Jourdan Lewis has had such a remarkable season.
The Dallas Cowboys didn’t bring back a lot of their in-house free agents before the 2024 season. One that did return on a one-year deal was cornerback Jourdan Lewis. For the second straight year, the Cowboys have been hit with devastating injuries at the cornerback spot with Trevon Diggs tearing his ACL early in 2023 and being shut down with another new injury this season. Plus, DaRon Bland missed 10 games this season with a stress fracture in his foot.
The one constant at cornerback for Dallas the last two years has been Lewis. Last season, while playing in 16 games with eight starts, Lewis had 52 tackles, an interception, five pass breakups, three forced fumbles (career high), and two fumble recoveries. He has shown this year that Dallas was smart in bringing him back with 61 tackles (tied career high), an interception, seven pass breakups (most since 2021), a sack, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery. Lewis hasn’t just been productive. He’s been one of the best defenders for the Cowboys all season, and he’s battled neck and elbow injuries along the way while doing so.
This isn’t anything new for Lewis when looking at his career.
He came out of the gate with a productive rookie campaign as he amassed 54 tackles, an interception, and 10 pass breakups. However, when the Cowboys brought in Kris Richard to be the passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach, Lewis was an afterthought because he liked bigger cornerbacks. A year later, Lewis was back to making plays and ended up with 51 tackles, two interceptions, and four sacks in Rod Marinelli’s last year as coordinator. The Cowboys were terrible defensively in 2020 under Mike Nolan. Despite this, Lewis was one of the bright spots with 59 tackles and two sacks.
The Dan Quinn era began the next season and Lewis was a consistent presence with what could be his best season to date – 61 tackles, three interceptions (career high), 11 pass breakups (career high), 1.5 sacks, a forced fumble, and two fumble recoveries. The only time Lewis wasn’t consistently productive during Quinn’s time in Dallas was in 2022 when he missed 11 games due to a Lisfranc injury. In fact, that injury and the aforementioned Richard not feeling like he could be effective have been the only times that Lewis hasn’t been a steady presence during his career.
Lewis plays in the slot, which is an extremely difficult position to play because they’re on an island a lot of the time. Lewis has remained a pest for slot receivers over the past eight seasons due to his physical and scrappy nature and his ball-hawking ability. Another aspect that makes Lewis such a valuable piece is that his willing to provide support in the run game. He’s an all-around player, and he’s also shown that he can produce no matter who the coordinator is or what the scheme requires.
Dallas will have its streak of three consecutive playoff appearances snapped this year. However, as far as Lewis goes, he isn’t trying to hear anything about giving up or tanking when it comes to the 2024 season, as he recently explained after the Cowboys defeated the Tampa Buccaneers.
This is football. This is what I love to do. That’s loser talk. I don’t get into that. I wanna win no matter the circumstances. Whenever I put my cleats on, I’m gonna do my job.
I wanna go out there and win. As far as tanking, or whatever they call it, I don’t indulge in that. I just love football. It don’t matter what contract year it is — I’m going out there to dominate.
Lewis is up for another deal in 2025. Not only is Lewis still productive, but he’s reliable, having played in at least 15 games in seven of his eight seasons in the NFL. The Cowboys should certainly bring him back to the team and keep the cornerback position stocked with proven players.
