Dallas Cowboys looking at Jason Pierre-Paul, Za’Darius Smith to replace Randy Gregory
As the Dallas Cowboys continue to rebound from the Randy Gregory fiasco, the question now becomes whether they will move off their long-standing free agency philosophy of betting on the cheap and take the plunge on a big-ticket player.
The Cowboys are targeting multiple options to replace Gregory, who served an important role as the speed rusher opposite the power of DeMarcus Lawrence and the relentlessness of linebacker Micah Parsons.
After signing former Atlanta Falcons defensive end Dante Fowler to a one-year, prove-it deal worth up to $5 million, the team is reportedly doing their due diligence on both Jason Pierre-Paul and Za’Darius Smith.
Both come with their set of baggage and different price tags.
Pierre-Paul, 33, is a aging veteran who spent the past four seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but he dealt with a rotator cuff injury in 2021 and is coming off surgery in February.
He played in 12 games and recorded 2.5 sacks after recording at least 8.5 in each of the four previous seasons.
He would fit the team’s philosophy of a low-cost free agent signing but his injury and age could be a problem for a Cowboys team that was burned by the signings of aging veterans Gerald McCoy and Dontari Poe in 2021. Neither finished the season with the team due to prior injuries.
Smith is only in play after he backed out of a four-year, $35 million deal with the Baltimore Ravens because he felt he misjudged the market after seeing the deals for Von Miller (six years, $120 million) with the Buffalo Bills and Chandler Jones (three years, $51 million).
According to his representatives, contact has been made with the Cowboys but nothing is imminent.
The Cowboys will definitely have to come up with the money to secure Smith, a two-time Pro Bowl player who spent the past three seasons with the Green Bay Packers. He totaled a combined 29 sacks in 2019 and 2020, but he missed the last 16 games last season after having back surgery following Week 1.
He did return for the NFC Divisional playoffs and is healthy again, but how much do you invest in a pass rusher coming off back surgery?
It’s all a crap shoot for the Cowboys, but that was the case as well with Gregory. He has never had more than six sacks in a season and has never played a full season but was being offered a five-year, $70 deal, including $28 million guaranteed because of his potential and the team’s familiarity with him.
Gregory agreed to terms but backed out because he objected to the language in the contract that would void his guarantees if he got fined by the NFL.
So the Cowboys re-signed veteran defensive Dorance Armstrong and then turned to Fowler, who knows defensive coordinator Dan Quinn from their days together in Atlanta. Fowler, who turns 28 in August, has 35 career sacks, including 11.5 with the Los Angeles Rams in 2019. But he had only 7.5 sacks in the past two seasons in Atlanta and just started six games in 2021.
There is no perfect answer or solution. And nothing the Cowboys do in free agency precludes them from taking a pass rusher in the NFL Draft next month.
But they would like to have some options so they don’t have to force a need. It is similar to what they did at receiver with the signing of James Washington to a one-year deal over weekend. Washington, a 2018 second-round pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers, had only 24 receptions for 285 yards in 2021.
He will join a receiver corps in Dallas as the third option behind CeeDee Lamb and Michael Gallup as the Cowboys try to makeup for the losses of Amari Cooper (traded to the Cleveland Browns) and Cedrick Wilson (signed with the Miami Dolphins in free agency). They are still expected to target a receiver in the first three rounds of the draft.
