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The Cowboys stumbled into fortune when cornerback DaRon Bland was forced to switch roles in 2023. An ACL injury to Trevon Diggs in the lead-up to Week 3 forced Dallas to move Bland, their promising young nickel corner, outside to cover the absence.
With Stephon Gillmore on the opposite boundary and Jourdan Lewis taking over in the nickel, the Cowboys felt Bland would be up to the task of playing outside. They just had no idea how up to the task he’d be.
Bland went on to post an All-Pro season at outside CB for Dallas. Along the way he pulled in nine interceptions and returned five of them for touchdown, setting an NFL record. He established himself as one of the next great playmakers in the NFL and solidified his place on the boundary for the foreseeable future.
While many respected analysts still believe Bland’s best fit remains inside, his value is best maximized playing primarily outside. That’s because the stakes are higher outside. Routes are run deeper and consequences are more severe. It’s why the best CBs in the league typically play outside and it’s why the pay discrepancy between the two spots across the NFL is so apparent.
What it doesn’t mean is Bland should now be permanently entrenched outside. Doing so would remove one of his best qualities and rob the Cowboys of one of their biggest advantages.
Bland’s ability to effectively play inside and outside is a major advantage schematically. It allows the Cowboys to move him around and follow advantageous matchups while avoiding the more disadvantageous matchups. Most CBs can’t, or won’t, do that.
DaRon Bland wins the 2023 INT crown
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— PFF (@PFF) January 9, 2024
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Cornerbacks are like homebodies. They see the big wide world out there, but if given the choice, most prefer to stay where they’re most comfortable.
Of the NFL’s top-10 graded CBs last season, only two, Trent McDuffie and Devon Witherspoon, regularly split snaps between the inside and outside. The problem with inflexibility is these great CBs now become avoidable. If they are unwilling to travel inside and/or outside, opposing offenses get to dictate coverage. If the opposition has someone like CeeDee Lamb who can play the X role, Z role and in the slot, they can avoid the CB in question all day. Bland isn’t so avoidable.
With Bland, Mike Zimmer can chase matchups. If the ideal matchup for Bland slides inside, so can Bland. It would force someone else outside to cover for him but the expected nickel CB in 2024, Lewis, has experience outside and can presumably slide outside in order to facilitate Bland’s nomadic ways.
Getting Diggs back into the fold is going to be huge for the Cowboys secondary in 2024, but no one should sleep on Bland’s recently discovered ability to travel because that has the potential to be a gamechanger for this defense.