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.
