Tag: 2021 player profile

Peg Leg with a Kick Stand: Greg Zuerlein gives Cowboys shot at points from the far side

Zuerlein had a solid first season in Dallas. Coming off an injury and limited practice time, he’ll have to get back to form quickly in 2021. | From @CDBurnett7

Ever since the Dan Bailey era, the Cowboys have been trying to capture perfection in a new kicker. Special teams coordinator John Fassel is now notorious for bringing in familiar faces and Greg Zuerlein was the very first one who came over with him from Los Angeles.

Zuerlein was an All-Pro kicker in 2017 and is known for his range, being donned the nickname “Greg the Leg” during his career. In his first season in Dallas, Zuerlein missed just one field goal under 50 yards in 32 attempts. After a shaky 2019 season with the Rams where he made only 72.7% of his field-goal attempts, Zuerlein showed consistency and even heroics with the infamous onside kick and a game-winning field goal against the Falcons.

The Nebraska native has been sidelined during the preseason with a back issue but was able to get some game time in the preseason finale. Entering the second of his three-year deal with Dallas, a similar season to 2020 will be a success for the Cowboys kicking unit.

Versatility is key to Jayron Kearse contributing to Cowboys’ defense in 2021

Safety Jayron Kearse is a special teams veteran with the ability to perform in sub-packages for Dan Quinn’s defense. A look at how he fits in 2021. | From @CDBurnett7

The Dallas Cowboys’ safety room has a lot to figure out as the regular season-opener approaches. Behind names like Donovan Wilson and Damontae Kazee, there’s competition for the backup roles at both positions. Jayron Kearse, a safety with sub-package experience, gives Dallas consistency that will pay dividends.

Kearse comes to Dallas after spending most of 2020 with the Lions. In 11 games the Clemson product made 59 total tackles and forced a fumble after missing the first three games due to a suspension.

Once drafted by the Vikings in the seventh round of the 2016 NFL Draft, Kearse has bounced between three NFL teams before finding his way to the Cowboys on a one-year deal. Competing with rookie safety Israel Mukuamu for the second-string role behind Wilson, Kearse will be secure in his role with the utility of experience on special teams.

Our player profile series continues with No. 27, Jayron Kearse.

Cowboys’ Michael Gallup sits on the precipice of stardom, if he can emerge from shadows

Gallup hasn’t been consistently great, but he has been consistent. In the final year of his deal, he’ll look to put it all together. | From @CDPiglet

Michael Gallup was the ninth receiver taken in the 2018 NFL Draft. D.J. Moore, Calvin Ridley, Courtland Sutton, Dante Pettis, Christian Kirk, Anthony Miller, James Washington and D.J Chark, all were selected above Gallup.  Whether or not Gallup is the best of the bunch is certainly debatable, but there’s no question the value for the third-round pick has been absolutely outstanding.

Gallup, a pending free agent, has been so successful that there is a growing sentiment the team should bring him back and let Amari Cooper go following the 2021 season. Cooper has 224 receptions for 3,028 yards and 19 touchdowns in less than three seasons in Dallas. For there to even be a conversation is a testament to how good Gallup has been.  A 15.6 career yards-per-reception average with a ton of volume will do that.

There might be something to the idea Dallas is considering keeping Gallup in the fold, as they’ve restructured almost every contract except for Cooper’s, which is set to pay him $20 million in base salary each season through 2024, but regardless, Gallup has been an extremely successful draft pick for the Dallas Cowboys.

The player profile countdown series continues with No. 13, WR Michael Gallup.

Cowboys Amari Cooper ready to remove any doubt what WR tier he belongs in for 2021

The Cowboys know what Amari Cooper means to their organization. Opposing DCs know as well. Now it’s time for the world to know. | From @ju_belegendary

Amari Cooper is entering his seventh season in the NFL and through his first six he has proven to be a consistent threat and dependable player. He has eclipsed both the 70 reception and 1,000-yard mark in five of his six seasons. Still, it seems he constantly has something to prove to the general public as he is often left out of conversations regarding the NFL’s elite receivers.

