Cowboys free agency 2022: Dallas reportedly “closing in on a deal” to retain Dorance Armstrong

The second day of official free agency is underway and the Dallas Cowboys have yet to bring in any external players. Time will tell how long it is until they do so, but their priority so far has been keeping some of their own around.

Dallas has already re-signed Dalton Schultz (by way of the franchise tag), Michael Gallup, Noah Brown, Jake McQuaide, and Malik Hooker. There are more that are potentially on the way and one of them appears almost official.

The Cowboys lost out on Randy Gregory but were willing to make a sizable financial commitment to him. Obviously they are not above spending some sort of money at the defensive end spot and they appear on the precipice of doing that.

Dallas is reportedly closing in on a deal to keep defensive end Dorance Armstrong

Randy Gregory was one of a few defensive ends that Dallas had hitting free agency and him heading to the Denver Broncos only increased the importance of adding others to the position for 2022. As noted the Cowboys have yet to bring in anybody new for that role, but they appear ready to officially add Dorance Armstrong to the list.

The Cowboys drafted Armstrong in the fourth round of the 2018 NFL Draft and have seen him develop quite nicely since then. He was an important contributor to the 2021 season and in a vacuum this is a solid move by the Cowboys (assuming it winds up happening).

As ESPN’s Todd Archer notes Armstrong had five sacks in 2021 and achieved his career-high in the fewest amount of games that he has ever played in a season (13). Again, bringing him back is a good thing.

Unfortunately for Armstrong, it is the totality of the situation that people are going to continue to look at. You have to have contributors like him on your team, but the Cowboys still need to find some more help at the position and while the draft is one way to do that free agency is also a path where players can be obtained.