ESPN's top FA deals
Cowboys signing Edge
Dante Fowler Jr.
The deal: One year, $6 millionGrade: B+
At first glance, you might say a team signing Fowler this offseason is paying for an outlier sack season. The 30-year-old journeyman recorded 10.5 sacks with the Commanders in 2024, just the second double-digit sack season of his career. But Fowler is a better pass rusher on a down-to-down basis than one might think.
Not only did he record a 21% pass rush win rate at edge last season (eighth-best), but he was also at 29% in a smaller sample in 2023. He hasn't usually been that productive, but he has a 19% pass rush win rate at edge since 2017 (as far back as the metric goes), which is above average for a pass rusher.
Also -- it's really not that much money! If the Cowboys had forked over, say, the
Harold Landry III contract (three years, $43.5 million with $26 million guaranteed), I would have had an issue. But a one-year, $6 million commitment (with incentives up to $8 million) to fill a need? That seems fine. I would much rather bring Fowler back to Dallas for $6 million than, for example, sign
Leonard Floyd for $10 million (what Atlanta paid)
Cowboys trade for CB ElamCowboys get: CB
Kaiir Elam, 2025 sixth-round pick (No. 204)
Bills get: 2025 fifth-round pick (No. 170), 2026 seventh-round pick
Cowboys grade: B-
Bills grade: B+
Elam feels like he has been a potential trade candidate for years but it has finally happened, as he's headed to Dallas.
For simplicity, let's boil the draft pick compensation down to one number. Since the fifth-rounder the Cowboys dealt was the first of their three compensatory picks toward the end of the round, then the Bills got the equivalent of a mid- or mid-to-late sixth.
In his three seasons since being selected with the No. 22 pick in 2022, Elam has made just 13 starts for the Bills, postseason included. Elam missed 14 games in 2023, some on injured reserve with an ankle injury but some as a scratch (though the injury might have contributed). Elam played in 14 games in 2024 (postseason included), and he played in 39% of the defensive snaps in those contests. He was inactive for two of Buffalo's three playoff games.
Over the course of his career, Elam has allowed 1.3 yards per coverage snap on a 16% target rate as the nearest defender -- higher than average on both but not outrageous -- per NFL Next Gen Stats. He has allowed 23.5 total EPA as the nearest defender in his career and has allowed a positive EPA (positive is bad for a defender) in all three seasons.
After three seasons in Buffalo, it was clear the Bills were not thrilled about having Elam on the field. Perhaps he'll be able to turn his career around in Dallas, but Buffalo seems fortunate to even get this much at this stage. Then again, a comp for this trade might be the 2023 deal for
Jeff Okudah, when the Falcons dealt a fifth-round pick for the former first-rounder three seasons into his career.
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