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Dallas Cowboys: Evaluating Orlando Scandrick Extension

By Kevin Parvizi

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Dallas Cowboys top cornerback Orlando Scandrick made it known that he wasn’t happy with his contract situation, but he did return to practice this week after skipping out on workouts earlier this offseason. Although he was signed to a new deal a couple of years ago, Scandrick blossomed last season and is one of the most underrated cornerbacks in the league as the undisputed star of the Cowboys secondary. Scandrick helps keep that unit afloat, and his ability to play inside and outside aided the Cowboys improvement in 2014 as a defense.

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Yesterday, the Cowboys decided to reward one of their most valuable defensive players with a new deal, signing him to a one-year extension worth $9.5 million. Per ESPN Dallas’s Todd Archer, this means that Scandrick will now make $20 million over the next five seasons, and while that’s a bump over what he was about to be paid, it’s still a bargain.

The Cowboys stated that they wouldn’t do a deal if it didn’t make sense, but this does make sense. Yes, they are giving another one of their own players a raise, but it doesn’t really hurt their cap situation.

Not only have they succeeded in keeping one of their more important players healthy, but the Cowboys aren’t exactly paying Scandrick much either. Under his previous deal, Scandrick was making $3 million per season, so the bump up to $4 million per year isn’t exactly a huge commitment on their part. I mean, he is their best cornerback, and they couldn’t really afford to tick him off given that Brandon Carr and the injury/burn-prone Morris Claiborne are the top two cornerbacks behind him on the team’s depth chart.

He may be 28, but since he can lock it down in the slot, it’s hard to see Scandrick losing value even late on in the contract. The Dallas Cowboys still have one of their top defensive players locked up through his prime, and without overpaying, they’ve made it clear that they value him and are interested in keeping him happy.

Scandrick said, via ESPN’s Archer, “I would like to think I’m going to be (a Cowboy) for life … It’s now on me to take care of my end of the bargain.”

It’s always nice to hear stories of a player getting rewarded after establishing themselves as a vital part of a team, and I certainly wouldn’t want to see what this Cowboys secondary would look like without Scandrick back there as an underrated cover man. He plays a difficult role for the team, and it’s great but thoroughly unsurprising to hear that he’s ready to make good on his team’s faith in him.

This isn’t a big investment on Jerry Jones‘s part, but it’s an investment, nonetheless, and Scandrick knows how easy it is for teams to ignore the pleas of a player, especially when they, as VP Stephen Jones noted, agreed to deal with them not-so-long ago. However, this is just good business on the part of the Cowboys, and it will be interesting to see how Scandrick follows up a career-best campaign that would have went under-the-radar (and unrewarded) without his decision to speak up about his desire to receive a new deal that more properly compensated him.

Of course, if Scandrick is able to replicate his success last season, then he’s still a bargain for the Cowboys at $4 million per year. He’ll become less of a bargain later on in the deal, but the Cowboys are still winners in this deal overall. Because just like in Scandrick’s original deal, they have a large amount of control over him over the course of the contract, meaning that it’s a team-friendly deal that locks him in under the Cowboys control; in theory, this was his last big payday with them. Both sides seemingly wanted stability with Scandrick pining for a raise, so this move makes sense for both player and team.

Next: How important is Scandrick?

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