There are many people who believe that the Dallas Cowboys have the best roster in the NFC East entering the 2020 season. A similar argument can be made for the reigning division champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, and while both the New York Giants and Washington Redskins certainly have players of notable skill, there is no denying that overall they are lesser teams than Dallas or Philly.
While the Cowboys might be the best roster, they still have holes just like everyone else. In the spirit of respect for our division foes we thought it would be a fun time to bring out a classic what-if sort of hypothetical... what if you could add one player from every NFC East team to the Cowboys?
To be clear, we are looking at the way teams stand now and we are excluding contracts from the situation. We are talking about current day Player X joining the 2020 Dallas Cowboys, which one from each NFC East team would benefit Dallas the most?
Philadelphia Eagles: DT Fletcher Cox
For the first time in forever the Cowboys devoted legitimate resources to the defensive tackle position this offseason, somewhere Rod Marinelli is potentially shrugging his shoulders.
Dallas signed both Gerald McCoy and Dontari Poe, and then they even drafted Neville Gallimore. It should be mentioned obviously that the team did draft Trysten Hill in the second round last year so they have options.
While there might be options in terms of numbers for the Cowboys, their only real noteworthy defensive tackle entering the season is Gerald McCoy. Fletcher Cox has terrorized the interior of the Cowboys offensive line for far too long, if he could start playing for the good guys that sure would be nice.
There might be some consideration to poaching Zach Ertz from the Eagles squad, but it’s hard to see him making as big of an impact as Cox would. Cowboys fans have long wanted someone like Fletcher Cox on their team, why not go and get the real thing?
New York Giants: DT Dalvin Tomlinson
It feels like on the surface most people will say Evan Engram here because he is a known name and plays a position where it would be nice for the Cowboys to have an elite athlete (tight end). I’m not saying that Blake Jarwin is better than Evan Engram, but it feels like this “pick” can be spent in a far more wise way.
We have acknowledged in the choosing of Fletcher Cox that the Cowboys could always use help along the interior of the defensive line. There were many people who wanted to see Dallas trade for Leonard Williams when he was available and ultimately the New York Giants wound up doing so themselves.
Highest graded rookie DTs since 2006
— PFF (@PFF) June 7, 2020
1. Aaron Donald - 90.2
2. Da'Shawn Hand - 85.9
3. Dalvin Tomlinson - 81.0
4. Geno Atkins - 80.5 pic.twitter.com/OniRH5r8BQ
This isn’t to say that Williams should be the player that we hypothetically put on the Cowboys but it is the right position group. New York actually has a handful of interior defenders worthy of consideration in Williams, Dexter Lawrence, and my ultimate choice, Dalvin Tomlinson.
Hopefully in a year or two the other NFC East teams are asking this question and considering Neville Gallimore as the player (among many!) that they’d like to steal from the Cowboys. Dalvin Tomlinson has been impressive through his short career so far and having him to help bolster the run defense sure would be nice.
Washington Redskins: DE Chase Young
The Dallas Cowboys have the best edge rusher in the division in DeMarcus Lawrence, but we all know that having a legitimate presence opposite of him would make life a lot easier on defense. There is hope that either Randy Gregory or Aldon Smith (perhaps Bradlee Anae) can be the one to live up to that task, but we’ll have to wait and see on that.
While the Anae hype is high, there is no doubt that the best edge rusher in this year’s rookie class is Chase Young whom Washington drafted with the second overall pick. It says an awful lot about his talent that is already the player that it would make the most sense to pry away from that organization.
Speaking objectively, is there anyone else on that team that isn’t along their defensive line that you would want? Daron Payne is another interesting name and would have given us three defensive tackles on this list, that certainly says a lot about what Dallas has at that spot, but it is very difficult to even challenge Chase Young as the selection.
All in all it is not the most fun thing in the world to admit that there are really good football players in the NFC East that are not on the Cowboys. Imagining what would happen if they somehow put a star on their helmet would be fun, but we’ll just have to settle for handing each one of these players two losses a season.