Dallas Cowboys: Free Agent Safety Eric Weddle
By Reid Hanson
Could the Dallas Cowboys be interested in the soon-to-be-free agent ballhawk, Eric Weddle? They’d better be…
Few safeties have been as dominant as former San Diego Charger Eric Weddle has been over the past few seasons. Weddle, a San Diego fan-favorite, beard aficionado, and deep safety extraordinaire, finds himself on the open market this March and the Dallas Cowboys would be wise to take notice.
The Dallas Cowboys, clearly in the market for a safety, may be the perfect match for the recently-turned 31-year old defensive back. With nine years’ experience, 19 career interceptions, and years of playing in the NFL as the lone deep safety, Eric Weddle is ready to hit the open market in 2016.
With the decline of J.J. Wilcox and the uncertain future of Barry Church, the Dallas Cowboys are in the need for a safety. Not a hard hitting type like the vast majority of the safeties in this league are, but a safety with coverage skills.
It’s because of that the Cowboys are looking at possibly investing their top draft pick in the position. Rumors are surfacing that the Cowboys value Florida State defensive back Jalen Ramsey more than anyone else in this draft. After seeing their last top-10 drafted defensive back, Morris Claiborne, crash and burn, it’s understandable Cowboys Nation are a little gun-shy investing so high in the secondary again.
Weddle was ranked as last season’s second-best coverage safety in the NFL
If the Cowboys address the safety position in free agency, they wouldn’t feel compelled to use that all-too-valuable draft pick this spring.
With budding star Byron Jones entrenched as one safety, adding a second would do wonders for this defense’s coverage ability.
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Weddle, a proven deep safety, would free Jones to move closer to the line and match up against the opposition’s tight end again. Not only that, but it would form the best safety tandem this side of Seattle.
Eric Weddle is going to hit free agency. That much is true. Fellow soon-to-be free agent safety, Eric Berry, will probably work something out with his team, but Weddle is going to hit the market. The bridges are burned, the fire is stoked, and Eric Weddle has something to prove.
The bad blood started in the offseason when Weddle wasn’t offered a contract extension. From there it built, peaking when Weddle was fined for remaining on the sideline to watch his daughter perform over halftime. Weddle was soon placed on IR and that’s seemingly all she wrote on his Chargers career.
“I probably won’t speak to them again,” Weddle said of his Chargers relationship.
If it sounds like Eric Weddle has a chip on his shoulder – he does. He always does, really. That’s how he’s wired. And it’s a fantastic trait in a football player. By all accounts, 2015 was a down season for Weddle, but despite that, he was still ranked by Pro Football Focus as last season’s second best coverage safety in NFL.
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For as good as Eric Weddle is, he isn’t flawless on the field. Weddle is a phenomenal deep safety, but he’s out of place in the box and in run support. Think of him as the polar opposite of Barry Church. If the Cowboys sign Weddle, it will be to play that deep centerfield role. The result of which would keep Byron Jones matched up on opposing TEs when the Cowboys are playing single high safety (which they do 90% of the time).
When the Cowboys are in Tampa 2 and Cover 2, both Byron Jones and Eric Weddle would, of course, play the deep two. A pairing like this not only plays to both Weddle’s and Jones’ strengths, but it gives the Cowboys an enormous amount of freedom to take risks elsewhere. For instance, it would also allow the Cowboys to go cheap at CB, should they decide to let both Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne leave Dallas.
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Safeties like Eric Weddle don’t come around very often in free agency and while 31 isn’t exactly youthful, it isn’t over the hill either and would instantly upgrade the Cowboys defense across the board allowing them to spend that top draft pick at position of greater need.