2012 NFL Free-Agent Predictions: Cowboys Smart to Target Corners on Market

Has Jerry Jones finally woken up to smell the roses? Have the Dallas Cowboys decided, at long last, to upgrade their woefully deficient defensive backfield?

That would appear to be the case, at the very least. According to Calvin Watkins of ESPNDallas.com, the Cowboys have their eyes fixed on a pair of free-agent cornerbacks—Brandon Carr of the Kansas City Chiefs and Cortland Finnegan of the Tennessee Titans—to shore up their pass defense.

Usually, the notion of a team going after defensive backs in free agency after ranking in the bottom 10 in the NFL against the pass in back-to-back seasons would come as no surprise. Clearly, such a team would be expected to make moves out wide.

But we're not talking about just any team here, folks. No, we're talking about the Cowboys, an organization that's gone out of its way (much to its own detriment) to avoid drafting corners and failed to add anyone of significance at that position via free agency. Most glaringly, their decision to keep an aging Terence Newman for $8 million rather than splash the cash for Nnamdi Asomugha came back to bite them when (as expected) the former showed himself to be well over the hill.

And, what's worse, Dallas' lack of depth at corner forced defensive coordinator Rob Ryan to keep Newman on the field and patch up the rest of the secondary with a thin stock of banged-up corners.

You know things have gotten bad when high-ranking officials from the front office, namely vice president Stephen Jones, who told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

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Obviously we are not pleased with where we are on defense. We got to get better over there. I don’t know that we got good enough talent to win over there. We have to improve it.

"

As such, the Cowboys' pursuit of Carr and Finnegan is both long overdue and makes all too much football sense. They'll be the top two corners on the market when free agency officially opens up on March 13th and neither is expected to be franchised by his respective team. 

That should leave the Cowboys, armed with some cap space and gaping holes on the outside, to finally tackle head-on a problem that too often has hampered their ability to win the NFC East and play in the postseason. 

Surely, Eli Manning and Michael Vick are none too happy about it.

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