Dallas Cowboys: Can-shaped cranberries are great – so is Jourdan Lewis

For some reason the Dallas Cowboys don’t love Jourdan Lewis as much as the rest of us. Our love for him is much like my adoration of can-shaped cranberries.

They say love is in the eye of the beholder. What may be unattractive or less than ideal to one person, could be the bee’s knees to someone else. Here at Thanksgiving time, I immediately think of can-shaped cranberries. My wife and I absolutely love them. They are a staple. Most of our guests? Not so much. Such is also the case of the Dallas Cowboys diminutive cornerback, Jourdan Lewis. Lewis, a Cowboys Nation fan favorite, has struggled earning the same love from the defensive coaching staff.

Yes, Jason Garrett, Rod Marinelli, and Kris Richard say all the right things, but actions speak louder than words and the coaching staffs’ actions say they’d rather roll out a number of options over Lewis. If it weren’t for injuries, Lewis would probably still be on the bench. Even now he’s inexplicably stuck behind Chidobe Awuzie on the depth chart.

Chido’s been struggling all season and it only seems to be getting worse. He’s ill-suited to play outside CB in Dallas’ Cover 3/ Cover 1 heavy scheme and it shows on a regular basis. Meanwhile, Lewis shines every opportunity he gets.

Since safety assignments and cornerback assignments overlap considerably in Dallas’ scheme, Pro Football Focus chooses to grade Lewis as a safety. His 75.4 grade makes him the 19th rated safety in the NFL (one spot below Xavier Woods and two spots below Earl Thomas). But if you’re like most of us in Cowboys Nation, you consider him a cornerback regardless of assignment or role. Well, if you compared him to his CB peers this season he’d come in as the 24th rated CB. Not too bad for the No. 4 CB (Anthony Brown was No. 3 until his injury). And it’s considerably better than the 52nd ranked Chido.

Yet, over the last three games Chido has played 68, 63, and 68 snaps, respectively. While Lewis just logged 19, 29, and 53 over the same span. And the primary reason he scored 53 snaps on Sunday was because Leighton Vander Esch was out and Dallas had to play more nickel defense than base 4-3.

Throughout his tenure, Jourdan Lewis has shined in whatever task was asked of him. The same can’t be said of Chido, or even Byron Jones, for that matter.

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Fans universally love Lewis. He may not fit Richard’s profile of a top-2 CB but he sure plays like it. Just like can-shaped cranberries may not be right for some people, to my wife and I, they (the can-shape is singular but we slice it into tasty gelatin disks that makes it plural) are awesome.

Sometimes it’s hard to understand what the other guy sees (or doesn’t see) in something. Jourdan Lewis seems so dang obvious to most of us, it’s staggering to think the powers that be on the coaching staff think otherwise.

Just like those can-shaped cranberries. They’re awesome. What’s wrong with ya’ll?

What do you think Cowboys Nation? Should Jourdan Lewis be starting? Are can-shaped cranberries misunderstood deliciousness?

• Published on 11/27/2019 at 17:01 PM
• Last updated at 11/27/2019 at 12:47 PM