ESPN names best, worst Cowboys free agent signings of past 5 seasons
The 2023 free agency feeding frenzy is about to begin. Fans want to believe that every veteran their team brings aboard is the last missing piece to a championship puzzle, and every experienced guy they let walk out the door must be past his prime and obviously no longer worth the price to keep him.
But the reality is that adding free agents is often little more than an expensive roll of the dice. Some free agents blossom with their new team; some simply show why they were allowed to leave in the first place. And the reasons why a free agent acquisition works- or doesn’t- can be chalked up to everything from team chemistry to scheme fit to unrealistic expectations to just plain old luck.
ESPN’s crew of NFL Nation reporters looked back through the player rolls for the past five seasons to name the best and worst free agent signing for every club in the league.
The Cowboys aren’t traditionally big players in the free agency market, but they’re well-represented in this list of some of the best and worst deals to go down since 2018.
Best Cowboys signing: Jayron Kearse, 2021
Nov 20, 2022; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Dallas Cowboys safety Jayron Kearse (27) celebrates a sack during the third quarter against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
First, the good news.
Todd Archer names the versatile safety as the Cowboys’ best free agent signing of the past five years, and it’s hard to argue with him.
Kearse was added to the roster in March 2021. The ex-Viking and -Lion had started just 12 games after coming out of Clemson in the seventh round in 2016. At the time, Cowboys Wire said, “Kearse may not be a starting caliber player, [but] he can bring some position flex and special teams juice.”
Yeah, and then some.
He actually started 15 of 16 games in his first season in Dallas, recording career highs in tackles, sacks, passes defended, and interceptions while quickly ascending to become one of the leaders of the Cowboys’ revamped defense. It was enough to earn himself a two-year, $10 million contract extension.
Archer points out that, as en encore, Kearse finished third on the team in tackles and added two sacks, five tackles for loss, six pressures, two fumble recoveries, a forced fumble, an interception and five pass deflections, despite missing three games.
He’s now one-third of a formidable three-headed monster at the safety position for coordinator Dan Quinn.
Worst Cowboys signing: Dontari Poe, 2020
Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman Dontari Poe (95) stands on the field during an NFL football training camp in Frisco, Texas, Monday, Aug. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
There were several (dis)honorable mentions for this dubious distinction: Gerald McCoy, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, and Daryl Worley were all, at one point or another, expected to step in and kickstart their defensive careers in coordinator Mike Nolan’s motley crew of a defense under first-year Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy.
But Poe stands out, perhaps, because that’s what 6-foot-3-inch, 340-pound nose tackles do. Thought to still have plenty in the tank after eight seasons in Kansas City, Atlanta, and Carolina, Poe lasted just seven games with the Cowboys and was released before Halloween that year.
The 2020 defense infamously allowed more points in Cowboys franchise history; Poe has not played in the NFL since being cut.
Other Cowboys mentioned
Dallas Cowboys defensive end Robert Quinn at the NFL football team’s training camp in Oxnard, Calif., Monday, July 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker)
Defensive end Robert Quinn was named the Bears’ best recent veteran pickup. Quinn turned an 11.5-sack 2019 season in Dallas into a new deal with Chicago and then set that storied franchise’s single-season sack record with 18.5 just two years later. He was traded to Philadelphia during the 2022 season.
Wide receiver Randall Cobb was named the Texans’ worst free agent signing of the last five years. Houston added him to their roster on the heels of a resurgence he experienced in 2019, his one year wearing a Cowboys uniform. That success didn’t carry over, however, and Cobb ended up back in Green bay the next season.
Linebacker Anthony Hitchens went to Kansas City in 2018 after four good seasons in Dallas. But he never lived up to expectations with the Chiefs. He earned a Super Bowl ring, but was released after four years of a five-year, $45 million deal and makes this list as the team’s worst FA add in recent memory.
Edge rusher Dante Fowler, Jr. makes the list as Atlanta’s worst FA signing. The Falcons picked him up in 2020, but he never came close to matching what he had done in Jacksonville. He joined the Cowboys in 2022 and recorded a lackluster 27 tackles in 17 game appearances. He’s currently set to become a free agent once again.
