Dallas Cowboys defensive additions will be more fruitful than 2020 signings

The Dallas Cowboys made several moves in 2020 to try and fix their defense and most of them backfired. So far in 2021, they’ve taken a better approach.

In 2020, the Dallas Cowboys were trying to fix their porous defense and did so by signing players who were on the back end of their respective careers to discounted contracts. Names such as Dontari Poe, Gerald McCoy, and HaHa Clinton-Dix were all added — and none made an impact.

In fact, Poe was the only one to make the 53-man roster (in fairness to McCoy he suffered a quad injury) although he played just seven games before being cut. This season, however, the front office is taken a different approach, and it’s a much better one.

Dallas once again started free agency off without making many moves (outside of extending Dak Prescott) but that changed on Thursday. That’s when they decided to sign three defenders, coming to terms with defensive tackles Brent Urban and Carlos Watkins as well as edge defender Tarell Basham. This was in addition to retaining Antwaun Woods, their best nose tackle over the past couple of seasons.

At first glance, none of these names jump off the page but all three could potentially be valuable members of the defense in 2021. Urban, for example, has proven to be a stellar run defender. An eight-year veteran, he played for Chicago in 2020 and had 36 tackles with 2.5 sacks and he finished as the third-best run defender in the NFL.

Urban will be joined by Watkins who hasn’t been as impressive but he has been playing out of position. At 6-3 and 297 pounds, Watkins is built to play tackle in a four-man line but has been on the end in the Texans’ three-man front.

He still had respectable numbers, including 27 tackles (four for a loss) and two sacks but could be even better in 2021 playing inside for Dallas.

Lastly, there was Basham who also performed well against the run while still bringing the heat as a pass rusher. According to Pro Football Reference, he had 23 pressures this past season which ended up being a career-high for him. Even with those pressures, Basham was at his best when it came to setting the edge in run defense.

If it feels as though there’s a trend, it’s because there is. In 2020, Dallas was 31st in the NFL in run defense and all three of these signings were designed to get better in this area. Sure, being able to sack the quarterback is the sexy part of playing defense but sometimes the best way to do that is to shut down the run and force the offense into third-and-long situations where players such as DeMarcus Lawrence and Randy Gregory can pin their ears back and get after the passer.

Even more importantly, all three of these players come in during their prime — with Urban being the only one that will be 30 when the season begins. Watkins and Basham, on the other hand, are both just 27 years of age.

Clearly, the Dallas front office learned from their mistakes in 2020 and while these signings haven’t been flashy, they could all be highly effective.