Dallas Cowboys: It’s the perfect time to draft a safety

The Dallas Cowboys opted out of the Earl Thomas bidding war and decided to stand pat at the safety position early in free agency, here’s why that will pay off

The Dallas Cowboys have been linked to Earl Thomas for roughly the last 16 months. Whether it was a trade bringing Earl to Dallas, or free agency ushering him in, Earl Thomas seemed like an inevitability ’round these parts.

But alas that never came to be. And since Thomas just signed a four-year deal with a franchise that arguably values elite safety play more than any other team, it’s likely Earl will never play football for Dallas.

In an absolutely loaded free agent market, Thomas still found a way to break the bank. And as other free agent safeties came off the market early in free agency, all of them proved too rich for the Dallas Cowboys’ liking.

Dallas has been courting a pair of free agent safeties this week.But even if they sign one of them, they will probably only serve as a short term Band Aid and Dallas will still need to use the draft to fill the long-term needs of the club.

The Perfect Situation

And that willpower to resist the irresistible has put the Dallas Cowboys in the perfect position today. At this point, whether the Cowboys address safety in free agency and/or in the NFL Draft, they’re sure to find value.

The flooded free agent market has already allowed many of the most safety-needy teams to fill their safety roster holes. With that position no longer a top need, these teams will likely be looking elsewhere in the draft.

While this year’s safety class may be considered average, the demand is so low certain high-end talents are sure to fall over draft weekend. For a team like the Dallas Cowboys who appear to be biding their time, this is the perfect situation to find some steals in the upcoming draft.

It’s not surprising that the top-5 safeties in this draft class vary. It depends on which scouts you consult and what schemes they’re asked to fit. But generally speaking we’ve identified Nasir Adderly, Deionte Thompson, Juan Thornhill, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, and Taylor Rapp as the top prospects coming out (with all due respect to Johnathan Abram, Amani Hooker, and Darnell Savage).

Earlier in the winter it seemed probable many, if not all, of these top safeties would be off the board when Dallas went on the clock at Pick 58. But in the aftermath of free agency, many of those team we had selecting a safety are now going in different direction – setting up for some very interesting falls.

For a team that is in need of a safety and isn’t overly picky on which one, this is setting up to be ideal. The Dallas Cowboys appear to be one of those teams.

The beauty of Xavier Woods is he’s a complete safety. He may have played primarily free safety last season (becoming a better-than-average single high center fielder) but before that be served as an in-the-box safety with both gap responsibility as well as man coverage responsibility.

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Despite his slender build, Woods has proven to be both a sure tackler as well as a versatile cover man. Because of this, he can play either safety role on the Dallas Cowboys, up to and including an extra slot defensive back.

It’s Woods’ versatility that allows the Dallas Cowboys to be flexible in their draft day hunting. It’s safe to say, we’d all feel better if Jeff Heath was the No. 3 safety rather than the starting safety in 2019.

Even if the Dallas Cowboys don’t find the answer in the draft, the market still has a couple players available in free agency that will likely settle for low-dollar and low-commitment deals so they can prove their value for next year (like what Tre Boston and Tyrann Mathieu did in 2018).

This draft is shaping up to have one or more highly ranked safety fall to Dallas, largely because of what just happened in the free agent spending spree. The Dallas Cowboys are in a very good spot to take advantage.

• Published on 03/20/2019 at 11:00 AM
• Last updated at 03/19/2019 at 19:02 PM