With Donovan Wilson signed, Cowboys’ continuity as impressive as it is surprising

David Helman

Dallas Cowboys Insider

No one complains about repeating the playcall when the play in question works.

At long last, Dallas has joined the free-agency frenzy for 2023, and it’s about as classic a move as one might expect. After a day of negotiations, they’ve agreed to terms on a three-year, $24 million extension for hard-hitting safety Donovan Wilson.

It checks every box we’ve become accustomed to with the Cowboys. Obviously, Wilson is one of their own players rather than an outside free agent. Behind Tony Pollard, who was franchise-tagged last week, Wilson was their highest priority to bring back.

Again, these aren’t bad things. The Cowboys aren’t often active in pursuing other teams’ talent, but it has typically gone well for them when they’ve managed to retain their best players. And while his name might have gotten lost in the shuffle on occasion, Wilson was one of the Cowboys’ best defenders in 2022, leading the team in tackles and chipping in an impressive five sacks.

Just as impressive is the way the Cowboys managed to maintain one of the strengths of their roster. It was just last spring that the front office signed fellow safeties Jayron Kearse and Malik Hooker to multi-year deals, so it would hardly have been a surprise if Wilson had to pursue his payday elsewhere. Instead, the Cowboys return a trio of safeties who all played more than 800 snaps last season. The only other Dallas defenders to hit that mark were the young pair of All-Pros, Trevon Diggs and Micah Parsons.

No doubt Dan Quinn’s influence has a lot to do with it. The Cowboys’ defensive coordinator has leaned heavily on all three safeties during his two-year tenure. The ability of all three to flip between multiple job descriptions has been an understated part of this defense’s success since Quinn arrived in 2021.

It starts to feel like an embarrassment of riches, which is not something anyone has associated with the Cowboys’ secondary in quite some time. In addition to three impactful safeties, they still employ a highly regarded corner in Diggs, and they return one of the breakout corners of the 2022 season in DaRon Bland and his team-best five interceptions. That’s not to mention the spot contributions they’ve received from other young players like Israel Mukuamu, Kelvin Joseph and Nahshon Wright.

There will still be issues to sort out. Bland’s opportunity came at the expense of Jourdan Lewis, who was lost to injury halfway through the season. With Lewis returning in 2023, there’s more competition for snaps — though that could be as easy to solve as moving Bland into the cornerback spot vacated by Anthony Brown, who is presently a free agent recovering from an Achilles tear.

Those feel like good problems to have, which is a refreshing thought for this position group. No matter how familiar this type of move might feel, give the Cowboys credit for maintaining that type of continuity for at least one more year.

David Helman covers the Dallas Cowboys for FOX Sports. He previously spent nine seasons covering the Cowboys for the team’s official website. In 2018, he won a regional Emmy for his role in producing “Dak Prescott: A Family Reunion” about the quarterback’s time at Mississippi State. Follow him on Twitter at @davidhelman_.

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