Crawford is a $9.1MM cap hit this year and would save $8MM if cut.
He's not a starting player for us. Lawrence is the LDE, McCoy is better and likely the starter at the 3T, Woods is bigger and more able to hold up at the 1T spot and Crawford is not a RDE.
I don't think Crawford is a bad player by any stretch. He serves a purpose and is a capable backup. But that's all he is........... a backup. And when you watch this organization penny pinch the hell out of FA, it's strange that they seem content on letting a backup DL eat up nearly $10MM in cap space.
There are two starting caliber RDEs out there in Golden and Griffen. Clowney would be a third if you want to think big. We lack a starting RDE. Cut Crawford (Or even restructure and save 4-5MM in cap space) and bring one of them in. Crawford would not be hard to replace in FA as there are some backup caliber DTs out there.
I'd love to get a few JW Blues in Jerry and listen to him explain why they value Crawford that much.
Crawford came out of the period where we had drafted Gregory and he failed..
drafted Tank and he quickly got suspended..
the team got desperate for help and also signed David Irving as well.
It was a real cluster fruck time.
Crawford was reliable and young and got his deal.
At this point, his contract has ballooned and it's really like a savings account we have squirreled away for a rainy day.
Last year he was injured. He got paid and his legal issues cropped up.
We did nothing.
The Cowboys are like this. They will help players who have helped them.
And Crawford has helped them despite the money issues.
But I think this is going to change.
They will offer for him to stay but they will strip some cash out to help the cap.
I hope he stays, but it's a business as we all get reminded.
So we will see.
I am assuming we will draft DL this year. Keeping Crawford to show how to be a swing DL makes sense.