What Derek Stingley raising the cornerback market means for Cowboys, DaRon Bland

Prices continue to go up at expensive positions and the Dallas Cowboys should take notice.

The Carolina Panthers were met with plenty of raised eyebrows. As free agency activity was taking off they signed cornerback Jaycee Horn to a four-year, $100M extension ($70M guaranteed). As the Panthers paid Horn, they officially made him the highest-paid cornerback in the league from an annual average value perspective.

Horn was taken in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft a little before before Micah Parsons, and the whole extension was a little bit surprising. Horn has been an okay player to this point in his career, but we are talking about making him the highest-paid cornerback in the entire NFL. That felt a bit rich.

The Panthers obviously have quarterback Bryce Young on a rookie contract (we’ll see how that goes) and therefore have some more financial freedom than other teams, but maybe their motivation was more about getting in front of the pack than anything else. This was evidenced by Monday’s news of the Houston Texans locking up Derek Stingley Jr. to a deal that now makes him the league’s top-paid corner.

Stingley’s extension is only of the three-year variety, but the AAV is significantly higher than Horn’s and comes in at $30M per year. The Panthers already have quite the bargain on their hands.

This principle is among the most critical for NFL front office’s to master. When it is your turn to pay the piper you do so and understand that it was simply your turn as noted. But the good news is that coming around the corner is the time for someone else to do so and the piper charges everyone market rate which continues to go up and up.

Horn and Stingley are both cornerbacks, and the Cowboys have an impending decision to make on that position. The latter is a member of the 2022 NFL Draft class and so is current Cowboys cornerback DaRon Bland. You will recall that Bland led the team in interceptions as a rookie before setting the league record for most pick sixes in a season as NFL sophomore.

Like Stingley, Bland is eligible for an extension for the first time in his career this offseason. Getting ahead of that deal would be wise, even with the Horn and Stingley deals already done (Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie is another domino that will likely fall soon). The piper has turned the corner and is looking Dallas square in the face. They are among the teams who are eligible to take a turn and they would be wise to do so.

While we talk so much about how the Cowboys are traditionally late on deals like this it is important to remind everyone that that is not always the case. The Cowboys were early on a deal for Bland’s fellow cornerback in Trevon Diggs, a decision that people believe now was a mistake given that he has had injury issues. There is even question about what Diggs’ future is and whether that is with the Cowboys.

But consider that the Cowboys have an ability to escape the contract with Diggs now and not later because they got it done when they did. The thought process, philosophy and overall disposition behind getting it done early remain sound, and what’s more, if there are truly questions about whether or not Diggs is going to be a part of the team’s future then that would raise the importance of Bland which would serve as further motivation to get this done and to do so as soon as possible.

You may not have seen, but the last line of the Adam Schefter tweet notes that the Stingley deal was negotiated by David Mulugheta of Athletes First, the same representation that Micah Parsons has.

This whole thing has one inevitable outcome, whether we are talking bout Parsons or Bland, and the Cowboys would be best served to understand that as quickly as possible.