Could the Cowboys part ways with the veteran cornerback?
The Dallas Cowboys have exactly three weeks until they cut their 2023 roster down to 53 players. Due to a rule change, there will only be one roster cutdown deadline this season, coming on Tuesday, August 29, so Dallas has plenty of time to make some tough decisions.
While there are some pretty obvious cut candidates in training camp, there are always a couple of names that don’t make the 53 that surprise you.
One name that has been floated around on the roster bubble in some capacity this summer and into the start of training camp is cornerback Jourdan Lewis. In a recent article from Bleacher Report, Lewis was named as one of the eight “biggest names who could be cut” this preseason.
Here’s what was said about why Lewis could be on the outside looking in come the end of August.
Cornerback Jourdan Lewis has been a solid contributor for the Dallas Cowboys since being selected in the third round of the 2017 draft. He’s appeared in 83 games with 43 starts and has been an efficient pass defender, particularly in the slot.
Last season, Lewis allowed an opposing passer rating of just 74.2 in coverage.However, he is also coming off a Lisfranc injury that limited him to seven games. He’s entering the final year of his contract, and the Cowboys might have found his long-term replacement in 2022 fifth-round pick DaRon Bland.
Bland took over Lewis’ nickel role before moving to the outside later in the year to replace an injured Anthony Brown. He fared extremely well as a rookie starter, allowing an opposing passer rating of just 82.2 in coverage.Given the severity of Lewis’ injury—David Moore of the Dallas Morning News reported that Lewis was told “one of the worst cases” of a Lisfranc injury—he may not be able to contribute early in the regular season. That could be enough to prompt Dallas to move on from him. Releasing him would save $4.7 million in 2023 cap space.
It’s a fair point that Lewis’ 2022 injury may prevent him from making a significant impact early on this season. It seems to be a least somewhat likely that Lewis starts the year on the Reserve/PUP list, making him unavailable for the first six weeks of the season.
That being said, it seems highly unlikely that the Cowboys would cut ties with Lewis before the start of the season.
As the Cowboys saw last year, you can never have enough cornerback depth. Even with a somewhat crowded cornerback room, Lewis still will play an important depth role on the Dallas defense when he is healthy enough to return.
DaRon Bland might start over Lewis, even if he is healthy, in the slot, but the seventh-year corner will still serve as an important depth piece on the defense. If Trevon Diggs or Gilmore were to go down with injuries, Bland could shift outside and Lewis could replace him in the slot.
Overall, even with his health being a major question mark, Jourdan Lewis is still a virtual lock to make Dallas’ 53-man roster.