As the Dallas Cowboys scramble to restructure contracts and create salary cap space, they’re going to have to keep some economic realities in mind — mainly that every signing doesn’t need to be a home run.
Some free agent signings will need to be singles and doubles. Those end up leading to wins, too.
Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon predicts 2-time Super Bowl champion cornerback Josh Williams could leave the Kansas City Chiefs for a 1-year, $1.5 million free agent contract with the Cowboys, calling Williams the “Top Value” free agent at his position in this cycle.
“A 26-year-old former fourth-round pick, Williams ranked in the top 10 among qualified NFL corners in terms of yards allowed per target in both 2023 and 2024 before getting lost within a deep Kansas City secondary in 2025,” Gagnon wrote on Wednesday. “He struggled as a rookie in 2022 but was on an upward trajectory before barely playing this year … Williams is another under‑the‑radar option hitting the market after a largely forgotten 2025, but the underlying advanced stats and his intriguing combination of size, length, and athleticism indicate he could still turn into a very good starter in this league.”
For a team that will be as stretched to the max financially as the Cowboys will be in 2026 and beyond, getting a starter or even a reliable backup for $1.5 million should be a no-brainer.
Unlikely Path to Becoming Super Bowl Champion
Williams, 6-foot-3 and 191 pounds, was a 4th-round pick (No. 135 overall) by the Chiefs out of HBCU Fayetteville State in 2022, becoming the first Fayetteville State player ever selected in the NFL draft.
Williams came up clutch as a rookie with a game-sealing interception of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow in the AFC Championship Game and won Super Bowls in each of his first 2 seasons – he played in the Super Bowl each of his first 3 seasons.
It might actually say more about Williams in a positive manner than the Chiefs that the year he didn’t get to play as much in 2025, when Kansas City missed the playoffs for the 1st time since the 2018 season and went 6-11 in the regular season.
He’s also been incredibly durable, playing in 65 out of a possible 68 regular-season games.
Series of Disastrous Moves for Cowboys at CB
There’s little that’s been positive for the Cowboys at cornerback in the last few years.
Leading the way is a messy breakup with NFL All-Pro cornerback Trevon Diggs late in the regular season.
Diggs was claimed by the Green Bay Packers off waivers on December 31 — just one day after he was released by the Cowboys. Diggs signed a 5-year, $97 million contract extension in July 2023, but only played in 19 regular-season games for Dallas after that, which included missing 8 games in 2025 following a mysterious, at-home accident that he later said came from a television falling on his head as he tried to mount it on an outdoor patio.
The Cowboys also signed former NFL All-Pro cornerback Daron Bland to an inexplicable 4-year, $92 million contract extension before the 2025 season, despite Bland missing 10 games due to injuries in 2024.
Bland missed 5 games due to injuries in 2025, and it’s hard to see injuries not continuing to be an issue moving forward.