Cowboys: Ranking Moves In Free Agency So Far

The Dallas Cowboys spent last week making moves designed to take a team that finished 4-12 last season closer to the 12-4 mark it reached just a year prior.

Dallas Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones said early on that his franchise would not be spending big bucks on veteran football players that were no longer wanted by their previous teams. It’s an understatement that the Cowboys have been bitten by poor expenditures in the past, much like every other team in the NFL.

Free agency has emerged as a more and more unpopular way to build a football team, and while the Cowboys have never used this time of year to build a contender, they have tried with varied degrees of success to improve a team that hasn’t won a Super Bowl since the third year that the current system of FA even existed.

While last week’s moves were rather quiet, there’s a few that could be quite significant sooner than later. In addition to bolstering a roster that needs, at the very least, quality depth at certain positions, there’s also a starting role or two that might have also been filled with a little more than a handful of players either acquired or retained in preparation for next season.

The following is a ranking, in terms of importance and expected impact, of each of Dallas’ seven key moves so far. This does not include the tenders offered to restricted free agents Ron Leary, a former starting offensive guard undrafted in 2012, or safety Jeff Heath, a third-year veteran who led the team in interceptions last season with two.

Leary was offered a second-round tender, which essentially means that any other team interested in his services has to go through the Cowboys to get that done. In other words, Dallas won’t be left empty handed should a team decide to push the envelope for Leary.

Heath is a guy who’s worth holding onto simply because of the uncertainty surrounding the safety position. The former Saginaw Valley State defensive back has three career interceptions with the Cowboys, can run like the wind and could possibly replace either J.J. Wilcox or Barry Church in the future – last year’s first-round selection, Byron Jones, appears in line to take over the free safety spot in 2016.

Elsewhere, this is what the Cowboys have accomplished …

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