Should the Dallas Cowboys be interested in bolstering their roster, they could sign these three players before camp begins
Last season, the Dallas Cowboys were just 8-8 although their roster suggested they should have been much better than that. The fact that they finished with that mark led to the departure of head coach Jason Garrett and the hiring of Mike McCarthy.
The former Green Bay Packers coach now takes the helm in Big D and the expectations are as high as ever for the 2020 NFL season. While Dallas did lose Byron Jones and Robert Quinn, they made some solid moves as well. On defense, they signed Dontari Poe and Gerald McCoy to the defensive line and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix in the secondary.
Then in the draft, they were able to secure a lot of talent as well, with Oklahoma wide receiver CeeDee Lamb standing out as their top addition. Even with the success, they had in free agency and the draft, there could still be room for more talent.
With training camp, hopefully, around the corner, we look at some of the players still available and identify three veterans the Cowboys can still sign ahead of camp.
Honorable Mention: Ronald Leary, Guard
This season, the Cowboys offensive line will be undergoing some change as Travis Frederick retired which opens up a spot at center. Right now, rookie Tyler Biadasz, second-year player Connor McGovern, and veteran Joe Looney are the top candidates to play in place of Frederick.
Either McGovern or Biadasz should be the long-term answer but the Cowboys will be losing some depth with one serving as a swing interior lineman capable of playing either guard position as well as center.
And if history is any indicator, that player will be called into action. Starting left guard Connor Williams missed five games last season and three as a rookie. Even the incredibly durable Zack Martin missed time in 2018 as he was out for two games.
Those missed games from their starting guards highlight the need for as much depth as possible and while Looney, McGovern, and Biadasz all have their positive traits, Ron Leary is a much more experienced player.
He won’t help at center but should they need someone to fill in for a game or two at guard, they would be hard-pressed to find a better option than their former starting left guard who spent the past three seasons with the Denver Broncos.
3. Geoff Swaim, Tight End
Why stop with bringing back Ronald Leary when there’s another former Cowboys player who could help in Geoff Swaim. Dallas traded back into the seventh-round of the 2015 NFL Draft to land the Texas product and Swaim spent the following four seasons with the Cowboys.
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Swaim was a reserve for the first three seasons with the team, earning playing time as a blocking tight end behind Jason Witten. When Witten retired in 2018, Swaim was named the starter for Dallas and he held that role for the first nine games before suffering a foot fracture that ended his season.
He finished that final campaign in Dallas with 26 receptions on 32 targets with 242 yards and a touchdown.
Swaim wasn’t retained when Witten returned from retirement and ended up signing with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He again was hampered by injury and played just six games for the Jags before being released this offseason.
Just like he did in Dallas, Swaim proved to be good at hauling in a high percentage of his targets, pulling down 13-of-17 passes thrown his way. For his career, Swaim has caught 80 percent of hid targets (48-of-60) for 336 yards and one score.
The veteran isn’t going to wow anyone with his route running and has just 9.6 yards per catch. What he can do though, is make the catch when the ball comes his way.
Still, he’s always been known more for his blocking ability and with the Cowboys turning to Blake Jarwin full-time, it wouldn’t be the worst idea to bring in a player capable of playing in-line better than Jarwin does.
2. Reshad Jones, Strong Safety
With Rod Marinelli as the defensive coordinator for the past six seasons, the Cowboys criminally underrated two positions — safety and defensive tackle. Fans grew weary of hearing how ‘ol Rod could coach ’em up as the team signed bargain bin safeties and undrafted free agents at each position.
When they did make a decent investment at either, it would be like they did in 2019 when they used a second-round pick on defensive tackle Trysten Hill who was full of questions but Marinelli fell in love with his physical traits and untapped potential. They made this move despite there being several starting-caliber safeties on the board, and so far it looks to have been a mistake.
Thankfully, the team has turned a corner in this philosophy. Gerald McCoy, Dontari Poe, and Neville Gallimore offer up three solid defensive tackles. At safety, they also invested in Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, who will join Xavier Woods. The only problem is, both Woods and Clinton-Dix are better fits at free safety than in the strong safety role.
In the end, this isn’t a huge issue as teams don’t typically play their strong safety exclusively in the box as they used to. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to have someone capable of playing closer to the line of scrimmage, which is why Reshad Jones would make a lot of sense.
A two-time Pro Bowler, Jones has been with the Miami Dolphins since 2010 but has yet to find an NFL home for 2020. At 32 years of age, he wouldn’t be a long-term investment but bringing Jones in on a one-year deal would help improve the Cowboys secondary.
1. Jadeveon Clowney, Defensive End
Dallas did a decent job replacing all the free agents they lost with the exception of one. Randall Cobb went to Houston, but they drafted CeeDee Lamb. Byron Jones exited for Miami and they added Trevon Diggs in the draft. They also replaced Maliek Collins with Gerald McCoy.
Some of those moves were upgrades, some were not. But they did at least make an effort to replace their departing starters everywhere, except at defensive end. Robert Quinn led the team with 11.5 sacks in his lone season in Dallas, which led to him cashing in with the Chicago Bears.
In his absence, they look ready to turn to Tyrone Crawford, Aldon Smith, and Dorrance Armstrong as the primary options. Crawford is an underrated player and Smith has a lot of potential, although he hasn’t played in four seasons making him a massive question mark. Armstrong is still a relative unknown.
Having said all that, they could go into the season with these players as their rotation, which isn’t terrible considering they have DeMarcus Lawrence on the left side. However, they could still find a way to improve should they decide to give Jadeveon Clowney a shot.
Clowney was apparently a consideration for Dallas but his price tag was too high. Now that we are in mid-June, there’s a chance Clowney’s demands will finally come down. Should that be the case, Dallas could do a lot worse than signing him to a short-term contract as their right defensive end.
A former No. 1 overall pick out of South Carolina, Clowney could be an even bigger success story than Quinn was for Dallas in 2019. It wouldn’t be cheap but adding him would improve the entire defense as quarterbacks would hardly have any time to get comfortable in the pocket with him and Lawrence on the same line.