The onus is always on the Dallas Cowboys to be aggressive in free agency and in the NFL Draft. That comes with the territory of being “America’s Team“, a moniker that has brought about extremely high expectations for the franchise for nearly five decades. But in recent times, these offseasons have been more important than in the past.
The reason for that is the team has found postseason success way too hard to come by. Dallas hasn’t made a Super Bowl since 1996, which was also the last time they won their conference. Despite having a good amount of division success, it hasn’t led to playoff wins, putting Jerry Jones under a lot of pressure to make the right moves. Coming off of a poor season that led to the departue of Mike McCarthy, Jones needed to be aggressive this offseason. Instead, he has chosen to be “selectively aggressive“.
They might let him go! Cowboys next big mistake after this runningback with spectacular talent
One of the areas where the Cowboys needed to get better was in run defense. The front seven constantly got gashed by opposing running backs, giving up over 100 rushing yards in nearly half of their games. Jones did well to quickly re-sign Osa Odighizuwa for the defensive line, while Solomon Thomas should help out there as well. But on Wednesday, the Cowboys traded for a player who may actually make their run defense worse than last year.
Cowboys trade with Titans for Kenneth Murray Jr.
The Tennesee Titans shipped Kenneth Murray Jr. to the Cowboys for a swap of late-round picks. The compensation is cheap, but Murray being on the field at all will make runnning backs’ eyes pop. According to Pro Football Focus, Murray ranked 185th out of 189 linebackers in run defense grade last season. His previous seasons with the Los Angeles Chargers weren’t much better either.
Murray is an athletic specimen and can run and hit, but he also isn’t a great coverage linebacker. He ranked 119th out of 189 there last season. Given that the Cowboys signed Jack Sanborn to a one-year deal, it’s possible the two will battle it out for a starting spot. It doesn’t inspire confidence for a unit low on talent, though.
