1. Marcus Maye, Safety
It really does start to feel like the movie Groundhog Day when it comes to the Dallas Cowboys and their neglect of the safety position. They continue to ignore the spot — even reaching for a backup defensive tackle in Trysten Hill over Juan Thornhill in the 2018 NFL Draft — and year after year, it becomes their downfall.
Dallas continually fields a lackluster pass defense while also never having a game-changing safety — and they ignore the fact that every top-tier pass defense has such a safety. Perhaps this offseason will be the one where they finally admit they cannot nickel-and-dime their way through the position. Or maybe, they will finally see that throwing one sixth-round pick after another at the spot won’t work.
If so, they could be in luck because there’s a very talented safety about to hit the open market in Marcus Maye. For a couple of years, Dallas was reportedly interested in Jamal Adams, who started next to Maye with the New York Jets. However, they never pulled the trigger on a deal for Adams and that could end up helping them now, since it means they can go after Maye who is a better player in pass coverage, which is what Dallas needs.
Maye is coming off his best campaign, recording 88 tackles, breaking up 11 passes, and recording two picks. He also forced two fumbles and had a couple of sacks for the Jets.
In Dallas, Maye would be an ideal fit as the deep safety while they could use Donovan Wilson as the strong safety, capable of playing closer to the line. Not only would it give them their best starting safety duo in recent memory, but Maye could help the cornerbacks as well since they would finally have a deep safety they could trust playing behind them.