The Cowboys have a huge decision to make about DaRon Bland in the near future.
The Dallas Cowboys are about to have a lot of decisions to make. Micah Parsons’s contract has already been the subject of much discussion, but other players entering the final year of their current deal include George Pickens, Jalen Tolbert, Jake Ferguson, Hunter Luepke, Brandon Aubrey, Sam Williams, Donovan Wilson, and DaRon Bland.
Of all of those names, though, Bland may be the most intriguing.
A fifth-round pick in 2022, Bland was pushed into a starting role as a rookie when slot corner Jourdan Lewis suffered a season-ending injury. He played well enough to earn the starting job opposite Trevon Diggs the next year, though Diggs would suffer an injury of his own early into the season.
Bland, who had led the team with five picks the year before, lit the league on fire with a league-leading nine interceptions, breaking a record by returning five of them for a touchdown. Unsurprisingly, Bland was named a First-Team All-Pro that year.
However, Bland’s follow-up campaign wasn’t as special. He failed to record an interception all year, though he missed more than half the season with a foot injury. Even when he did play, though, Bland didn’t look like himself.
He gave up a completion two thirds of the time quarterbacks threw at him, and Bland’s passer rating allowed clocked in at 116.1, which is easily the worst mark in his career. In fact, only seven cornerbacks had a worse passer rating when targeted last year.
Of course, none of this is to say that Bland is a bad player – the injury and the scheme change are two big factors to consider – but it does complicate the question of Bland’s market as contract negotiations approach.
Bland’s 2023 was spectacular, and he’s already got his name in the NFL record books. It won’t surprise anyone if his agent tries to make Bland the highest-paid cornerback in the league. Honestly, anything less than top five would be a shock.
Currently, Spotrac lists Bland’s market value at an average of $23.7 million per year. That would make him the third-highest paid cornerback, behind Jaire Alexander of the Packers and Denzel Ward of the Browns. That said, Spotrac’s formula generally puts more weight on comparisons to current contracts of players with similar performance rather than taking into account potential resetting of markets.
In other words, Bland could very easily end up securing a contract that pays him more than $24 million a year.
Whatever the actual number ends up being, though, it shouldn’t be with the Cowboys. Jerry Jones would be wise to mimic a move he pulled back in 2019 with another cornerback in Byron Jones. While Jones had quickly grown into one of the better coverage corners in the league, Dallas didn’t feel he was worth top-market money, in part due to a lack of takeaways. As such, it became a widely known secret that the Cowboys were going to let Jones walk.
Bland is kind of in a reverse situation. Unlike Jones, Bland has a knack for getting takeaways; even this past year, with no picks, Bland recovered his first career fumble. However, Bland hasn’t been quite the shutdown cover corner that Jones once was. He’s giving up a 65.2% completion rate for his career and has been the victim of quite a few big plays over the years.
Again, nobody thinks Bland is a bad cornerback, and he’s certainly in the realm of very good. But is his body of work thus far worthy of being paid like one of the three best cornerbacks in the league? It’s unpopular, but the answer is no.
The Cowboys might know this, too. Last year they drafted Caelen Carson in the fifth round and this year they took Shavon Revel Jr. in the third. Carson looked overwhelmed in limited play as a rookie, and Revel is still recovering from a torn ACL, but both players have potential and upside.
If the Cowboys are planning to give Bland the Byron Jones treatment, they’ve already got two in-house replacements they can be developing. And, of course, there’s always the 2026 draft and free agency if neither is ready. But a future without Bland in Dallas seems much more palatable than one where he’s being paid top dollar.
