Sam Williams #54 of the Dallas Cowboys
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Sam Williams #54 of the Dallas Cowboys
When it comes to repairing the Dallas Cowboys defense in 2026, the areas of concern certainly start with the defensive backfield and get less pressing as you move forward. The linebackers need significant help–at least one new starter, and a depth piece–and the defensive line is pretty well set. In fact, the Cowboys might jettison a player from that group.
In between are the edge rushers, and while that’s not the most pressing area of need, there are a load of decisions to make. As it stands, Donovan Ezeiruaku and James Houston are the only real definite fixtures on the roster.
Bring back Jadeveon Clowney? The team seems to want him back, and Clowney seems to welcome a return as long as he does not get a major offer elsewhere. Dante Fowler? Again, if the price is right, the Cowboys can and should bring him back. Sam Williams, the team’s second-round pick in 2022?
Well, that may be a different story. If the Cowboys want to make an upgrade on the edge, they’ll need to dump a player off the depth chart. And Williams is a strong candidate to be that player.
Sam Williams Showed Promise Before Tearing ACL
To be fair, Williams was not a bad player for the Cowboys before he got injured in training camp in 2024, tearing his ACL and MCL, which forced him into missing the entire season. He was a role player in a stacked edge-rusher field with the Cowboys in his first two years, but with Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence gone in 2025, the hope was that he’d take a step forward.
He didn’t. At Pro Football Focus, Williams was rated the No. 93 out of 119 edge rushers in the NFL last year. Now, ESPN–in a post titled, “nfl
Cowboys Could Move on From Sam Williams
Speaking of the 26-year-old Cowboys edge, analyst Aaron Schatz writes: “Sam Williams had 8.5 combined sacks in his first two seasons without starting any games. However, he missed the entire 2024 campaign with a torn left ACL. Last season, he started five games and had one sack and 37 total tackles.
“By the end of 2025, Williams was playing about only 30% of the defensive snaps in each game. Williams probably could use a fresh start to help him reach the potential he showed as a second-round pick out of Ole Miss in 2022. He’ll be a free agent this offseason.”
Cowboys Need to Fill Depth Chart
Now, that could change, especially of Fowler and/or Clowney leave the Cowboys in free agency. The price tag on Williams is not expected to be all that expensive, with Spotrac projecting an outlay of $2.3 million on a one-year deal as Williams’ market value.
Williams could be a low-risk gamble for a team looking to beef up its edge rushing unit.
But maybe that Cowboys could be that team taking a low-risk gamble on Williams. They have a new defensive coordinator, after all, with Christian Parker essentially giving all incoming players a clean slate. And it takes longer for some players to bounce back from ACL surgeries than others. If the Cowboys believed in the promise Williams showed early in his career, it’s possible that could bring him back.