Report: Dallas Cowboys interested in free agent cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick

This time a week from now, the Dallas Cowboys will have a brand new draft class for us to analyze, discuss, and completely dissect. Obviously the Cowboys have a plan when it comes to what they want to do over the course of the next six days and likely have certain positions in mind that they would address if everything broke right. It stands to reason that the secondary, the pass rush group, and slot receiver are at the top of their list.

Some rumors popped up on Sunday morning that allow us to craft one needle-type route for the Cowboys to try and thread. It’s that time of year, the most wonderful and what not.

Dallas reportedly has interest in free agent cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick

What the Cowboys do in the first round on Thursday is obviously going to be somewhat of a reflection on how they view their roster as of now. The position they address will be one that they feel needs a huge infusion of talent towards.

Cornerback is obviously one spot where the Cowboys have a big need after seeing Byron Jones depart in free agency. We have seen the organization bring in two depth options to this point in free agency in Maurice Canady and Saivion Smith, not to mention re-signing Anthony Brown, but more is needed.

Mike Fisher noted a few things on Sunday. Among them was that the Cowboys have some interest in free agent cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick.

“We’ll certainly look to improve (at cornerback),’’ Dallas Cowboys COO Stephen Jones said the other day, and at the moment, it was assumed he meant “improve’’ via this week’s NFL Draft.

But an NFL source tells us that the Cowboys’ search for improvement also includes the examination of help from former Cincinnati Bengals standout Dre Kirkpatrick.

Dre Kirkpatrick only played in six games last season for the Cincinnati Bengals, but he had an impressive season the year before. PFF noted that in 2018 Kirkpatrick allowed catches on just 44.4% of the targets thrown his way which was good for second in the NFL that season. We’re a bit removed from that, but the point is Kirkpatrick has played solid football fairly recently.

It’s possible that the Cowboys are showing interest in Kirkpatrick in the event that they don’t walk away with one of the draft’s top cornerbacks (Florida’s C.J. Henderson, LSU’s Kristian Fulton, Clemson’s AJ Terrell, etc.)

What if the Cowboys are hedging cornerback so they have freedom with their first-round pick?

Of all the options that the Cowboys have with the 17th overall pick, one of them is trading it away. You know the name. The Jamal Adams hype will be a thing until he is under a long-term contract with a non-Cowboys team.

Say the Cowboys really do want to draft a cornerback with their first-round pick, heck let’s even say that they are among the many teams in love with Florida’s C.J. Henderson. Perhaps a combination of factors to this point has led the Cowboys to suddenly think that trading for Adams is the best utilization of their first-round pick.

Hypothetical line of reasoning that the Cowboys could currently have

• They really want to strengthen their secondary through the draft
• They realize that the cornerbacks they love won’t make it to 17 overall
• They also realize that the safeties they like aren’t exactly worth that particular pick
• They know that Jamal Adams is on the trading block
• The combination of someone like Dre Kirkpatrick at cornerback and Jamal Adams at safety seems like the best utilization of their available resources (salary cap space for both plus a first-round pick for Adams specifically)

This thought process would of course be ignoring helping the pass rush, but maybe the Cowboys truly are relying on Randy Gregory and Aldon Smith (even though they won’t know for certain if they’re getting them back in 2020 before the draft). When you look at all of this in this particular way, signing Kirkpatrick and trading for Adams doesn’t seem all too unreasonable.

We know that the Cowboys have been in on Jamal Adams before and took things all the way up to the eleventh hour of last season’s trade deadline. 105.3 The Fan’s Bryan Broaddus was a guest on the first episode of a new show we have on the BTB podcast feed dropping Monday (Girls Talkin’ Boys with Kelsey Charles and Megan Murray... subscribe right here so you don’t miss it or any of our other great shows) and he seems down with going out and getting the current New York Jets safety.

There are a number of ways that the Cowboys could theoretically decide to go with their first-round pick. Whether or not they sign Dre Kirkpatrick (before or after the draft) wouldn’t necessarily be an indication of one thing over the other.

Stephen Jones has said that talent acquisition is a 24/7/365 business so maybe the Cowboys are just doing their due diligence. Hopefully whatever they’ve done has them in the best position when the 2020 NFL Draft is over.