By Jon Machota, Zak Keefer and Bob Sturm
The Indianapolis Colts traded cornerback Stephon Gilmore to the Dallas Cowboys, the team announced on Tuesday. Here’s what you need to know:
The Athletic’s instant analysis:
backstory
Dallas allowed 207.8 yards per game last season, ranking eighth in the NFL. The Cowboys were 12-5 in 2022, falling to the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round. The Colts (4-12) missed the postseason for the second straight season.
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What are the Colts losing?
On the Colts’ side, the shame of this move is that Gilmore was one of the team’s few bright spots in 2022 – starting in 16 games, having two interceptions and notching three last-second wins with abandon passes (versus Kansas City, Denver and Las Vegas ). Heard a lot of what was said after leaving Carolina — mostly that he finished as an elite corner — and Gilmore, even at 32, wanted to prove he was still one of the best in the game. He did that in Indy and was a stabilizing force in the secondary despite the chaos that engulfed the Colts’ 4-12-1 season. – beetles
Signs of Rebuilding in Indy
The trade gets the Colts a pick in the fifth round, adding about $9.9. Millions in the salary cap area. This signals that rebuilding is underway, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few more Veterans traded or released in the coming days. The Colts fired quarterback Matt Ryan Tuesday before a large portion of his 2023 paycheck began, according to a league source. Center Ryan Kelly could be another, a move that would net about $8 million more. What is the team planning with this financial flexibility? We’ll have to wait and find out. – beetles
Why Dallas Picked Gilmore
From every possible perspective, this is a very good game for the cowboys. Gilmore may not be what he was when he was arguably the best corner in the league, but he’s still very effective. Dallas saw this hand on his visit to the city in December when he had a very nice play. He’s coming to town to hopefully help out a Cowboys secondary who didn’t have a third corner in San Francisco. They played Trevon Diggs, DaRon Bland, and four safeties, including their fourth safety, which played Mukuamu Big Corner in Israel.
This certainly isn’t ringing endorsement for the big investment in the position in the 2021 draft with Kelvin Joseph and Nahshon Wright in second and third rounds, but they failed to gain confidence from the coaching staff and front office in December and quickly became flyers over Mackensie Avoided Alexander and Xavier Rhodes.
Rhodes was ironically replaced by Gilmore in Indianapolis in 2022 and now Gilmore is following him to Dallas with a year left on his contract where he should go well with what Dan Quinn likes to do with his corners and combined with Diggs it won’t give plenty of NFC teams who can level the 1-2 hit of those corners on a Cowboys defense that was already pretty salty all around. This is a very sensible idea for the team at the expense of an equalizer pick in the fifth round. I think this will create something positive in Dallas for now. – Storm
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Classification of trade: Cowboys land Colts’ Stephon Gilmore, setting up dynamic CB tandem
What do the cowboys win?
Many mock drafts have projected the Cowboys taking a corner with their first-round pick, No. 26 overall. That’s clearly not that important now. Anthony Brown is an unrestricted free agent. Jourdan Lewis has one year left on his contract.
Gilmore turns 33 next season, so his career prime is probably behind him. But he started in 16 games for the Colts last season, intercepting a few passes and defending 11 others. He also had a career-high 66 tackles. The Cowboys would love for him to perform like Gilmore did in 2019 when he had career highs with six interceptions and 20 passes defended. But they would like to take a repeat of last year’s performance. That coupled with a playful secondary that includes Diggs, Bland, Donovan Wilson, Jayron Kearse, Malik Hooker and a pass rush led by Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence, and the Cowboys should continue to have one of the NFL’s best defenses in 2023. — Machota
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(Photo: Justin Casterline/Getty Images)