Worse: Secondary
First off, let’s just say that it was understandable that Dallas didn’t give Earl Thomas a four-year, $55 million deal. Yes, he’s arguably a top-three safety in the league but that kind of money would have crippled them. It could have hurt their chances of landing Randall Cobb or Robert Quinn. It also could have spilled over into the DeMarcus Lawrence deal or affected their upcoming contract talks with Dak Prescott, Amari Cooper, Jaylon Smith and Ezekiel Elliott.
Even with all that being true, the Cowboys still didn’t do enough to improve their secondary. To be fair, their belief is that the added pass rush will help as the corners and safeties won’t have to play coverage as long. There’s some truth to that, but it doesn’t always work out that way. You need playmakers on the back end, plain and simple.
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Dallas had a shot to do this in the draft with Juan Thornhill from Virginia still on the board in the second round. They elected to go Trysten Hill instead. They again had a chance with Chauncey Gardner-Johnson sitting there in the third, but they decided to take guard Connor McGovern.
By waiting, Dallas has decided to put their faith in the same secondary from a season ago, with only George Iloka as the new starter. Granted, this doesn’t mean they’re going to be terrible, but there’s no reason to think they will be markedly better.
In fact, cornerback Byron Jones had even started to decline as the season wore on. A hot start was still enough to get him in the Pro Bowl, but he wasn’t the same player down the stretch. Unless he rebounds, this season may not go as planned in the Dallas secondary.