Kearse was an incredible find. Kazee and Hooker were meh to me. Not bad. Not good. Just there.
Kearse was a surprise.
A year earlier, he played 66% of available defensive snaps on an awful Lions team who was desperate for DB's. He had a PFF grade of 55.7.
This year he graded out at 76.8 and played 94% of the defensive snaps.
He signed for less than $1M last year 20 plus days into free agency.
I'm glad he played well, I was a fan of his coming out of Clemson. However his success will feed into this Front Office's misguided bleief that they kind find (cheap) gems in free agency, even though the majority of the Safeties they have signed over the years have been hot garbage.
Hooker was also a solid pick-up despite the Cowboys using him as a slot defender on Tight Ends, versus the single high role he excelled at with Indy and while at Ohio State.
Kazee was bad IMO, taking bad angles from depth and making some business decisions on potentially huge PBU opportunities.
Wilson didn't step up like I had hoped he would and don't even get me started on the constant liability that Darian Thomspon is.
Back to Kearse, he was calling plays and earned the trust of his teammates and the coaches. I really hope Cheap Stephen is overruled and Kearse is brought back (at a reasonable re-up).