Again everyone worried about the $$ and understand why but we just have to look at the facts of the situation and what the front office is doing to see where we are going. Fact one, everyone knows Earl wants to play in Dallas, second, he moved his family to Austin and enrolled the kids in school there, third, he has been seen a number of times working out with Lawrence and Jaylon Smith, fourth, Stephen met with his agents in Indy yesterday and no mention of Stephen meeting with any other safety agent, fifth, the front office is trying to put the best team they can on the field for 2019 and have said that S, TE, and DL are three of the top five needs.
So yesterday they convinced Witten to come out of retirement which gives you a great Y option, leadership on and off the field, a valuable piece for an outlet for Dak, better redzone offense, another coach for the young TEs, and solves part of a need. No, it does not mean Dallas will not sign a TE in free agency nor will it make it unlikely to draft a TE. I still believe that Tyler Eifert could very well become a Cowboy for similar money that Witten is getting and if healthy and stays that way gives you another great option. Now what does it mean for Jarwin, Schultz and Gathers? It gives all of them time to develop. I know most are ruling out Gathers but not going to do that just yet. If we draft another TE then it does make Jarwin a trade piece for a late round choice though.
What does Earl bring? All the same things that Witten does but on defense. He will make the defense much better from all points. His contract is not that much of a sticking point as we are led to believe. Dallas could easily give him a 5 year $60 million contract with $30 million in guarantees and not hurt any of the other signing or extensions they ARE going to do this offseason. Like it or not, Thomas is destined to be a Cowboy.
Fairly certain we will see Lawrence and the Cowboys come to terms on a new contract well before March 13th and would not be surprised to see extensions for Prescott and Cooper come before that also. If anyone thinks they are not talking with the agents for Prescott, Elliott, Cooper and Jones already then you are living under a rock. The larger question for me is will Dallas dip into the DE market in free agency for a better than backup option. Will Dallas make a play for Fowler or Harold or Flowers if they aren't resigned first. Sure I would like to see a good DT also but how long have we been waiting on that one, probably going to draft a guy again.