Cooper is one of if not the best route runner in the NFL, and always presents tough matchups for any corner he faces. He’s just yet to put together one of those eye popping statistical seasons that would catapult him into such a conversation.

Some of that can be attributed to inconsistencies in his game from week to week and some to poor quarterback play. He fell out of favor with the Jon Gruden Raiders and was seeing almost two less targets per game than his first two years with Oakland, leading to his trade to Dallas for a 2019 first-round pick.

Targets wont be an issue for him in Dallas even with a budding star in Ceedee Lamb and the ultra talented Michael Gallup. Cooper has been the No. 1 receiver in Dallas the last two and a half seasons and has flashed dominance, already posting career highs in receiving yards in 2019  in receptions in 2020. The latter came without his starting quarterback Dak Prescott for the last 11 games of the season.

Our 2021 player profile countdown continues with No. 19, WR Amari Cooper.

Change of Space: Tony Pollard’s role as Cowboys RB may be the same, but 2021 will not be

Tony Pollard is the change of pace back with the skillset to make an impact on any touch. And in a sea of more famous weapons, the radar over him will serve him quite nicely. | From @CDPiglet

Tony Pollard got off to a slow start with the Cowboys. This could be because of a rookie learning curve, a coaching staff that didn’t always play younger players, the ability of the starting running back in front of him, but he just didn’t get a lot of snaps. While playing in 15 of the 16 games, his impact per game was very minimal. This brought a lot of venom coach Jason Garrett’s way. Pollard would practice all over the field in training camp. He looked like a player Kellen Moore would use as a match up player who could also bring a lightning element with speed in the run game to Elliott’s thunderous power game. It just never came together for Pollard and Garrett’s reputation of playing veterans over youth shifted the blame to him.

Special teams was the one area the Cowboys legitimately gave Pollard a chance and he did his job poorly, only averaging 17.5 yards per return, one of the worse averages in the NFL.

Year 2 for Pollard was more what the fanbase expected from him as a rookie. He only had 15 more carries, but considering how poor the OL was with all the injuries, the back up QBs getting so many games, and a defense so bad the team could hardly run because they were consistently down big, it is understandable Pollard didn’t get a giant increase. In the passing game Pollard doubled his targets and almost doubled his receptions even with the starting QB hurt most of the season. The statistics may seem similar, but that is more due to the important injuries on the offensive side of the ball than a similar usage rate for Pollard.

Whether it’s from his increased offensive reps, the change to John Fassel as ST coordinator or just more experience as an NFL returner, Pollard also improved his return game. With almost the exact same percentage of special teams snaps, Pollard more than doubled his returns, increasing his yards per attempt by a whopping 6.4 yards per kick return and more than doubled his longest return as well from only 30 all the way to 67. He clearly was making better decisions and wasn’t the deer-in-headlights returner he was as a rookie.

Now he is acclimated to Moore’s offense, has his offensive line back and fully healthy, and Dak Prescott is back. This could be the year Pollard becomes the true lethal weapon he was drafted to be. They certainly have treated him as such through the preseason, giving him the RB1 treatment while Ezekiel Elliott sat out all four games.

What will 2021 hold in store? He’s a certified weapon in a sea of more famous artillery. Coordinators are going to have to focus resources to Elliott, Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb. That anonymity within defensive gameplanning will afford him well when he gets his chances.

Our 2021 player profile countdown continues, with No. 20 Tony Pollard.

