JJT: Safety J.J. Wilcox fighting for roster spot with Cowboys

Safety J.J. Wilcox fighting for roster spot with Cowboys
12:45 PM ET
Jean-Jacques Taylor
ESPN Staff Writer

IRVING, Texas - Byron Jones, the Cowboys' first-round pick in 2015, is moving from cornerback to safety. Barry Church is the Cowboys’ other starting safety.

That means J.J. Wilcox, who has started 29 games the past two seasons, is headed for a backup role, if he has a role at all.

He had one interception and three pass deflections along with 53 tackles last season. In 2014, Wilcox had five pass deflections, three interceptions and a forced fumble.

The Cowboys signed safety Jeff Heath to a four-year, $7.6 million deal in the offseason and drafted Central Michigan’s Kavon Frazier in the sixth round.

Wilcox, a free agent after the 2016 season who’s scheduled to earn $1.6 million this year, said he’s not worried about the business of the NFL.

“It's competition. It's the way the business goes. It's the way of the world,” Wilcox said. “You have to go out and put your best foot down and maybe on film and every time the camera is on. So, like I said, there's competition all over the field, the strong safety spot, free safety spot.

“Still, you never know what might happen because of OTAs and camp. So, I'm going to do my best from the beginning from the start."

Wilcox, who didn’t play safety until his final season at Georgia Southern, said he understands improvement is the only way to guarantee himself a spot on the Cowboys or in the NFL.

"I think I have to get better. Like I said, I'm still learning the position. This is my fifth year playing it. I've been playing offense all of my life,” Wilcox said. “So, I think I have a lot of upside. So, I just have to keep learning the game, study hard on the film, just be more consistent in open-field tackling and being the best safety that I can be."

In related news Barry Church not fighting for a roster spot, unless someone wants those incriminating photographs released.

townsend said:

In related news Barry Church not fighting for a roster spot, unless someone wants those incriminating photographs released.

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You have to love how Wilcox and Church are basically the same player and yet Church is untouchable as a starter and Wilcox is fighting for his life for a roster spot. Funny how that works.

Until everyone on the defense does his job, it's harder to evaluate the safeties as they've tried to make up for inadequate play at DT, LB and CB.

In the Dallas defense those have been seriously weak positions at times and it's easy to see how the safeties get banged up as a result.

It's why Thornton's addition has me fired up. Hayden's weakness up front impacted everyone.

Cowboysrock55 said:

You have to love how Wilcox and Church are basically the same player and yet Church is untouchable as a starter and Wilcox is fighting for his life for a roster spot. Funny how that works.

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Church is a hell of a lot more reliable. He may be slow and more like a LB, but he is not a constant threat to miss a tackle or be completely idiotic in open field tackling situations.

boozeman said:

He may be slow and more like a LB, but he is not a constant threat to miss a tackle or be completely idiotic in open field tackling situations.

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He missed a ton of tackles last year from taking terrible angles. He is embarassing in coverage as well.

Both of those dipshits could drop off the roster tomorrow and the secondary would improve.

UncleMilti said:

Both of those dipshits could drop off the roster tomorrow and the secondary would improve.

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Sort of like when Claiborne went out for the year.

According to PFF Church was like the 66th best safety and Wilcox was like the 78th. So basically they both suck. Church is a better tackler but still misses a lot of tackles. Wilcox is better in coverage but that's because Church is a massive liability there.

The one saving grace is that rookie Byron Jones ranked as the 22nd best safety last year. Which is actually pretty impressive considering he was only a rookie and sort of learning while bouncing all around the defense. I think he has the potential this year to really make a leap as a safety prospect into the upper tier of the NFL. Church will play next to him I'm sure but I actually think that's kind of a shitty fit. With Jones we like to use him more in the box in some man coverage stuff as a safety. Which leaves Church as the deep safety and he is horrific at that. Like embarrassingly bad. I know the thought of a great coverage guy and a hard hitting safety combo seems nice but you really need two guys who can cover in todays NFL. Or at least play good zone coverage.

