Identifying Dallas Cowboys' Franchise Cornerstones for 2018 and Beyond
Eight games into the season, the Dallas Cowboys are right in the thick of things in the NFC. With a record of 5-3, the team probably needs to duplicate its success in the second half of the season if it wants to make the playoffs. But with a possible Ezekiel Elliott suspension looming and the injuries starting to mount up to key players, getting five more wins this season may prove to be difficult.
But regardless of the Cowboys' success in 2017, the team is set up well for the foreseeable future because of its young core. Much of the roster will most likely be churned once again this offseason, but the handful of young superstars on its roster will keep the Cowboys relevant in the NFC for many years to come.
Who makes up that young core? Which players on this team can the Cowboys build around? Before we get into the names, here are a few important notes. The list is split up into four offensive players and four defensive players. Kicker Dan Bailey and punter Chris Jones are key parts of this team but are not included in this list.
Age was also factored into the decision. The younger a player is, the more likely he is to be put on the list. There are no players over the age of 26 listed. Finally, positional importance matters. A young pass-rusher is worth more than a young linebacker. Without further ado, here is the list of the Cowboys' cornerstone players for the 2018 season and beyond.
Quarterback Dak Prescott
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The biggest building block for the future is none other than quarterback Dak Prescott. More than any other player on the roster, Prescott is the biggest reason the Cowboys should stay competitive for the next several years.
After a magnificent rookie season, Prescott has shouldered more of the load on offense and is thriving because of it. His offense is ranked fourth in the league in points per game (28.2) and has been on fire as of late, scoring more than 31 points per game over the last six weeks.
As for Prescott individually, he has the second-highest Total-QBR in the league, per ESPN. Since Week 3, there may not be a better quarterback in the league. In those six games since their loss to the Denver Broncos, Prescott has scored 17 touchdowns and has turned the ball over just twice. Even with a slow start, he's on pace to score 40 touchdowns this year.
Aside from just performing well this season, he's starting to put up some historic numbers. In his first 24 games as the Cowboys' starting quarterback, Prescott has scored 49 total touchdowns and has thrown just eight interceptions. Only six other quarterbacks have scored more touchdowns in their first 24 career starts, according to Bob Sturm of the Dallas Morning News.
At the age of 24, Prescott is still years away from reaching his apex as a quarterback. Luckily for the Cowboys, the team doesn't have to pay him for another two years, as his current contract runs through the 2019 season, according to Spotrac. Without being forced to pay him for the next two seasons, the Cowboys should be able to use that cap space to keep some of their other core players who are scheduled to hit free agency.
Running Back Ezekiel Elliott
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Building a team around a running back is rare in today's NFL. Teams don't often consider their tailback an important part of their future when discussing potential cornerstones of their franchise. But in the case of Ezekiel Elliott and the Dallas Cowboys, their running back is not only one of the best players on the team, but he is one of the most important players as the team heads into future seasons.
In his first 23 career games in the NFL (did not play in Week 17 in 2016), the Cowboys have a record of 18-5. Elliott has been dominant to start his career so far, averaging nearly 130 yards and a score each week, per Pro Football Reference.
On the field, there are literally no flaws to Elliott's game, as he's the most rounded running back in the entire league. He's nearly impossible to stop in short-yardage situations. He can catch the ball out of the backfield. He's got the speed to rip off long runs, but the power to run over defenders in the fourth quarter. When the Cowboys need to grind out yardage at the end of the game, there isn't another running back in the league you would rather hand the ball off to.
The only thing that could remove him from this list is off-the-field concerns. The biggest being the domestic violence lawsuit that is still in the courts. But just as a player, Elliott is one of the most important players on the roster. With him and Dak Prescott in the backfield, Dallas will be a serious contender in the NFC for the next several seasons.
Guard Zack Martin
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In full disclosure, left tackle Tyron Smith should be on this list ahead of Zack Martin. Smith is younger, plays a more important position and is signed through the 2023 season, per Spotrac. However, because of Smith's recent back problems and a few other nagging injuries, it's fair to wonder if we have already seen the peak of Smith's career.
However, Martin isn't a bad foundational piece himself. In his first three seasons in the NFL, Martin started every game and made the Pro Bowl all three seasons. He was also a first-team All-Pro selection during both the 2014 and 2016 season. Once again, Martin is on pace to make the Pro Bowl for the fourth-consecutive season and will likely be in consideration once again for the first-team All-Pro honors.
Martin hasn't missed a game yet in his NFL career and has only been flagged twice. There aren't many flaws in Martin's game, and having one of the league's best interior linemen would be an ideal building block for any team with a young quarterback. Martin's contract is up after the 2018 season, but you can bet on him sticking around in Dallas for the next several seasons.
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Center Travis Frederick
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You can't talk about Tyron Smith and Zack Martin without mentioning Travis Frederick. All three have excelled from the moment they stepped onto the field in Dallas. Much like Martin, Frederick is one of the best interior offensive linemen in the league and has made the Pro Bowl in each of the last three seasons. Both are 26 years old and the only real difference between the two is that the Cowboys have already signed Frederick to a long-term extension through the 2023 season, per Spotrac.
