Dallas Cowboys: Who were the best additions to the team during the 2018 offseason?

The Dallas Cowboys have added a lot of new faces in 2018. Let’s take a look at some of the best acquisitions of the 2018 offseason.

The Dallas Cowboys have added so many new faces during the 2018 offseason it appears to be a completely different team. The departures of Dez Bryant, Anthony Hitchens, Jason Witten, among others make this team completely unrecognizable.

With so many new additions it is easy to wonder which one will be the most beneficial. Let’s take a look at some of the players and coaches that could impact the 2018 season the most.

Allen Hurns/Tavon Austin/Michael Gallup: All of these players are interesting for their own individual reasons. Dak Prescott in his third season in the NFL will have more options than ever to choose from in terms of the type of wide receiver he can throw to.

Gallup may be the most intriguing as no one has seen what he can do on a professional level. He has big hands and a pretty wide catch radius. Prescott loves to target players who run hitch routes and Gallup is likely the best at that.

If that is the case, Gallup could play a major role in the upcoming season. Hurns is another big-bodied receiver who can make some big plays. He is the only receiver on the roster who has had experience being the most targeted guy on the roster but he can also play a complementary role.

He also is a true team player who can play on the inside or outside making him and Gallup quite versatile. Finally, we look at Tavon Austin who really has never reached his full potential in the NFL. Stuck with a bad St. Louis Rams team for years, Austin was relegated to gadget plays over the last two seasons.

Always a top-tier punt return man, Austin does have multiple offensive skills that make him quite dangerous. He likely will not be catching deep balls anytime soon, so he should be one of the players utilized in the screen/sweeps.

The Dallas Cowboys have said that they view him more as a running back so he could very well play a bigger role than we think. Anyway, you look at it, adding such a wide array of wide receivers gives Prescott a ton of places to go with the ball this season.

Kris Richard: I don’t remember a coach signing for the Dallas Cowboys in recent memory that made a bigger splash than this one. Richard was pegged as a head coach candidate for the last two seasons. With the Seattle Seahawks he was the architect of the “Legion of Boom” now he hopes to recreate that success in Dallas.

Richard has a young talented group of corners and safeties in Big D and that should help his ideas translate fairly well on the football field. There are already rumors that Richard will take over for Rod Marinelli when he eventually retires and that is why he took the job as the Dallas Cowboys secondary coach. The Cowboys secondary is a large part of the reason why the team has not had deep playoff runs over the last few seasons, so expect a massive culture change in the defensive backfield.

Connor Williams: Purely from a run blocking perspective, this guy is exciting. Williams has a bonafide mean streak when it comes to run blocking and Ezekiel Elliott likely enjoyed this draft selection the most.

Williams fell shockingly to the second round which forced the Cowboys hand in drafting such a talented offensive lineman. This was a guy who was projected to go in the top 20. You can look at the Cowboys draft and clearly argue that they got two first-round round picks with Williams and Leighton Vander Esch.

It was absolutely necessary for the Dallas Cowboys to fix this offensive line after Dak got pummeled in 2017. The Atlanta Falcons sack party should never happen again and the drafting of Connor Williams strengthens the belief that it won’t. The team also added some backup swing tackles and key depth pieces to make sure the burden of plugging this whole was evenly spread out.

So far, athletically Williams looks like a Zack Martin-esque type of player. His footwork is phenominal and he has a bit of a mean streak to him. The addition of Williams could prove to be the most important factor in keeping this offense running smoothly.

Leighton Vander Esch: Finally Dallas Cowboy fans can relax and have some hope for the defensive unit. In 2017 the secondary and the defensive line were highly productive. The linebacking corps would always be a liability if Sean Lee was off the field, now that may not be as much of an issue.

Vander Esch is one of my favorite players in the 2018 draft class and it is because of his superior football knowledge and ability to pick things up very fast. He is a day one starter and could either lineup with Jaylon Smith and Lee in the starting rotation or spell Lee when necessary. As a plus, Vander Esch will get to learn a lot from Lee as the Cowboys veteran enters the latter stages of his career.

A more balanced and solidified group of linebackers will only make this defense more difficult to stop. I also love the fact that he should be able to take significant snaps by Week One because that will likely be the case. If not the Dallas Cowboys would have gone in a different direction and likely would have signed Mychal Kendricks by now.

Next: Dallas Cowboys: Dez Bryant wants to join the San Francisco 49ers?

Expect the Cowboys defense to take a big step forward in 2018.