Micah Parsons is the frontrunner for NFL Defensive Player Of The Year. Trevon Diggs is on track to earn All-Pro honors for the second consecutive season. You certainly know this, because we steadily sing the praises of those players, marveling at their anomalous performance and production. But this is not the NBA: NFL teams do not become dominant on one side of the ball with a stars-and-scrubs approach built on two special players being flanked by a bunch of subpar ones. Dallas does not become the best defensive team in the league without contributions from a number of unsung, under-the-radar types.
At the top of that list of players–somehow, some way–we find a Cowboys safety. After years of steadfast commitment to neglecting the position, the Cowboys’ “plan” appears to have finally worked out. They have a guy who is more than just a guy. They have a playmaker. Because Donovan Wilson has proven himself to be more than just a stopgap. He is teetering on the line of being an indispensable, integral part of this unit.
A sixth-round pick out of Texas A&M in 2019, Wilson arrived with little fanfare. It all felt very familiar. For years, Dallas had seemingly been content to prioritize every other possible need in the draft or free agency before being reminded that the safety position even existed. Hence rolling out the likes of Ahmad Dixon, Kavon Frazier, Xavier Woods, and other names you’ve already long forgotten or you’d prefer you had.
In 2018, the front office sat back and watched eventual All-Pro Derwin James come off of the board two picks before selecting Leighton Vander Esch despite having a glaring hole on the back end. One year later, the Cowboys did it again by using their second-round pick (and top overall selection) onTrysten Hill over Juan Thornhill, who started for Kansas City’s Super Bowl-winning team as a rookie. Four rounds later, they took Wilson.
I’m hesitant to give the front office too much credit for this because eventually, this plan was probably going to work out to some degree. Talent evaluation remains so hit-and-miss in the NFL that sooner or later one of those low-risk bets pays off. But you’d be forgiven for assuming Wilson wouldn’t have been the one to break the cycle. He started his career on special teams and saw his first regular action on defense in 2020. He missed half of the 2021 season due to injury. Players without pedigree routinely get lost in the wash after being dealt that hand.
Here’s where the credit comes in: this club did great work not only developing Wilson but also believing enough in that development to give him opportunities. Because after the injury setback, Wilson has graduated from a contributor to a player the Cowboys depend on. He is on pace to shatter his previous season high in snaps played, and he is tied for the league lead in sacks by a defensive back.
Wilson’s versatility makes him a headache for opposing offenses, which falls in line with how Dan Quinn’s defense operates. It isn’t the most exotic approach a la Rex or Rob Ryan, or Gregg Williams. But it’s extremely effective when it has a number of defenders who do a number of things well. Wilson is one of them. He’s played 204 snaps in the box this season and 160 lined up deep. Jayron Kearse’s injury in Week 1 contributed to that split, but it is one thing to use a player in two ways and another for that player to be genuinely solid in both departments.
That doesn’t factor in his elite ability to get to the quarterback as a defensive back. In this regard, Wilson reminds me a lot of Orlando Scandrick. Not physically imposing, but not afraid to mix it up and tackle with force. Not expected to jump routes with plant-and-go electricity, but not a liability through the air. A blitz threat. An emotional leader.
When Wilson has been charted as the primary defender on a target this season, he has allowed a passer rating of 65.5, good for 19th in the league among 64 qualified safeties. The caveat is individual coverage data can be a bit unreliable, especially for safeties. But the Dallas defense ranks seventh in NFL passer rating yielded and third in EPA/dropback. That doesn’t happen without quality safety play, and Dallas doesn’t get that without having a plan for Donovan Wilson.
Malik Hooker is also having an exceptional season, as he is PFF’s third-highest-graded safety in the league. Kearse has been banged up and not as impactful as he was last season, but he’s solid when available. After going entire seasons without even one starting-caliber safety, the Cowboys now have three, and Quinn deploys them accordingly. Dallas ranks 31st in the NFL in the share of snaps played in “base” defense (only four defensive backs) at 4.2 percent. (For context, the Cardinals lead the league in base snaps at 57 percent.) Ninety-five percent of the time, this team is rolling out three defensive backs, and while that often means a three-corner package, the three safeties are increasingly sharing the field together. Commonly, it is both: Dallas is running away with the league lead in usage of a 3-2-6 personnel package, at 22 percent. Only one other team uses that package more than 10 percent of the time.
I have long been a proponent of NFL teams embracing three safeties as their go-to personnel package. We’ve seen teams flirt more with “big nickel” or “big dime” packages, but Quinn is committed to it. What the Cowboys have right now and what they do with it truly feels like the best example of a “modern NFL defense.” That starts with Parsons, of course; what other teams have someone who can rush the passer better than just about anyone, play well in space, chase down screens, and blow up run plays with regularity? But the secret sauce is a versatile secondary that requires little substitution based on the situation. Together, the group gives Dallas the answers to almost every question an offense poses.
Hooker and Kearse are signed through the 2023 season. Wilson, though, is a free agent after this year. And while it’s tough to truly gauge the market for a player such as Wilson, it’s clear how important he is to this operation. He is a chess piece: he can blitz the quarterback, he is reliable in coverage, and he is willing to fill run gaps with abandon. This is a hard player to find. Dallas found him, and molded him.
And if the Cowboys choose to look at Wilson’s case through the lens of “Well, we found Donovan Wilson in the sixth round, we can replace him with the same approach,” they will regret it. While Wilson showed plenty of flashes in his first couple of years, only this season has he truly become a reliable impact player. Getting back on the treadmill of hoping for simply mediocre play at the safety position is not something a team in “win now” mode should even consider. On the off chance they get lucky and find another diamond in the rough like Wilson, just remember that it took years for Wilson to evolve into a reliably impactful player.
With their flawed process, the Cowboys eventually, fortunately, stumbled upon Donovan Wilson. Now we can only hope they’ve learned just how important a safety like him truly is.
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