The Dallas Cowboys have more than a dozen "name'' free agents, more than a few of whom populate Pro Football Focus' "Top 100 Free Agents'' list for 2021.
Ranked No. 50 on PFF’s list is Xavier Woods. Their logic?
"Woods entered the league as a versatile safety with slot coverage skills and a sixth-round draft steal as he’s developed into a solid free safety.''
The problems we have with their logic range from the terminology used (as Woods is slated to be a free agent, was this really going to be a "contract extension''? Well, no) to the evaluation of Woods through the prism of where he was drafted.
The fact that Dallas found him in the sixth round is a credit to the scouting department, to the coaching staff and to Xavier himself, as he's made a nice career for himself. But that has nothing to do with giving him a hefty payday.
Well, not in Dallas, anyway.
Woods has moved onto the Cowboys with an agreement to jump to ....
The Cowboys this spring recognize that the NFL is in a cap crunch, and we've suggested we're about to see a "Middle-Class Squeeze'' because of it. There is about to be a flood onto the market of "solid'' players, safeties and at other positions, lessening the reason to overpay for any of them.
Additionally, the hiring of Dan Quinn as defensive coordinator will provide the Cowboys with another set of evaluation eyeballs. What would he say about Woods vs., say, his former Falcons safeties Keanu Neal and Kazee? What will his top assistant, Joe Whitt, say about one of his old guys in Niners safety Jaquiski Tartt? What about Chris Banjo of the Cardinals (via SMU)?
Woods continues to get criticism for his unwise early 2020 remark about Dallas effort, when he said, “On certain plays, some guys, I mean me included, there may be a lack, but overall the effort is there. I mean, we’re in the NFL, you don’t expect guys (to go) full speed for 70 plays. That’s not possible.''
That was an unfortunate comment that has little to do with Woods' contractual reality, which we believe is this: Woods is a relative success but has never been a difference-maker for the Cowboys.
But now he'll try to earn his payday as a difference-maker elsewhere.
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