Cowboys’ Ezekiel Elliott has 2020 in rearview, ready to make it, defenders vanishing points

Elliott clearly wasn’t satisfied with how 2020 unfolded for his team and himself. As the opener approaches, the star RB will get his chance to prove rumors of his demise have been greatly exaggerated. | From @KDDrummondNFL

Can he return to form? When all of the conjecture is stripped away, when the workout video stops looping, when the Hard Knocks cameras stop rolling, there’s really only one core question remaining. Can Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott return to the form that won him the title of game’s most productive back three years in a row to start his career? 2018 feels like a long time ago, but for three consecutive years Elliott averaged more yards per game than every other back in the league.

He’d have won three straight rushing championships if the league’s hadn’t decided they were going to use him to punish owner Jerry Jones in 2017, stripping him of six games from his schedule. And although Elliott had a strong year in 2019, his numbers have been in decline each of the last two seasons, culminating in the worst year of his career in 2020.

The 2020 season started out rough for all of the NFL, with the offseason cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Elliott caught Covid-19 in the summer and it did impact him, causing him to suspend his workout routine. He disclosed that it did cause him to experience shortness of breath and while he has never confirmed it publicly, for many people who experience that symptom, a return to normal breathing ability can take months to happen.

Whether or not that played a role, Elliott certainly wasn’t himself in the early going, fumbling twice in a ball game for the first time since Week 2 of his rookie season. Then he did it again a month later, totaling five fumbles in the first six games. Perhaps he was trying to carry too much of the burden with an injury-ravaged offensive line in front of him and the worst defensive performance in recent memory putting the offense behind the eight ball.

When QB Dak Prescott went down in Week 5, the defensive attention focused squarely on him, only there was no help from the decimated line. He gained just 387 over seven games from Week 3 through Week 9, a total he’s surpassed over three games four different times in his career. Hamstring and calf issues followed, causing him to miss his first ever game due to injury.

The end result was a 979-yard, six-touchdown season Elliott would like to wipe from his memory.

So he went about that this past offseason. He worked on losing weight, shedding 10 pounds and being in phenomenal condition by the time training camp rolled around. He started working with RB guru Josh Hicks to quicken his footsteps and looked to regain some of the phone-booth and breakaway quickness he may have lost.

And now? The regular season awaits and his chance to restore the luster. Our player profile countdown series continues with No. 21, RB Ezekiel Elliott.

Cowboys CB Kelvin Joseph wasn’t quite ready to start, but his ceiling is high and the future is bright

The Cowboys went back to the 2nd round corner well in selecting a prospect with first-round skill set. How long will it take Joseph to round into form? Will off-field concerns keep it from ever happening? | From @CDPiglet

Kelvin Joseph has all the physical ability and skill teams look for in cornerback prospects; it’s why he received a scholarship to an elite program like LSU. With elite size at 6-foot-1 and nearly 200 pounds and with just under 32 inch arms, Joseph showed out at his pro day with a 4.34 time in the 40, a 35 inch vertical, and a 10-foot-8 broad jump.

He was asked to follow top-five draft pick tight end Kyle Pitts. He locked down top-ten pick wideout Devonta Smith, including intercepting a pass from first-round pick Mac Jones on a go route. Joseph has fared well against the best competition from in his draft class.

The concerns with Joseph are not about talent or his physical gifts, but center more on off-the-field worries, along with inexperience. Joseph was suspended for a bowl game at LSU before transferring to Kentucky for the 2020 season. His dedication to his craft and moreso his response to coaching has been rumored to be a question at both collegiate stops. Those issues don’t normally disappear once millions of dollars are in play.

The player profile countdown continues with No. 24, rookie CB Kelvin Joseph.

Dallas Cowboys 2021 player profile: Jourdan Lewis

Lewis finally got another chance to be an integral secondary piece in 2020. With a new contract in hand, he finds himself… back having to prove his value to a new regime. | From @CDPiglet

Jourdan Lewis was a bit of a polarizing draft prospect due to his size. An off the field issue caused him to drop into the third round but Lewis was fast, excellent at running a route with a WR and had athleticism to recover and make plays on the ball from the trail position. With excellent feet and hips he played well in press, off-man coverage and in zone. He brought plenty of production to the Dallas Cowboys as well, ending his college career with six intercepted passes and 37 pass deflections.

