Everson Griffen Signs One Year Contract With Cowboys

Free agent pass rusher Everson Griffen finally has a home, agreeing to a one year $6 million contract with the Dallas Cowboys.

I had been surprised at how long Griffen had been on the market. Last season Griffen played in nearly 80% of the Vikings defensive snaps and had 8 sacks and 11 tackles for loss. While Griffen was going to have some questions related to his 2018 year the type of production he generates rarely sees the player last until August.

Overall this is a pretty reasonable deal for Griffen considering how late in the game he is signing his contract. That likely means that Griffen had a good amount of interest from other teams to get to this number. Assuming that the $3 million in roster bonuses are per game bonuses that gives Dallas a safety net if Griffen is injured during the year.

We had Dallas’ salary cap space estimate to be around $10.3 million prior to this signing. They had a net gain of close to $2 million in cap room and cash relief following the opt outs and that may have given them the little added cushion needed to make this deal.

Dallas should be vastly improved with the addition of Griffen, Gerald McCoy, Dontari Poe, and Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix. They signed the four players for a total of $20.5 million and while the age is going to be a concern for some of them the strategy reminds me a bit of what we have seen in New England where you sign a large number of potential higher impact veterans for a reasonable price optimizing their chances at getting a good ROI on free agency.