Cowboys make MULTIPLE moves... HUGE Cowboys signings | Dallas Cowboys news

The Dallas Cowboys have made multiple moves with the secondary in a very tough spot. Jerry Jones goes out and signs an old friend while also adding a new one in the secondary. One cornerback, one safety now on the Cowboys roster. It doesn't inherently fix the problems they have but it definitely is a step in the right direction and we got it all for you here today on Cowboys Digest. Welcome everybody, I'm Jace Andrews and I hope you're having a great day wherever you guys might be. We appreciate you watching here on this late night edition of Cowboys Digest as we get in this two signings the Cowboys have made today. We start with the first one made earlier in the day by the Cowboys as it is going to be a cornerback and a guy who has had three seasons in the NFL and that is going to be Alex Austin. Now he was with the Miami Dolphins all offseason but formerly he was a New England Patriots cornerback throughout the past three seasons. He's 25 years old, eight career pass breakups, two TFLs and one interception and he joins a Dallas defense that could use help on the back end. We'll talk about Austin and we'll talk about the other signing in the safety room in just a moment but let's start here with Alex Austin. Now Austin is a guy who has not had a lot of experience in the NFL but he's had some valuable ones and you look at 2023, 24 and 25. Those are the years that he was active with the New England Patriots. Systems glitch right now so it says Miami but he was with the Patriots those seasons in 23, 24 and 25. The most he played was this past season with the Patriots at 12 games. It was 13 tackles, 10 of those solo and then of course the one pass breakup coming in 2024 where he played nine games, nine tackles, eight games, nine tackles in 2023. He does have two starts to his record. Those two starts came back last year with the New England Patriots and just in general it's going to help out what is a very struggling cornerback and secondary row. Before we continue on with the rest of the day's show I'll let you know about our sponsor Marsband because one of the strangest things about getting older is that you notice your energy, focus and recovery, they aren't what they used to be but it's a decline that is so gradual that you almost don't notice it until it's too late. Now that is where Marsman comes into play. Marsman uses clinically dosed ingredients like vitamin D, zinc, boron and a few others to naturally support testosterone, energy and stamina. Now I've noticed that my recovery and stamina have just been better. 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After you purchase they're going to ask about where you heard about them, support our show and let them know that we sent you. Appreciate Marsman for sponsoring today's video. So Alex Austin is a guy that I really do think can be a guy who can help out for sure. Now the pff grades they scare me for sure. It's not exactly a great pff chart. 42.6 is the overall grade. The run defense typical Jerry looking pretty solid 64.3. The coverage grade though at 38.5 in the pass rush grade 57.4 are not very solid. Again nine tackles, one pressure last year, 10 receptions allowed. But the big thing that you're asking of Alex Austin is to be an extra body. It's not to come in here and overall just support you know be a backup. I mean that's the simple way because you don't know what you're expecting from Siobhan Rebel right now. Jerry Jones said they avoided major injury but what extent does that mean? Obviously you still have Siobhan Rebel or excuse me you do still have Daron Bland. You still have of course your first round pick in Caleb Downs. So you don't feel like you know immeasurable at the cornerback slot. The safety position was where like you kind of felt more in a bad spot and that is where we go next because we did have the report earlier today that the Cowboys had had a bunch of different guys in for tryouts. The Cowboys had former Cowboys safety Wanya Thomas among five players in for workouts Tuesday. They also worked out linebacker Jermaine Pratt. Quarterback Alex Austin who we now know is signed. Defensive back Shamar Bartholomew and defensive back Tyreke Funderburg. Now there's obviously a lot of issues we know that and that is something that the team wanted to prioritize. Jerry said it yesterday had a long talk on the plane him and Steven Jones. They knew that there was something coming up so what did they do? They go out there they make some moves and they did not only sign Alex Austin they signed a safety as well that safety, you know, you like him at safety Wanya Thomas was bringing his career back to where it began in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys. Now he joined Dallas as a UDFA and played in 36 games from 2022 to 2025. It was 62 tackles, five PBUs and one forced fumble and he's very happy. He's obviously this is a guy who like wanted to be back in Dallas and we had mentioned him a couple of times about you know potential options in the secondary room when looking at safety for agents and it's a guy who you know he knows the system. I think that's the biggest thing so having him come back and potentially be an option here for the Cowboys in the safety room and honestly I think he will be just because at the current moment your safety room is in shambles. Now you can have the choice to potentially bring back Malik Hooker this week as take a look at our secondary depth chart with injuries involved in them. You've got Deron Bland and Kalen Carson. You've got Siobhan who you don't know the extent of that injury yet. Amir Speed and Alex Austin are also options in the cornerback slot. Then your safeties. You got Marquise Bell, Elijah Clark, Malik Hooker and now Wanya Thomas. Now Marquise Bell had a very pitiful week like I'm not going to sugarcoat what he did this past week versus the Ravens. It was quite terrible. He was the worst ranked guy in terms of PFF for the defense. It just overall it was two pass interferences that really kind of changed the mojo of the game. Not saying they were game deciders. The game decider was not scoring at but it still is something you'll look at. The hope is you can get Malik Hooker back this week. We got reports from Brian Schottenhammer that looks like there's potential that he could return but we just don't know if it's official yet. So that safety room is still relatively thin because without him you're looking at Bell, Clark and Thomas as your only three options. Now I think a big reason why they did sign Wanya is because he was with the Cowboys last year. And while I do know that obviously there's going to be turnover with a new defensive system, he still is familiar with the organization. He's familiar with the process that Schottenhammer runs. And overall to me the biggest factor he could probably play this week. A lot of those safeties they worked out they might need a week or two to kind of get in the rhythm of things. With Wanya Thomas because he's kind of familiar to this he's probably in a position where if they want him to be active this Sunday or need him to be active this Sunday he can do that. I mean it's just a trip up to Houston. It's not like he's having to go that far. So we'll wait and see whether that does become a reality because we know him already Mercado like he was forced into being active week one when he was signed just a week prior. This is a situation where you're going to have to kind of force on an option especially if you don't have Malik Hooker available. Now at Atlas last year for him he had a 264 total snaps was the most he had across his career. I had one pressure he had 156 snaps in coverage. It was a 60 overall grade with a 69 run defense grade. He had a 56 coverage grade in 2025 but go back to 2023 had 192 snaps and had 85.9 coverage grade. So we know he can cover guys when asked upon and ultimately I don't want to say this in a bad light but Elijah Clark is a UDFA who's just trying not to get cut. Wanya Thomas is going to come in here. I feel like he's going to fight for this role. So in a big way I'm looking for him to go out there and play very much very well this upcoming Sunday should they give him the opportunity. Now again the hope is that this secondary can be kind of in a better spot come Sunday even because if you can get Malik Hooker back you're in a much better system you're in a much better spot but you don't know that for a fact and if you don't get him back then there's options galore with obviously like I said putting Wanya Thomas out there having him be an option. I just don't like the play of Mark Eastbell. I don't really love the play of Elijah Clark. He was you know fine pff wise but he was just more or less playing safe which I get but it's also you can't afford to play safe in the NFL especially when you have Lamar Jackson and you got CJ Stroud and Niko Collins. I know they're 0-3 but this is a team that's very good. You're going to their house and they're looking for a win. You're looking for a win so something's got to break here but this is something that will be obviously looked upon as we get closer to the matchups but we'll see what happens. We appreciate you watching guys. We'll see you next time here on the show. Peace out.