The best Dallas Cowboys outside free agent signings happened over the last few weeks at camp

The Dallas Cowboys have been hard at work preparing for the 2022 season for a few weeks now. When the team touched down in Oxnard, California, a majority of their roster was set. There is inevitable change by way of roster cuts and what not, but there is also tinkering that happens every year as time moves along.

Since arriving on the west coast for camp, the Cowboys have added three players in KaVontae Turpin, Anthony Barr, and Brett Maher. While we have yet to see Barr work, and Maher has only been back for a minute, where do these players rank in the grand scheme of external free agents that the team signed this offseason? More specifically, who are the best external additions that the team has made.

The best Dallas Cowboys Cowboys free agent signings have happened over the last few weeks with the team at camp

If we are being honest with ourselves the list isn’t very long... the Dallas Cowboys have not signed a ton of outside veteran free agents since losing in the Wild Card Round to the San Francisco 49ers.

Limiting this discussion to exclusively veteran free agents who were not at all affiliated with the Cowboys last season (that last bit makes things just a bit complicated for Lirim Hajrullahu) there are a grand total of nine players who the Cowboys have brought in.

• WR James Washington
• DE Dante Fowler Jr.
• RB Ryan Nall
• K Lirim Hajrullahu (he technically counts)
• LB Christian Sam
• LB Malik Jefferson
• WR KaVontae Turpin
• LB Anthony Barr
• K Brett Maher

Again, it is easy to recognize that there are not a lot of choices here but the question remains, who are the best signings from this specific group?

An argument can certainly be made that Lirim Hajrullhu or Brett Maher should wind up on the list if one of them is eventually the team’s kicker, but that feels like reaching.

James Washington hardly contributed before suffering an injury at camp, and none of the defenders that Dallas added before arriving in Oxnard have managed to do much either.

Honestly there is an argument to be made that the most impactful signing to date has been KaVontae Turpin, and even then part of that is because of the role he is playing on offense (as opposed to just special teams) which was partly made available by the aforementioned Washington injury. Sometimes things tend to work out like that.

Turpin has continually shown all sorts of speed that is seemingly going to be an issue for opposing teams which means he should provide another option for offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. Is there anybody else on this list who we would classify as impactful?

While he hasn’t played, Anthony Barr feels like a safe bet. He is still coming along but he will provide more flexibility for Micah Parsons and established veteran depth in the middle of Dan Quinn’s defense. So perhaps he is number two on our list.

But isn’t it interesting that the two most-impactful veteran free agents added by this team did not join the roster until training camp started? If we do include the kickers (whichever one wins) then they will have been late arrivals as well considering Maher joined just this week and Hajrullahu took all the way until the month of July.