Lewis’ professional snap count has gone the way of the roller coaster, playing a lot early under Rod Marinelli, rarely being used under Kris Richard and then getting a big bump again last season under Mike Nolan.

Under Richard, though his snap counts were down, an interesting aspect to his game emerged. Lewis is excellent around the line of scrimmage coming off the edge, and is a weapon to a coordinator who likes to mix things up. He wasn’t asked to do that last year under the direction of Nolan and departed secondary coach Mo Linguist, and like the rest of the unit, his coverage grades dropped precipitously in 2020.

With fellow slot corner Anthony Brown signing a contract extension prior to last season, it looked like the end of Lewis’ time in Dallas, but then the team signed Lewis to a similar multiyear deal this past offseason. What will the new season hold in store for him under Dan Quinn and Joe Whitt, Jr.?

The next player in the player profile countdown is No. 26, CB Jourdan Lewis.

Trevon Diggs’ 2021 mission is simple; get Cowboys secondary out the mud

Trevon Diggs was the 8th corner taken in the 2020 draft, and Dallas felt lucky to get him where they did. What’s in store for him now that the regime has changed and the coaching staff is better equipped? | From @KDDrummondNFL

Trevon Diggs wasn’t supposed to be there. The previous night, the Dallas Cowboys had thoughts of taking him at No. 17, but then CeeDee Lamb fell in their lap and they had to put a pause on thoughts of helping the defense. But there Diggs sat at No. 51, still looking for where he’d point the U-Haul towards on the way out of Tuscaloosa. Dallas called his name and began the rebuild project in their corrupted secondary.

The Cowboys had already decided to start over by letting Byron Jones walk in free agency. Diggs represented a fresh beginning and even in the disappointing campaign of 2020, there were enough flashes from the corner to believe they made the right decision and had brought in a foundational piece. Diggs led the club in interceptions, with three, and pass deflections with 14 in just 12 games. He started out as a right corner, shifted to the left side when the now-departed Chidobe Awuzie went out with an injury, then finished doing some roaming once he returned down the stretch from his own broken foot.

It appears that new coordinator Dan Quinn will have him focused on the right side in 2021, as all 42 of his preseason snaps came there. He sits in front of 2021 third-round pick Nahshon Wright, who also played his entire preseason on the right side and opposite veteran Anthony Brown and second-round rookie Kelvin Joseph. Dallas has veterans Jourdan Lewis and and Maurice Canady manning the slot but no mistakes should be made, the cornerback group is Diggs’ to lead.

Our player profile countdown series continues with the former No. 27 but now No. 7, CB Trevon Diggs.

Something Special: C.J. Goodwin’s role with Cowboys is clear; earn third-phase praise

Goodwin struggled to find a way to the league, struggled to find a steady home. The one place he has no struggles is the special teams unit. | From @CDPiglet

Charaun Jaree Goodwin, better known as C.J., did not have the typical route to the NFL. A basketball player at Bethany College for a couple seasons before transferring to Fairmont State University, he was eventually talked into trying out for the Fighting Falcons as a college junior. He played wide receiver but wasn’t very impactful.

Goodwin moved with his coach from Fairmont to the California University of Pennsylvania where he made his name on special teams. Goodwin only produced 11 receptions for 126 yards and one touchdown as a senior, but he played in all 11 games because of his excellent play in the third phase. This did not lead to NFL interest though.

Goodwin had the size to be a WR in the NFL, but even after going undrafted in the 2014 draft, Goodwin didn’t even get interest from teams as an undrafted free agent.

Finally Mel Blount, who Goodwin worked with as a farmhand for many years, went to bat for Goodwin and got the Steelers to give him a workout that lead to him having a career in the NFL.

The next player in the Dallas Cowboys 2021 player profile is No. 29, special teams ace C.J. Goodwin.