The Dallas Cowboys pass rush improved dramatically last season. The key contributor in that department was Demarcus Lawrence, who emerged to become the long sought after “war daddy” that Jerry Jones has been looking for. No doubt his 14.5 sack performance will result in either the franchise tag or a long term deal to secure his services for the foreseeable future, but there is another contributor with whom a decision will have to be reached in the offseason… David Irving.
David Irving had a tremendous impact on the defense while only playing half of the season due to suspension and injury. Just look at the number of “splash plays” that he has contributed, despite missing time the past few seasons”.
Splashes since Lawrence was drafted in 2014: pic.twitter.com/RKN64ltORH
— Bob Sturm (@SportsSturm) February 8, 2018
Certainly David Irving deserves to be compensated for his performance but are the Cowboys the team that should reward him?
In recent years the Cowboys have changed their philosophy and have been reluctant to spend big money in free agency. They have learned hard lessons after winding up in salary cap purgatory with the money spent on players such as Miles Austin, Brandon Carr, DeMarcus Ware, and Anthony Spencer. Recently they have invested significant money into the contracts of Sean Lee and Tyrone Crawford. All of those players were deserving of those contracts at the time but the salary cap and the need to build a balanced roster has resulted in the Dallas Cowboys realizing that they must take more calculated risks in order to enjoy long-term success.
This year, they have much more cap space to work with than in previous years but the future must be considered. Along with DeMarcus Lawrence, Zack Martin also needs to be signed to a new deal in the offseason. In a couple of years the Cowboys will need to lock up the services of Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott as well as any other products of the great 2016 draft class they wish to retain.
In consideration of those future deals, and in lieu of the fact that Irving has not put together a productive full 16 game season during his career in Dallas; The Cowboys should proceed with caution in committing long term money to David Irving.
*Photo by Keith Allison (c) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode
Here we go again! Another offseason and more Cowboy players suspended.