{"id":851496,"date":"2026-04-03T16:04:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/851496\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T16:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:04:16","slug":"cowboys-praised-for-signing-free-agent-safety-jalen-thompson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/851496\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys Praised For Signing Free Agent Safety Jalen Thompson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Jalen\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Arizona Cardinals safety Jalen Thompson. <\/p>\n

While it might not represent a big splash in terms of NFL contracts, whe the Dallas Cowboys signed Arizona Cardinals<\/a> safety Jalen Thompson<\/a> to a 3-year, $33 million free-agent deal on March 9, it represented something of a sea change for the franchise.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because the Cowboys just don\u2019t spend money like that in free agency.<\/p>\n

Before the 2026 free agency cycle started,\u00a0Bleacher Report\u2019s Adam Wells<\/a> pointed out a pretty incredible statistic about the Cowboys and how they spend money in the offseason<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne primary issue with looking at free agency is (Cowboys owner) Jerry Jones has been reluctant to really dive into that pool,\u201d Wells wrote in January. \u201cHe hasn\u2019t signed an external free agent to a contract worth more than $6 million since Gerald McCoy\u2019s three-year, $18 million deal in March 2020. If the Cowboys are going to significantly address their defense, it will likely come through either the draft or a potential trade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not so fast, my friends. The Cowboys flipped the script with Thompson and are earning some high praise in return, with Pro Football Focus singling out the deal<\/a> as one of their favorite NFL free-agent signings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThompson was among the most consistent and most underrated safeties in the NFL while playing alongside Budda Baker in Arizona,\u201d PFF\u2019s Zolton Buday wrote. \u201cThe Washington State product has earned a PFF overall grade between 68.0 and 72.0 in five of his past six seasons. His 69.2 PFF coverage grade this past season ranked 26th among 93 safeties. Plus, he will be only 28 years old when the 2026 campaign kicks off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTony Adame<\/a> covers the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Commanders, Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles and Denver Broncos. A veteran sports writer and editor since 2004, his work has been featured at Stadium Talk, Yardbarker, NW Florida Daily News and Pensacola News Journal. More about Tony Adame<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Cowboys\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Arizona Cardinals safety Jalen Thompson. While it might not represent a big splash in terms of NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2078],"tags":[375,390,2604,1327,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-851496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-arizonacardinals","11":"tag-cardinals","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116341628285245330","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851496","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=851496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}