The Dallas Cowboys didn’t make a big splash when it came to filling the void left after the departure of defensive end Robert Quinn in free agency. In 2019, the club traded a sixth-round pick for the former Rams and Dolphins star, and in turn got a team-leading 11.5 sacks as he crushed through some of the most double-teams of any edge rusher in the league. It earned the elder statesman a five-year, $70 million deal with the Chicago Bears and left a hole in Dallas’ defensive line.
Instead of going big at end, the Cowboys shored up the interior, inking Gerald McCoy and Dontari Poe. On the edge, the team will rely on the return of Tyrone Crawford after an injury-plagued year and hope that the new CBA which removed failed marijuana testing from the suspension track will mean the reinstatement of Randy Gregory. The team also signed Aldon Smith, who is also indefinitely suspended. The team expects both to be reinstated by the beginning of the league year, but if there’s any trepidation in their availability, the team will have to make a draft move. According to ESPN’s Ed Werder, the team will not hear from the NFL league offices about either of the petitioned reinstatements.
There’s no way the Cowboys can proceed with a plan to have either as an integral cog in their rotation; there’s simply too much history with both regardless of relaxed league rules. Smith’s suspensions have had to do with arrests, and although he’s come through a serious rehab stint, he’s a single violation away from another indefinite suspension, if not lifetime ban. Even with their long-term uncertainty though, having both in the fold would still have an impact on the team’s draft plans even it neither would preclude a high-pedigree expenditure along the line.
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