NFC Wild Card Playoffs – Green Bay Packers v Dallas Cowboys / Cooper Neill/GettyImages
Free agency is almost three weeks old and the Dallas Cowboys have managed to spend the least of any team in the NFL. Jerry and Stephen Jones want fans to think they don’t have the resources to sign players, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Cowboys fans have held out hope that the team would come to its senses and re-sign Stephon Gilmore. For all the flak the Cowboys catch for not spending on free agents outside the organization, they’ve had a propensity to re-sign the few players they have brought in.
Malik Hooker, Johnathan Hankins and Jayron Kearse are just some examples. The team even reworked Brandin Cooks’ contract after it acquired him in a trade with the Texas to ensure another year of the veteran receiver.
As we’ve gotten deeper into free agency, though, it’s looked increasingly unlikely that Gilmore will be back in 2024. The latest bread crumb might permanently shut the door on a last-minute reversal.
Cowboys FA Stephon Gilmore told Jadeveon Clowney he wants to join the Panthers
Jadeveon Clowney just signed a two-year deal with the Panthers. Clowney is Gilmore’s former teammate at South Carolina and South Pointe High School, so Clowney was asked about Gilmore during his introductory press conference with Panthers media.
“I’m gonna try to get him to pull up, too,” Clowney said of Gilmore, via Joe Person of The Athletic.
Gilmore even told Clowney he wants Carolina to bring him back. Both players are from Rock Hill, South Carolina. Returning home and reuniting in the latter stages of their careers would be quite the fairytale ending for the former Gamecocks.
Clowney got a two-year, $20 million deal with a max value of $24 million. Gilmore could fetch something similar after his strong season in Dallas. Even if the Panthers aren’t the final stop for Clowney and Gilmore, the fact Gilmore is actively trying to get to Carolina all but confirms he won’t be back in Dallas.
While Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones said the door wasn’t shut on Gilmore returning, Gilmore’s recent social media activity would suggest otherwise. The former Defensive Player of the Year liked a tweet that slighted Dallas’ front office for pinching its pennies despite claiming to be all-in.
Gilmore seemingly feels a way about not being re-signed. He’s on the record saying he has unfinished business in Dallas and that the Cowboys have the horses to win a Super Bowl. That has to be insulting for a player of Gilmore’s acclaim after he was a catalyst for the defense after Trevon Diggs’ ACL injury.
