Dallas City News

There was a brief moment on Friday when it seemed as if the Cowboys may be on the verge of a major contract extension, but that turned out not to be the case. The team did, however, make a move Friday in trading cornerback Nahshon Wright to the Vikings in exchange for another cornerback in Andrew Booth Jr.

Wright began training camp in one of the most precarious positions of anyone on this roster. A third-round pick in 2021, Dan Quinn’s first year in Dallas, Wright had struggled to see the field and often struggled when he did get in games. In his three years with the team, Wright played in 32 games with three starts, but nearly 70% of the snaps he played came on special teams.

When Wright did play on defense, he did little to earn more playing time. His most notable stretch came towards the end of the 2022 season, and his struggles led the Cowboys to bench him in favor of moving safety Israel Mukuamu to the slot for the start of the postseason. Entering this season, Wright was considered to be in grave danger of being cut, especially with Quinn in Washington and his replacement, Mike Zimmer, having drafted his own cornerback in Caelen Carson.

Booth has had a similar journey with the Vikings. The 42nd pick of the 2022 NFL Draft, Booth was taken in the first season after Minnesota parted ways with Zimmer. In his rookie year, Booth was eased into game action, mostly playing on special teams. However, he saw ample snaps on defense in a Week 9 win before logging his first career start – coincidentally, against the Cowboys – the following week. In that game, Booth suffered a meniscus tear that knocked him out for the rest of the year.

Following Booth’s rookie year, Minnesota overhauled their defensive scheme with a new coordinator. Between the scheme change and Booth’s own recovery timeline, he saw minimal action last year. Booth didn’t play a single snap on defense for the first month of the season, and he finished the season having played on just 13% of the defensive snaps.

Booth was similarly viewed as entering a pivotal year for his chances at keeping a roster spot, although he had a slightly longer runway than Wright. In swapping Wright for Booth, the Cowboys have bought themselves one more year of cornerback depth while actually adding some minimal cap space for this year.

That on its own makes this trade a decent move for Dallas. However, Booth also comes with significantly more upside. He came into the NFL after a strong run in college with the Clemson Tigers. Many draft experts had him ranked high, and Dane Brugler of The Athletic listed him as the fourth best cornerback in the 2022 NFL Draft. Here’s Brugler’s scouting report from 2022:

A two-year starter at Clemson, Booth was an outside cornerback in former defensive coordinator Brent Venables’ man and zone schemes, including bail and side-saddle techniques. A former five-star recruit, he blossomed over the last three years for the Tigers and had a strong junior season, including impressive tapes against the two SEC teams on the 2021 schedule (Georgia and South Carolina).

Booth stays in phase because of his lower-body quickness and hip-flip skills to mirror routes, staying coordinated in his transitions and in position to make plays on the ball. There is nothing finesse about his play style and he takes his contain responsibilities seriously in the run game, but his downhill aggressiveness makes his tackling an adventure.

Overall, Booth’s tape has some volatility and he must mature his feel for spacing, but he has fluid athleticism, finds the football and disrupts the catch point, three important ingredients to playing the position at a high level. He has NFL starting traits (if he stays healthy) and projects best in a man-heavy scheme.

Booth may have been drafted after Zimmer left the Vikings, but his scouting report reads like a prototype of what Zimmer looks for in his cornerbacks. Vision, ball skills, versatility in coverage techniques, and aggression in run support all fit the Zimmer profile to a tee. Booth’s man coverage prowess also made him a natural fit for the Cowboys’ defensive scheme under Quinn, which is why we listed him as a potential trade target at last year’s deadline.

Now, Booth arrives in Dallas for the cost of a player that likely wasn’t even going to make the roster this year. He’ll get to play for Zimmer, whose scheme seems to fit Booth. More than that, though, Booth will get to work under Al Harris, who has been present for the rapid ascensions of both Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland.

Booth won’t be counted on to offer anything more than depth for right now, though he should get ample playing time in the preseason during a protracted evaluation period. Still, the former Top 50 draft pick was considered a borderline first-round talent just two years ago, and he’s coming into an environment where he could rediscover that spark from his college days. The potential alone makes this a major upgrade for the Cowboys.