd Archer of ESPN, who recently examined each of the team's pending free agents, is reporting that Williams may indeed be donning a star on the side of his helmet in 2026.
"The Cowboys tried to sign [Sam Williams] to an extension last summer, but he passed," Archer wrote. "He had one sack, six tackles for loss, and 25 pressures. More than likely, he will look for a chance elsewhere, but there is a price at which the Cowboys would bring him back."
The Dallas Cowboys should not bring back Sam Williams
Archer failed to offer up exactly what that figure might be, but it's certainly no secret that Jones has a tendency to overpay at times.
And Archer's comment about the Cowboys' attempt to sign Williams to an extension a year ago would have been a prime example, as he missed the entire 2024 season after suffering a torn ACL in the early days of training camp and a partially torn MCL. Is that really the time to start talking about a new deal? The easy answer to that question is no, by the way.
Look, it's not as if Williams doesn't possess the tools to be a solid player. At 6-foot-4 and 260-plus pounds, he's got the size and strength to play the edge at the professional level, but some may not be aware that he ran a 4.46 40 at the NFL Combine. So, he's got speed as well. He's just been far too inconsistent.
As mentioned, he's shown plenty of promise at times, and he even finished fifth in the Defensive Rookie of the Year voting back in 2022. But he just hasn't been able to get back to that level in the years since, and that devastating knee injury clearly made an impact.
After racking up 8.5 sacks over his first two seasons, Williams, as Archer mentioned, had just one this past season. And that was with playing the second-most pass-rush snaps of any Dallas edge defender. The fact that his 57.5 overall PFF grade ranked 93rd among 115 eligible players at his position obviously doesn't look great during a contract year either.
Now, if the Cowboys could bring Williams back for the $2.3 million Spotrac projects him to receive in 2026, then it might not be a bad depth play. But anything beyond that would simply be far too much at this point, even if it could be intriguing to see how he'd perform in the new scheme new defensive coordinator Christian Parker seems to want to implement.
We'll know soon enough what the Cowboys plan to do with Williams, as the legal tampering period for free agents begins on Monday.