Dallas Cowboys Draft: Is Patrick Surtain II or Caleb Farley the better choice
The Dallas Cowboys have a top 10 pick and are in need of a cornerback. With Caleb Farley and Patrick Surtain II the two most popular names, who is the better selection?
The offseason is two weeks old and the Dallas Cowboys have already had a busy one. It kicked off with the firing of DC Mike Nolan and DL coach Jim Tomsula. Later in the week DB coach Maurice Linguist found himself leaving the Star without a job in hand after a rough start to his professional coaching career.
Rather quickly the team found replacements for the holes with former Atlanta HC and Seattle DC Dan Quinn filling in as the defensive coordinator, former Atlanta secondary coach and passing game coordinator Joe Whitt Jr signed in Dallas with the same position. The DL position coach spot is currently vacant but should be filled relatively quickly as an in-house move with George Edwards is a possibility.
A year after a more “multiple” approach was brought to the defense, the organization has reverted to the 4-3 1-gapping front in the “Seattle Cover 1/Cover 3” defense. There was concern about how the personnel would work after reports that Nolan wanted to mix in odd and even fronts leading many people to believe that the team was potentially undergoing a shift to a 3-4 base defense.
Who’s the better option for the Dallas Cowboys, Caleb Farley or Patrick Surtain II?
All it ultimately proved is that people aren’t actually familiar with what four down linemen entails.
It was the first time in a long time that Dallas had their interior defensive line 2-gap and it didn’t work because they simply didn’t have the right personnel for the job. The defensive linemen they signed either got injured or were terrible acquisitions and were left playing undersized defensive tackles in Tyrone Crawford and Trysten Hill on early-down situations which led to one of the worst rushing defenses in NFL history.
The Cowboys understand this and with Quinn coming from a defensive line background, there likely will be an emphasis on getting both 1-gap penetrating defensive tackles in addition to 2-gapping run-stopping big boys this free agency.
This now leaves us at cornerback. The team drafted Trevon Diggs in the second round of the 2020 NFL draft and he should promise to be a consistent cornerback in the league. Outside of Anthony Brown, it is hard to make the same claim regarding anyone else. Chidobe Awuzie started off the season quite well and then fell off a cliff. Jourdan Lewis looked completely out of place and looked more suited to play safety.
So with two solid to good cornerbacks on the roster, cornerback is a pretty dire need in the upcoming draft. Fortunately, like last year the draft class is quite deep at the position and the Cowboys are in a good spot to grab one of the best available at the position.
For that reason, two names will forever be linked to the team until late April: Caleb Farley and Patrick Surtain II.
Let’s meet the both of them!