Another 'Clean Slate' For Jourdan Lewis With Cowboys
FRISCO - Jourdan Lewis is nothing if not frank. So it didn’t take any deep reading between the young veteran cornerback’s lines to understand his hints about the old Dallas Cowboys coaching regime vs. the Mike McCarthy-led new staff.
“They said that everybody has a clean slate,” Lewis said, via DallasCowboys.com a year ago. “It doesn’t matter how big, tall, how long you’ve been here ... it doesn’t matter. If you can play ball, they want to see you in that position to go and compete for that job.”
The insinuation was clear: The Cowboys have of late stated clearly a desire for cornerbacks who “fit a certain profile.” That “profile” included a wish for height, size, length.
And along with Lewis' "clean slate'' in 2020, he now gets another "clean slate'' - by signing again Dallas.
This "start-over,'' via a three-year contract that can be worth as much as $16 million? It comes due to Dallas' defense being overseen by new coordinator Dan Quinn and new top aide Joe Whitt.
Lewis, despite being touted as a playmaker when he was taken in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft - and despite fitting another Dallas draft profile because of his big-school resume (Michigan) - has often gotten lost in the shuffle of prioritized ideas.
Why? Because Lewis is 5-10.
Not tall. Not big. Not long.
See, the change to McCarthy (with Mike Nolan running the defense) didn't mean size was suddenly unimportant. Personnel boss Will McClay looks for the same traits in cornerbacks that he's always favored. Little wonder that Dallas' two draftees at cornerback last year were Trevon Diggs and Reggie Robinson II.
Trevon Diggs is 6-2, 195. He's the top guy in the secondary right now.
Reggie Robinson II is 6-1, 190. (And after a couple of confusing weeks, sources say is now being told he'll stay at corner for a time.)
They join another young vet, Anthony Brown, as the candidates to line up at corner. And now Lewis figures as the slot corner, all part of a shuffle that includes the loss of Lewis' best pal, Chidobe Awuzie, the corner who has signed with the Bengals.
The Cowboys might not be done in free agency and, maybe more important, there are moves they may make up top in the April NFL Draft.
READ MORE: BREAKING: CB Chidobe Awuzie Leaves Cowboys, Signs With Cincy
But they are not done with Jourdan Lewis, who gets another "clean slate'' with the secondary-needy Cowboys.
READ MORE: Cowboys NFL Draft Tracker
