It’s hard to win football games at any level without winning the battle in the trenches. The Dallas Cowboys were reminded of that in Week 15 when the Buffalo Bills stampeded their way to a 31-10 rout of America’s Team. Dallas surrendered 266 rushing yards in the loss, calling into question its standing against the best teams in the NFC—and their run-heavy offenses.
The Cowboys were without nose tackle Johnathan Hankins on Sunday, and the defensive line suffered for it. The entire defense was bullied for four quarters. With the playoff-bound Miami Dolphins and Detroit Lions around the corner, fixing the run defense is imperative.
With Hankings dealing with a high ankle sprain and rookie Mazi Smith falling short of outside expectations, is it worth scouring the league’s lost and found?
On Friday, the Los Angeles Chargers cut veteran defensive tackle Sebastian Joseph-Day. Presumably, he’ll look to join a contending team and give a boost to their Super Bowl aspirations.
Joseph-Day was highly regarded in the Chargers facility. He’s been a captain, is media-savvy, and has a track record of working with the local community - off-the-field acumen that should leave him desired.
But on the field? He has a chance to help the Cowboys, too.
Joseph-Day is a nose tackle by trade and a pretty solid one at that. During his time with the Los Angeles Rams, he played just shy of 50 percent of his snaps over the A-gap (or directly over the center).
When he followed now-fired head coach Brandon Staley to the Chargers, he saw his role change substantially. Throughout two seasons with Los Angeles, he logged under 10 percent of his snaps at nose tackle, instead being deployed more often over the B-gap (via Pro Football Focus).
Thus, a drop in production wasn’t too surprising. Despite career-highs in quarterback hits (11) and sacks (three, tied with 2021), he struggled to impact the run as well as he had earlier in his career. Per PFF’s charting his best marks for tackles (49), stops (38), and defense grade (76.8) all came in 2020 with the Rams.
Even his 2021 season, where he remained strong against the run but wasn’t overly productive, was better than his days with the Chargers.
Dallas can offer him a chance to go back to nose tackle, where he played his best football. Hankins’ role on this Cowboys defense (35 percent of snaps as the nose tackle) is much closer to Joseph-Day’s best seasons. He isn’t “washed” either; he’s in his age-28 season and performed similar or better than a handful of starters around him.
He was likely cut due to the Chargers not having him in their 2024 plans. He was set to enter the final year of a three-year, $24 million contract, but offered little penalty if cut. In the event Dallas did sign him, they will owe him just $720,000 for the rest of the season, per Brad Spielberger.
Two points: 1) He has to go through waivers, of course, and could get gobbled up before Dallas’ turn. 2) We see some pundits writing that he’d be a “perfect” fit here, and we’re reminded that there is no “perfect.” If there was, he’d see be in L.A.
But our analysis: Joseph-Day offers the Cowboys a low-risk option for a unit that could certainly use a jolt. Filling in for Hankins’ role, allowing him to return to his best spot and Hankins to truly get healthy, could pay dividends as Dallas approaches the NFC playoff circuit.
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