Evaluating the Cowboys' Cornerbacks in 2023: Some Unexpected Results ✭ Inside The Star

Last offseason one of the focal points of the Cowboys’ offseason strategies was to trade late-round picks for established veterans.

A pair of 5th-round picks later WR Brandin Cooks and Stephon Gilmore were added to the roster for the 2023 Super Bowl push.

Each player was an immediate fix to positions on the team where many felt the Cowboys were weak in 2022.

Cooks is dynamic, but many fans were more excited at the prospect of former Defensive Player of the Year Gilmore lining up opposite of Trevon Diggs.

Unfortunately, Diggs was lost for the season to an ACL tear suffered in practice before a Week 3 matchup at Arizona.

The injury unlocked a superstar, however. A player we will mention just a few sentences from now.

This article will conclude my series of grading the Cowboys’ top contributors by position group.

All stats are provided by Pro Football Focus Premium.

Players who did not participate in at least 10 games this season are excluded from the final rankings.

Cornerbacks

The Dallas Cowboys had just three cornerbacks who played enough defensive snaps to make this article.

PFF Overall (NFL Rank): 90.4 (2nd)
PFF Rush Defense (NFL Rank): 86.5 (4th)
PFF Pass Coverage (NFL Rank): 89.9 (3rd)

The superstar briefly mentioned above is none other than second-year 5th-round pick DaRon Bland.

Bland made a name for himself as a rookie in 2022 by nabbing five interceptions playing primarily in the slot as a nickel cornerback.

He was expected to take on the same type of role in 2023 after Gilmore and Diggs were projected to lock down the boundary.

After Diggs’ injury, Bland became a better player than anyone expected from the 5th-round pick.

He finished in the top five of nearly every metric on PFF’s grading system for his first 1st-team All-Pro selection.

Bland led the NFL with a record five interceptions returned for a touchdown, a record that may never be broken.

His nine total interceptions were the most by a Cowboy since Diggs’ 14 in 2021.

A star has been born. Bland had an excellent season.

PFF Overall (NFL Rank): 74.4 (24th)
PFF Rush Defense (NFL Rank): 76.1 (18th)
PFF Pass Coverage (NFL Rank): 72.3 (32nd)

Opposite Bland in 2023 was veteran Stephon Gilmore.

Gilmore, a former Defensive Player of the Year in 2019, brought stability and veteran leadership to a very young cornerback room.

A consummate professional, Gilmore was a guiding light to Diggs before his injury and to Bland the entire season.

Gilmore finished the season with 68 tackles, 13 passes defended, and two interceptions appearing in all 17 regular season games.

Gilmore came in and made an immediate impact on a young Cowboys cornerback room.

The veteran finally started showing a bit of his age by not being as effective trailing wide receivers in man coverage across the formation.

His signature game is probably versus AJ Brown and the Philadelphia Eagles in Dallas.

Brown made the mistake of calling Gilmore “old man”, and he reacted by winning nearly every matchup for the rest of the game.

Gilmore might have lost a half step or so but he still allowed just 54.9% of passes in his direction to be completed.

PFF Overall (NFL Rank): 52.5 (106th)
PFF Rush Defense (NFL Rank): 91.0 (1st)
PFF Pass Coverage (NFL Rank): 43.0 (123rd)

Reviewing PFF grades for Jourdan Lewis was a bit confusing.

Eye test will tell you that Lewis had a resurgent season after recovering from a near career-ending foot injury.

Now that I think of it, most of the splash plays I can recall Lewis making were big tackles in the run game.

That lines up with his first overall 91.0 rush defense grade amongst qualified cornerbacks.

His coverage was putrid, however.

Lewis ranks near dead last in the NFL amongst qualified cornerbacks in pass coverage grade.

At the end of the day, despite some splash plays, Lewis did not play very well as the Cowboys designated slot cornerback.

He had one interception in 2023 during a huge win over fellow NFC playoff team the Detroit Lions.

The rest of the season he only managed two fumble recoveries and did not record a sack for the first time since 2018.