{"id":785969,"date":"2026-03-02T05:10:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/785969\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T05:10:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:10:28","slug":"top-12-free-agent-safety-targets-for-cowboys-by-skill-salary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/785969\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 12 free agent safety targets for Cowboys by skill, salary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated March 1, 2026, 2:47 p.m. CT<\/p>\n

The Dallas Cowboys<\/a> are going to make several signings this offseason. The point of contention is the level of external free agents they target and how much they will spend. The new league year begins in just eight days, with the legal tampering window opening on March 9. All 32 NFL clubs have to get under the $301.2 million salary cap by March 11<\/a>, 4pm eastern, but deals with new players can be negotiated for two days prior.<\/p>\n

With so many needs, especially on defense, the Cowboys have spent the last several weeks identifying which prospects fit their plans for 2026, and which ones will give the best bang for the buck in salary. One of the biggest needs Dallas will have is at the safety position, which under new DC Christian Parker, also looks at the nickel defender and not just the typical free and strong, or split varieties.<\/p>\n

So which free agents should the Cowboys’ be looking at?<\/p>\n

Here, we’ve taken the Top 100 rankings from five different outlets (Pro Football Focus, NFL.com, FOX Sports, USA Today and CBS Sports) as of March 1, as well as the projected average annual value (AAV) from Spotrac and PFF, to augment which players best fit the expected Parker defense.<\/p>\n

Related: Eagles, NFL free agents who may follow DC Christian Parker to Cowboys<\/a><\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a>12. Nick Cross\"Indianapolis<\/p>\n

Age: 24<\/p>\n

2025 PFF Grade: 59.8<\/p>\n

Expected AAV: $8.9 million<\/p>\n

11. Reed Blankenship\"Oct<\/p>\n

Age: 27<\/p>\n

2025 PFF Grade: 42.6<\/p>\n

Expected AAV: $7.1 million<\/p>\n

10. Jaylinn Hawkins\"Jan<\/p>\n

Age: 28<\/p>\n

2025 PFF Grade: 74.9<\/p>\n

Expected AAV: $9.7 million<\/p>\n

9. Ar’Darius Washington\"Jan<\/p>\n

Age: 27<\/p>\n

2024 PFF Grade: 80.9<\/p>\n

Expected AAV: $2.9 million<\/p>\n

8. Alohi Gilman\"Dec<\/p>\n

Age: 28<\/p>\n

2025 PFF Grade: 70.4<\/p>\n

Expected AAV: $5.5 million<\/p>\n

7. CJ Gardner-Johnson\"Dec<\/p>\n

Age: 28<\/p>\n

2025 PFF Grade: 51.4<\/p>\n

Expected AAV: $2.4 million<\/p>\n

6. Jalen Thompson\"Nov<\/p>\n

Age: 27<\/p>\n

2025 PFF Grade: 68.7<\/p>\n

Expected AAV: $9.5 million<\/p>\n

5. Kevin Byard\"Feb<\/p>\n

Age: 32<\/p>\n

2025 PFF Grade: 75.4<\/p>\n

Expected AAV: $8.5 million<\/p>\n

4. Kamren Curl\"Oct<\/p>\n

Age: 27<\/p>\n

2025 PFF Grade: 77.8<\/p>\n

Expected AAV: $9.4 million<\/p>\n

3. Coby Bryant\"Nov<\/p>\n

Age: 27<\/p>\n

2025 PFF Grade: 70.3<\/p>\n

Expected AAV: $12.2 million<\/p>\n

2. Jaquan Brisker\"Jan<\/p>\n

Age: 27<\/p>\n

2025 PFF Grade: 64.6<\/p>\n

Expected AAV: $9.2 million<\/p>\n

1. Bryan Cook\"Dec<\/p>\n

Age: 26<\/p>\n

2025 PFF Grade: 83.5<\/p>\n

Expected AAV: $13.1 millon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated March 1, 2026, 2:47 p.m. CT The Dallas Cowboys are going to make several signings this offseason.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[95878,230,229,257,2461,7,6,96666,96667,95882,96000,97648,101482,96255,95896,95888,95895,95899,95906,96191,95883,1461,95881],"class_list":["post-785969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas-cowboys","tag-accessfree","tag-cowboys","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-dallascowboys","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-sstssportsnflcowboys","tag-sstsncowboys","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagbobby-wagner","tag-tagdallas","tag-tagdemarvion-overshown","tag-tagfox-sports","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagphiladelphia-eagles","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tx","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116157862998245116","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785969","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=785969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}