As the second day of NFL free agency started to wind down, the Cowboys pulled off an underrated trade.
After a resurgent season with the Indianapolis Colts, cornerback Stephon Gilmore is headed off to the Dallas Cowboys. He’ll join forces with one of the best defenses in football.
How will Gilmore fit in among a constellation of stars in Dallas? Where do the rebuilding Colts — who still don’t have a plan for a quarterback — go from here? And, I guess: How do Micah Parsons and Dan Quinn probably feel?
Let’s examine the deeper nuances of this Gilmore trade for both the Cowboys and Colts.
The details
Per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, here’s the compensation from this trade:
Cowboys get: CB Stephon Gilmore
Colts get: A 2023 fifth-round draft pick
Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys already had a premier defense stacked with studs like Micah Parsons, Trevon Diggs, and DeMarcus Lawrence. Giving defensive coordinator Dan Quinn a cornerback like Stephon Gilmore is an absolute gift. There might not be a real weakness on this defense now.
Moving forward, there will be understandable concerns about Gilmore’s health at first.
Before the 2022 season, different parts of quad and knee injuries limited Gilmore’s availability. But after an understated meniscus repair last year, the veteran went on to have a Pro Bowl-caliber campaign — albeit one that was wasted with the rebuilding Colts.
That won’t be the case in Dallas. Gilmore’s elite propensity for coverage will be a godsend to a dynamite pass rush. They’ll go hand in hand in terrorizing quarterbacks. What’s more, with Diggs involved, Gilmore is likely to be the CB2, affording him theoretically easier assignments against receivers. (Lest I forget: He was a Defensive Player of the Year less than half a decade ago.)
To drizzle this probable one-year rental biscuit with gravy: Gilmore will have just a $9.9 million cap hit in 2023, per Over The Cap.
And all the Cowboys had to trade was a fifth-round pick. Look at Jerry Jones and Co. getting savvy!
Grade: A
Indianapolis Colts
All is not well in Central Indiana.
The Carolina Panthers just leapfrogged the Colts for the No. 1 overall pick. There remains no viable quarterback in place. And whatever “core” you think Indy has, they’re all nearing or over 30.
But other than that, Mr. Jim Irsay, how’s the offseason been?
I’ll give GM Chris Ballard credit for acquiring value on a veteran who had no real place on one of pro football’s worst teams. A fifth-round pick isn’t incredible, but it’s not entirely inconsequential for an early-30s corner. That’s about all I’ll give the executive credit for this spring.
Grade: B
