Cowboys land ex-Super Bowl champ from Patriots. Can he impact the team like Cooper did?
Have the Cowboys found their next Amari Cooper?
The Dallas Cowboys acquired defensive end Michael Bennett in a bye-week trade with the New England Patriots for a conditional seventh-round pick on Thursday.
The Patriots will get either a 2021 sixth-round pick or a 2021 seventh-round pick, depending on whether Bennett meets certain conditions, per sources.
Bennett will give the Cowboys depth behind DeMarcus Lawrence and Robert Quinn.
Bennett, a three-time Pro Bowler, won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks and is familiar with the schemes of Kris Richard, the Cowboys’ secondary coach and defensive passing game coordinator from their time together in Seattle.
The Cowboys (4-3) are heading into this week’s bye in first place in the NFC East following the season-saving victory against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.
But their goal is to continue to improve down the stretch and make a push for the Super Bowl.
Vice president Stephen Jones said his biggest worry going into the second half of the season was depth at defensive end, prompting the move before the NFL’s Oct. 29 trade deadline.
Bennett, 34, may not be the player he used to be but the Cowboys believe he is still a quality defensive lineman who has the versatility to play end and tackle.
The Cowboys were thin at the position because of a season-ending injury to Tyrone Crawford, who underwent hip surgery on Monday.
The rotation of Lawrence, Quinn, Bennett, Kerry Hyder and Dorance Armstrong at end is a huge upgrade for the Cowboys. With Bennett rushing on passing downs at tackle alongside Maliek Collins, the Cowboys should be able to put more pressure on the quarterback.
This will be another fresh start for Bennett, who has now been traded three times since 2018 when the Seahawks shipped him to the Philadelphia Eagles. He had a productive season, recording nine sacks, the second-most of his career.
The Patriots acquired him in a trade from the Eagles last March.
But after starting the season opener, he saw his playing time decline. And he vociferously expressed his dissatisfaction to defensive line coach Bret Bielema, resulting in a one-game suspension.
“It’s America. You can voice your opinion about how you feel about certain situations. That’s what I did,” Bennett said earlier this season after after returning from his suspension. “I got suspended. Lost money. What am I supposed to take away from that? There’s no love lost. It’s just how it is.”
The Cowboys saw an opportunity to address a need as the Patriots decided to move on.
Bennett, who has 65.5 career sacks, had 5 tackles, 2.5 sacks and 1 pass defended in six games with the Patriots.
The Cowboys just hope this bye-week trade comes close to the success of the one they made last season when they acquired receiver Amari Cooper from the Oakland Raiders. The Cowboys rebounded from a 3-4 start to finish 10-6 and win the NFC East.
Unless something good came along, Stephen Jones said on Tuesday that he didn’t foresee a trade happening.
Cowboys coach Jason Garrett was coy earlier on Thursday when asked about a bye-week trade.
“Excited about the group that we have. Really am,” Garrett said. “And really focused on coaching the group that we have. There’ve been a lot of good things in the early part of the season we can build on and certainly plenty to correct and that’s really what we’re focused on as coaches more than anything else.
“Rather than thinking about, ‘OK, getting somebody from somewhere else,’ we’ll let the personnel people address that here at the outset and if something comes to us, that’s when we consider it.”
Something came to them pretty fast.
Bennett brings some family familiarity to the Cowboys. In addition to a prior relationship with Richard, he is the brother of former Dallas’ 2008 second-round pick, Martellus Bennett.
The brothers played together in college at Texas A&M.
Martellus Bennett had a star-crossed four seasons in Dallas. He sparred with Garrett and tight end Jason Witten.
But none of that mattered on Thursday as the Cowboys made a move to improve their team in hopes for a second-half run to the playoffs and possibly the Super Bowl.
This story was originally published October 24, 2019 at 5:34 PM.
