{"id":332565,"date":"2025-09-01T06:07:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T06:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/332565\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T06:07:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T06:07:11","slug":"cowboys-extend-cb-daron-bland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/332565\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys Extend CB DaRon Bland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cowboys have agreed to a four-year extension with cornerback DaRon Bland<\/a>, as FOX Sports\u2019 Jay Glazer<\/a> was first to report. Ian Rapoport of NFL.com<\/a> adds the deal is worth $92MM and includes $50MM in guaranteed money. The Cowboys have since announced the extension.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We heard back in April that Dallas was eyeing long-term deals<\/a> for Bland, tight end Jake Ferguson<\/a>, left guard Tyler Smith<\/a>, and kicker Brandon Aubrey<\/a>. Now, a little over month after extending<\/a> Ferguson, Bland is on the books for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

Of course, the situation involving former Cowboys edge defender Micah Parsons<\/a> has been one of the NFL\u2019s key storylines this offseason. Parsons, a premier, in-his-prime talent, was not originally viewed as a realistic trade candidate, but the relationship between player and team deteriorated in a very public way, and Dallas recently dealt the four-time Pro Bowler<\/a> to the Packers for two first-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark<\/a>. While the trade and the circumstances that gave rise to it have earned owner Jerry Jones a great deal of criticism, it did free up some funds<\/a> to be allocated elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Indeed, as Joseph Hoyt of the Dallas Morning News<\/a> writes, team sources said in the wake of the Parsons trade that the Cowboys would be active on the extension front. As such, it would not be surprising to see Smith and\/or Aubrey get a new contract in short order.<\/p>\n

A report at the end of July suggested Dallas and Bland were engaged in contract talks<\/a>, and those conversations progressed to the point that Bland was hoping to put pen to paper before Week 1<\/a>. He has gotten his wish, and in so doing he has landed just outside the top-five earners at the cornerback position in terms of average annual value. His new-money average of $23MM\/year is just behind the likes of Patrick Surtain<\/a> ($24MM), Jalen Ramsey<\/a> ($24.1MM), and Jaycee Horn<\/a> ($25MM).<\/p>\n

Bland followed Trevon Diggs<\/a> to the first-team All-Pro level in 2023, returning an NFL-record five interceptions for touchdowns. The fifth-round find became a vital piece in Dallas\u2019 defense that season, shifting to an outside CB role in the wake of Diggs\u2019 September ACL tear. Bland, who intercepted an NFL-most nine passes that season, now joins Diggs as a high-priced corner on the Cowboys\u2019 defense. Pro Football Focus ranked Bland second among qualified corners in 2023 and 33rd during his seven-game 2024.<\/p>\n

Entering his age-26 season, Bland also saw his extension leverage strengthened by Diggs\u2019 injury trouble. The Cowboys paid Diggs (via a five-year, $97MM extension) before the 2023 season but have not seen the 2021 first-team All-Pro live up to the deal. The knee trouble Diggs ran into in 2023 resurfaced last year, and he missed the team\u2019s offseason program and training camp due to the rehab effort. Diggs is off Dallas\u2019 PUP list but is a question mark<\/a> going into the season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Bland is no stranger to injury trouble himself, having suffered a foot fracture during training camp last year. That kept him out 10 games, as the Cowboys activated him in late October but did not use him in a game until their Thanksgiving tilt<\/a>. This extension certainly reveals confidence Bland can anchor Dallas\u2019 CB corps moving forward. The team can release Diggs for just less than $6MM in dead money in 2026.<\/p>\n

With third-round rookie Shavon Revel<\/a> on the team\u2019s reserve\/NFI list<\/a> after an ACL tear sustained during his final East Carolina season, Bland will be a crucial piece to Matt Eberflus\u2018 defense \u2014 especially considering one of the NFL\u2019s lead pass-rushing pieces is now in Wisconsin. The Cowboys have question marks at their other CB posts for the time being, with trade acquisition Kaiir Elam<\/a> \u2014 a former first-rounder the Bills never trusted as a regular starter \u2014 set to play a key role while Diggs and Revel recover.<\/p>\n

Bland\u2019s usage will be interesting to track this year as well. After playing a near-full-time slot role as a rookie, he has largely been a boundary defender. This offseason, however, the Cowboys had Bland working in the slot regularly<\/a>. A setup where he plays inside on passing downs, alongside Diggs and Elam\/Revel, would make sense for the Cowboys. This contract also checks in well north of where the 49ers went for their multipurpose CB (Deommodore Lenoir<\/a>) last year<\/a> and miles ahead of the slot-only market.<\/p>\n

Sam Robinson contributed to this post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cowboys have agreed to a four-year extension with cornerback DaRon Bland, as FOX Sports\u2019 Jay Glazer was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,229,257,2461,3430,7,8730,6,3571],"class_list":{"0":"post-332565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-cowboys","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys","11":"tag-dallascowboys","12":"tag-daron-bland","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-newsstand","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-transactions"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115127546278242837","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}