The Cowboys went into the 2023 season with what appeared to be their best safety group in over a decade. Donovan Wilson, Malik Hooker and Jayron Kease formed a versatile and proven trio in Dallas the season prior. It seemed after years of neglect the Cowboys finally had assets on the backend and not liabilities.
But like what has happened many times before in Dallas, performance at the position proved unstable, and the Cowboys trio fell short of their expectations. It’s something the franchise has seen before and likely a big reason why they’ve made such a half-hearted effort in filling it over the years.
In the past they saw players like Ken Hamlin and Gerald Sensabaugh follow up good years with bad years. Both played well enough to earn new contracts in Dallas (Hamlin even went to the Pro Bowl in 2007) and both, soon after, fell flat. It cultivated a distrust in the position and as a result cursed it to a revolving door of personnel.
Kearse, a free agent in March, is not expected to be back with the club in 2024. 2023 was his worst season in Dallas as he struggled in both phases of the game, frequently committing back-breaking penalties along the way. It was the polar opposite of his 2021 season when he established himself as one of Dan Quinn’s most versatile weapons on the defense.
Wilson was already known as a high variance player. He takes big swings and often gets big-swing results. He has good games and bad games but last season there appeared to be a little more bad than good.
Hooker was the toughest evaluation. As the Cowboys’ primary free safety, Hooker plays on the backend most of the day. His evaluation requires All-22 copy since he’s not even on the screen in a typical broadcast.
Hooker’s value was as a deterrent. The All-22 showed he was often in good position to make passers look elsewhere and the numbers back it up. In 16 games, he was only targeted 23 times. That’s the lowest number of targets since he joined the Cowboys. The completion percentage against was just 56.5% which is also his lowest since joining Dallas.
Yet Hooker’s yards/target and passer rating allowed, both went up and became his worst since joining the Cowboys. Hooker was the only Dallas safety to grade in PFF’s top-50, but he wasn’t as impactful as he’d been the season before.
This high variance play isn’t unique to the Cowboys. Since defensive coordinators change, coverage schemes change. And since coverages change, players change. It’s not uncommon to see a one-time Pro Bowl safety bounce around the league year after year. The position itself is volatile and the demands are ever-changing.