Most will agree, Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland give the Cowboys one of the NFL’s best one-two punches at cornerback. The ball-hawking tandem of Diggs and Bland is enough to send the shivers up any quarterback’s spine, even if they seem to offer up as many opportunities as they steal.
Looking towards the 2024 season it appears CB is one of the only positions Dallas doesn’t need to seriously address. With needs all over the roster, it’s tempting to ignore CB completely, especially since Dallas went out of their way to re-sign Jourdan Lewis to a 1-year, $2,827,500 this March.
Retaining Lewis means the Cowboys are three-deep at the CB position. Diggs and Bland will man the boundary while Lewis reclaims his role as the top nickel option. Nahshon Wright and Eric Scott both expect to be back in the mix of things in 2024 but neither are assured a roster spot, let alone a viable role in the defensive backfield.
Diggs, Bland and Lewis give the Cowboys a strong trio of starting CBs and as long as they all stay healthy in 2024, there’s no reason to think they won’t be one of the more formidable units in the league. But is it reasonable to expect an injury-free campaign?
The Cowboys know a thing or two about CB injuries. In 2022 major injuries to Anthony Brown and Lewis forced Dallas to dig deep in the well for CB options. It was a major problem late in the season, forcing Dallas to turn to free agents off the street just to survive.
In 2023 a season ending injury to Trevon Diggs forced them to recast their nickel CB, Bland, into a boundary role and push the recovering Lewis back into the top-three.
Over the last two years, the Cowboys have been rewarded by going four-deep in their roster construction. If anything, they learned they need more, not less, at the CB position each year because injuries are seemingly inevitable and consequences have been severe.
The Cowboys should feel great about their starting trio, but their depth should concern everyone. Even if the Cowboys are confident in Wright or Scott, they likely need another option before the season. Whether that option is a veteran insurance policy or a mid-to-late round draft pick, isn’t important, but someone else must still be added to the mix.
It’s a numbers game at CB and right now the Cowboys don’t have enough of them.
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