[UPDATE] Cowboys holding workout for veteran DE Carl Lawson, 3 others
[UPDATE]: We now know who will be attending the workout besides Carl Lawson.
The Cowboys are bringing in four veteran pass-rushers on Thursday for a workout, including Carl Lawson, who has 27 career sacks. Other workouts are Shaka Toney, Al-Quadin Muhammad and Justin Hollins.
— Nick Eatman (@nickeatman) August 1, 2024
After losing defensive end Sam Williams for the season with a knee injury, the Dallas Cowboys don’t appear content with internal promotion. They will be working out free agent pass rushers on Thursday, and the headliner is veteran Carl Lawson.
Lawson, a fourth-round pick in 2017, spent four years with the Cincinnati Bengals and then the last three seasons with the New York Jets. The 29-year-old edge rusher was hurt most of last season, but in 2022 he started all 17 games and had seven sacks for New York.
Paul Guenther, Dallas’ current run game coordinator, was the defensive coordinator for Cincinnati when Lawson was drafted. Though they only had one season together before Guenther left for the Raiders, that connection may be part of Lawson’s tryout now.
Apparently, Lawson already had an eye on joining the Cowboys. Not long after news broke of Williams’ injury, Lawson posted the following not-so-cryptic message.
At this point in the offseason, Lawson should be within Dallas’ price range and brings proven productivity as a pass rusher. He hasn’t often been a full-time starter, but that’s not the ask here, where Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence are still the top duo and rookie Marshawn Kneeland is expected to play a lot. He would likely be more in the realm of Dante Fowler the last two years, who only played on about 25% of the defensive snaps.
We’ll see if Carl Lawson or some other new arrival joins the defensive end rotation. Whatever the case, it’s good to see the Cowboys not taking a passive approach to losing Sam Williams.