Pairing an elite (and highly intelligent) center with a young quarterback is one of the best things any team can do. Frederick has helped aid Dak Prescott's development, as he controls all of the line calls and makes sure that his quarterback is prepared for any sort of pass rush a defense can throw at him.
Offensive linemen typically don't get enough love from fans, but having three dominant players, all at different positions, makes the Cowboys a threat to every other team in the NFL for the next five to seven years.
Defensive End DeMarcus Lawrence
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According to an article done by Bucky Brooks of NFL.com a few years ago, the quarterback is the most important position in the NFL, followed by pass rushers. And with the NFL opting for more short passes to protect their quarterbacks, pass rushers who can win quickly have become even more valuable.
Since DeMarcus Ware's departure after the 2013 season, the Cowboys have been desperately searching for an elite rusher to build their defense around. From 2014 to 2016, the Cowboys didn't have a single pass rusher who recorded more than eight sacks. In fact, in two of those years, their leading pass rusher had just six sacks.
But in 2017, a "war-daddy," as Jerry Jones likes to call it, has emerged. Defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence has not only become the team's best pass-rusher, but he's become one of the most feared edge players in the entire NFL. Through eight games, Lawrence has 10.5 sacks, more than doubling his career total, and has been a force in every facet of the game.
Lawrence is scheduled to hit free agency after the season, but Cowboys fans should rest easy knowing that they aren't going to let a 25-year-old star walk out of the building. Once Lawrence is signed, Dallas will be able to continue their rebuild on defense knowing that they finally have an elite edge-rusher to replace Ware after all these seasons.
Defensive End David Irving
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DeMarcus Lawrence is the team's best pass rusher, but third-year player David Irving isn't far behind. In his last seven regular-season games (he was suspended for the first four games of the 2017 season), Irving has totaled 14 tackles and nine sacks, per Pro Football Reference.
What is even more impressive is that he wasn't a starter until just this season. As a starter in 2017, Irving has thrived. He has racked up six sacks in four games and has made numerous other splash plays, including recording four pass deflections already. With the second half of the season still to go, he's just starting to hit his stride.
Lawrence typically rushes from just the left side, while Irving has far more position flexibility to his game. Irving can dominate anywhere across the defensive line because of his sheer power and quickness. However, Irving's best position is probably as a left defensive end, but he often rushes inside as a defensive tackle to allow Lawrence to stay in his true position.
Between Irving and Lawrence, the Cowboys finally have a set of pass-rushers they can rely on week in and week out to apply pressure on quarterbacks. The team will need to continue to find and develop secondary rushers to pair with the two, but Irving and Lawrence should be able to strike fear in opposing quarterbacks and offensive coordinators in 2018 and beyond.
There may not be a better duo of pass-rushers in the entire NFL right now, and that shouldn't change anytime soon.
Safety Byron Jones
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The Cowboys have one of the youngest secondaries in the NFL, as three rookies are playing big roles on defense. Combined with a second-year cornerback in Anthony Brown, it's easy to see why the unit struggled early in the season. But each week, the Cowboys' young secondary is improving, and they are showing the rest of the league why the front office was wise to let their older defensive backs walk out the door in free agency.
Their secondary is led by third-year safety Byron Jones. Jones doesn't get enough credit for the job that he has done over the past two seasons, and that's partly due to the fact that he doesn't put up big numbers. Instead, he's a versatile weapon in Rod Marinelli's defense that can be used all over the field to defend any type of pass-catcher the opposing team has to offer.
Jones is just 25 years old, but he's the captain of the secondary and is entrusted with the role of calling out coverages to the rest of the defensive backs. Jones may never be the ballhawk that Earl Thomas is or the hard-hitter that Kam Chancellor is, but he's a reliable, Swiss-army-knife player that is vital to the success of the Cowboys' defense.
Cornerback Jourdan Lewis
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When the Cowboys allowed Morris Claiborne and Brandon Carr to leave in free agency over the offseason, the Cowboys knew that they were likely going to take a step back this year in their secondary. But to protect themselves from having to rely on rookies and young players at cornerback, the team signed veteran Nolan Carroll to start on the outside for the next year or two.
However, Carroll was quickly beaten out by all of the team's young defensive backs and was eventually cut after playing in just two games for the Cowboys. The biggest reason Dallas could afford to move on from Carroll? Jourdan Lewis.
Of all the Cowboys' cornerbacks on the roster, none are playing at a higher level than Lewis. After missing most of the team's training camp and all of the preseason with a hamstring injury, Lewis immediately grabbed a starting cornerback spot and hasn't looked back.
At the age of just 22, Lewis has already become the team's best cornerback. With his ability to play both on the outside and inside as a slot cornerback, he shouldn't be leaving the starting lineup anytime soon. Ideally, he and fellow rookie Chidobe Awuzie would man the two outside cornerback spots for the next several years.
As of eight weeks into his rookie season, Lewis has performed well as the team's top cornerback. But given that he missed so much time this offseason dealing with an injury and legal battles, one should expect him to take a significant leap in his second season. Lewis should be a star in Dallas for many seasons to come.
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