NFL Free Agency 2020: 5 Best landing spots for Arik Armstead
By Tom Franich
4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Like their NFC South rivals in the Falcons, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished the season at 7-9 and out of the playoff picture. The Bucs seemed like a tough team to predict early in the season, beating teams as underdogs on the road, then dropping games at home against teams when they were favored.
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They averaged allowing 28 points per game and, with their crazy turnover rate, it normally wasn’t easy to overcome that poor of a defensive effort overall. The positive side to their defense was Shaquil Barrett, as he lead the league with 19.5 sacks. However, Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul and Ndamukong Suh are all unrestricted free agents. And even if the Bucs retain Barrett, they need to offer him help in generating pressure up front.
Putting Armstead with Barrett would be a strong and entertaining force on Tampa Bay’s defense. We will see if they are aggressive enough, though, as they deal with their other roster issues.
3. Dallas Cowboys
Though the Dallas Cowboys finished first in their division in points scored and points allowed, they still concluded the season with an 8-8 record and one game short of a playoff spot. Jerry Jones is going to want to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
Though the offseason drama has been surrounding Dak Prescott and how Dallas plans to handle his future with the team, the Cowboys do have some other big-name players to worry about as free agency approaches. They must figure out what to do with the likes of 2019 sack leader Robert Quinn, veteran defensive end Michael Bennett, cornerback Byron Jones and wide receiver Amari Cooper.
Dallas has plenty of money to work with under the salary cap this offseason and, depending on how they apply the franchise tag and who they choose to re-sign, they could have the room to sign Armstead. Doing so would be a tremendous asset for the Cowboys defensive line.