I question the decision-making of anyone who is thinking that "Heath is the best man for the job", all evidence to the contrary.
Anyone who is making that decision should have their decision-making questioned.
Four Downs: NFC East
by Bryan Knowles
Welcome back to our offseason series of Four Downs. Over the next three weeks, we'll be reviewing each division one-by-one, looking at
each team's biggest hole going into free agency as well as the most important players who may be on the market (provided they aren't franchise tagged or re-signed before March 5).
Dallas Cowboys
Biggest Hole:
Secondary
In prior years, we have identified safety or cornerback as Dallas' biggest need in 2012, 2013 (twice), 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018. We also included the secondary in questioning Dallas' "entire defense" in 2014.
Writing the Cowboys' biggest hole piece is one of the easiest jobs we have here at Football Outsiders. We have now used that opening paragraph in three straight seasons, and it still rings true -- the Cowboys' defensive backfield has needed major help for years. The good news for Cowboys fans is that 2018 saw Dallas take several strides to fixing their eternal secondary issues. Byron Jones moved back to corner, which better fits his skill set, and sophomore Xavier Woods represents a new day at free safety. That's half the starting secondary sorted, meaning they just need to fix the other half.
Jeff Heath can not tackle. We noted last year in this space that Heath had more missed tackles (11) than defeats (six). The problem got worse in 2018, as Heath's 22 broken tackles were the second-most allowed in the league. Heath just isn't a starting-caliber strong safety; he's a quality special teams player who has been promoted beyond his skill set. Bringing in a new safety -- either strong or free, as Woods would do just fine moving into the strong safety position -- would help a defense that ranked 19th or worse when covering tight ends, running backs, or third wideouts. In addition, cornerback Chidobe Awuzie finished 81st out of 85 qualified cornerbacks in success rate. Replacing either Heath or Awuzie, or preferably both, would help a defense that hasn't finished in the top 10 against the pass since 2007.
https://www.footballoutsiders.com/four-downs/2019/four-downs-nfc-east