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The Cowboys have made some uncharacteristic moves to strengthen their roster early in free agency.
The
Dallas Cowboys added two former first-round picks to their defensive line on Tuesday, the second day of free agency after
landing running back Javonte Williams and
guard Robert Jones on day one. They are
defensive end Payton Turner and
defensive tackle Solomon Thomas. Who are these 2025 Cowboys!?
The Cowboys are directly using the first wave of free agency (although with later waves deals) to attack weaknesses on their roster, which is a major change of faith from just one offseason ago. Not only did the team sit on their hands and not sign any notable players early on a year ago, but to make matters worse they did so while actively losing multiple key players. The attrition of this is still being felt on a roster that will undoubtedly need further reinforcements in next month’s draft, where Dallas is set up nicely thanks to
compensatory picks with ten total selections.
The position group that was picked through the most in free agency in 2024 was the Cowboys defensive line, where pass rushers Dante Fowler Jr. and Dorance Armstrong followed defensive coordinator Dan Quinn to the
Washington Commanders. Defensive tackles Neville Gallimore and Johnathan Hankins signed with the
Dolphins and
Seahawks respectively. To make matters worse, when it came to this team having any chance to compete for the NFC East lead again, defensive end Sam Williams was lost for the season in training camp with an ACL tear and rookie second-round pick Marshawn Kneeland only played in four full games before being hurt early in a week five primetime game and missing five of the next six games. Veteran DeMarcus Lawrence missed the final 13 games of what could be his last season with the Cowboys, as Tank remains on the open market. Chauncey Golston having a career year elevated this position group as much as possible, but in doing so lifted his price tag and
he got away on Monday to the rival New York Giants.
There were a lot of positions on the field last year on gamedays where the Cowboys looked overwhelmed, underprepared, and simply noncompetitive. Defensive tackle flew somewhat under the radar here because this was hardly the first season in recent memory the team didn’t place a high value on it, but looking back at it the mid-training camp scramble to bring in Jordan Phillips and Linval Joseph in an effort to get this group ready was poorly executed. This is one of the lessons fans have been hoping the Cowboys would learn in this current offseason from last year’s never-ending disaster.
Another layer to how the Cowboys could approach the depth chart at defensive tackle under new defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus and defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton was added just before free agency when Dallas made Osa Odighizuwa the centerpiece of this room with a new four year, $80 million deal. The Cowboys of old would have patted themselves on the back, felt great about having Odighizuwa locked up long term alongside a homegrown first round pick in Mazi Smith, and moved on to other roster needs. Learning how to better support their star players directly is another major stepping stone to watch for the Cowboys to be taken seriously again under new HC Brian Schottenheimer though, and they also passed this test by bringing in Solomon Thomas.
Spending the last three seasons with the Jets where Whitecotton was his defensive line coach, and the 2020 season as his last with a
49ers team that drafted him third overall in 2017 where Whitecotton was assistant defensive line coach at the time, the Cowboys have brought in a player with the pedigree they seek and background to feel confident in working with a current coach. Former Jets head coach Robert Saleh was also Thomas’ defensive coordinator for his entire time in San Francisco, and then as head coach with the Jets from 2022 to last season. This is a player that has thrived on having coaching continuity and a strongly defined role in defenses stacked with other talent around him, something Dallas can gain confidence in achieving under Eberflus and Whitecotton with Thomas now in the fold.
Lucas Boland-Imagn Images
Thomas was a hybrid defensive tackle and end in college with sky-is-the-limit potential as a pass rusher at both positions. He used his speed and freakish build to defeat blockers off the snap on a remarkably consistent basis, shedding with quick hand play and closing on the quarterback with elite speed for his size. Some of this pass rush potential was lost when Thomas became mostly a full time interior player, and after an ACL tear in 2020. His ability to transition within rushes and win with the power needed in the NFL, where simply throwing would-be blockers to the ground didn’t come nearly as easy as it did at Stanford, never developed fully enough for Thomas to reach the ceiling many thought he had. Still, all of these traits that make him a tough player to move off the spot at the line of scrimmage with the ability to still push the pocket are things the Cowboys desperately need and should be excited about getting from the 29-year-old veteran.
The Cowboys now, at bare minimum, have a defensive tackle group worthy of some attention. Opposing offenses game planning against the new looks that Eberflus will have ready don’t just have to solve for Micah Parsons anymore. If they allocate too many resources to blocking Parsons, it won’t just be on Odighizuwa to take advantage at DT with Thomas now joining him. Thomas can also pair nicely with Mazi Smith, who made significant strides as the starting 1-technique in Mike Zimmer’s defense last season. There is still an element of asking Smith to crawl before walking when it comes to showing the desired consistency a first-round pick should have, but if there is an untapped layer to his game, it is certainly in pass rush. Smith is not going to string together pass rush moves and pressure quarterbacks in the quick pass game, but at least moving them off their spot by knocking back guards and centers is within his wheelhouse. Should he be paired with Thomas to give the Cowboys real size they’ve been lacking for far too long in a defensive tackle duo, the team will have two players that can clean up against the run without being liabilities against the pass.
Dallas also saw their best impact plays come defensively when using linebackers on the blitz a year ago. Although this philosophy is likely to change under Eberflus, bringing pressure from different spots is still paramount, and the Cowboys at least have Parsons who is a one-man wrecking crew when it comes to rushing from anywhere and everywhere. The pairing of Thomas, Smith, and Odighizuwa on the interior could go a long way in occupying interior blockers long enough for Parsons to win on inside rushes himself, where he is often at his best.
Bob Donnan-Imagn Images
The Cowboys also reunited with last year’s seventh-round pick Justin Rogers at the end of last season after he spent the majority of the year on the Bengals practice squad following late August roster cuts. The run-stuffer out of Auburn flashed numerous times throughout the preseason, but at the time this was not enough to make the cut once Dallas brought in more established veteran options. Rogers will get another go through the Cowboys’ offseason program, with similar established players stacked against him one more time, but he represents the only other DT besides Earnest Brown under contract other than the three mentioned above. Brown has not appeared in a game since week nine of last season with the
Buccaneers, signed by the Cowboys prior to their season-finale against the Commanders.
The need for further depth is still there at defensive tackle for the Cowboys, but this does not take away in the slightest from the fact they got “selectively aggressive” early in free agency to address this need head on with something of a blue-chip player. Two other veterans that were on the market presented
a similar opportunity for the Cowboys in Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave, but both quickly signed with the Vikings. This makes it all the more critical that the Cowboys got a deal done with Thomas on Tuesday.
At various points throughout the offseason, when the excitement of having actual games to prepare for, watch, and discuss is lost more than it is currently thanks to all the free agency and trade market buzz, a common question that is always asked is this:
“Is
X position group on
X team ready to play a game if they had to
today?”
The Cowboys, like plenty of other teams, wouldn’t have liked the consensus answer their passionate fans would give to this question at nearly any position group just a few days ago before free agency began. By making unexpected noise in free agency so far though, dare we say defensive tackle is now much, much closer to the top of this list of gameday ready positions thanks to the addition of Solomon Thomas? The Cowboys are no strangers to adding players with high draft pedigree, especially at positions they don’t often value as high in their own draft process. With Thomas being a former third overall pick, the Cowboys haven’t spent so much as a top 15 pick on the defensive line since 2005 with Hall of Famer DeMarcus Ware. They didn’t find their next Ware in free agency, but they did find a deal every fan should be applauding.
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