Cowboysrock55 said:

According to PFF Church was like the 66th best safety and Wilcox was like the 78th. So basically they both suck. Church is a better tackler but still misses a lot of tackles. Wilcox is better in coverage but that's because Church is a massive liability there.

The one saving grace is that rookie Byron Jones ranked as the 22nd best safety last year. Which is actually pretty impressive considering he was only a rookie and sort of learning while bouncing all around the defense. I think he has the potential this year to really make a leap as a safety prospect into the upper tier of the NFL. Church will play next to him I'm sure but I actually think that's kind of a shitty fit. With Jones we like to use him more in the box in some man coverage stuff as a safety. Which leaves Church as the deep safety and he is horrific at that. Like embarrassingly bad. I know the thought of a great coverage guy and a hard hitting safety combo seems nice but you really need two guys who can cover in todays NFL. Or at least play good zone coverage.

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I think they want to use Jones more as the deep safety.

Angrymesscan said:

I think they want to use Jones more as the deep safety.

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If Church is going to be on the field at all he belongs in the box. That probably puts us in cover 3 with our corners and Jones taking thirds of the field and Church and the LBs underneath. Not my favorite coverage but it's probably the best we can do with our current talent.

Angrymesscan said:

I think they want to use Jones more as the deep safety.

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We used Byron as a nickle LBer. We like to use him on big TEs with man coverage. None of that works with him playing deep.

If we had drafted Ramsey I was hoping we would put him at safety and bump Church down to a nickel/dime LB, which seems to be the popular thing to do these days.

I still think he would be fine in a similar role in a Cover-3 if we decide to go that route with Jones playing centerfield and presumably Carr/Scandrick playing the outside zones.

Cowboysrock55 said:

We used Byron as a nickle LBer.

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I'm totally down with this against the league's better TE's.

He was very good vs. Gronkowski and forced New England to cheat with pick plays to break the game open in spite of our offensive ineptitude.

You need to put a rising player like Jordan Reed in his place to expose QB's like Cousins for the dorks they are.

But there are far more plain ordinary TE's than great ones, and in these cases I'd like to see Jones play more centerfield.

Maybe the new kid they drafted can join Jones in the backfield....God please someone just dump Church/Wilcox already.

I'd imagine safety will be at the top of our wish list next year in the draft. We had significant interest in Weddle, Church's contract runs out and Wilcox may be gone as well. I guess you could say the same about CB but hopefully we prioritize S over CB.

Harrison Smith and Eric Berry are both FA's next year but I can't imagine either will make it to the open market. If they do I wouldn't be surprised if we went hard after either of them.

Almost anywhere else, Church and Wilcox would be backups at best. Same old song at safety for over ten years now for the most part. Ever since Woody retired, we had Roy!!11!! who was good for at least a few years but even that was dang near ten years ago and nobody else I can think of stands out since then.

DLK150 said:

Almost anywhere else, Church and Wilcox would be backups at best. Same old song at safety for over ten years now for the most part. Ever since Woody retired, we had Roy!!11!! who was good for at least a few years but even that was dang near ten years ago and nobody else I can think of stands out since then.

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Until Byron Jones, that is.

Dallas has determined they will try to develop stars at LT, #1OG, C, QB, TE, #1WR, RB, 3T, both DEs, and at least two in the secondary. The wildcards are the broken LB they always pick in the 2nd round and flukes like Collins.

They clearly haven't executed their plans well on defense, consistently reaching for undersized and injury-prone players.

Crawford and both DE's have been mostly broken/dysfunctional and they finally admitted defeat and signed Thornton at 1T. Lee plays every other year, Carter came and went, McClain can't be relied upon. They can't draft quality CB's outside of Newman, despite a crazy draft cadence in the 1st round.

That bungling especially hurts the safeties as they get no help up front and must also watch for broken coverages at LB and CB.

This defense lacks rocks around which to fill in sand. Instead it's mostly if not all sand.

ravidubey said:

Until Byron Jones, that is.

Dallas has determined they will try to develop stars at LT, #1OG, C, QB, TE, #1WR, RB, 3T, both DEs, and at least two in the secondary. The wildcards are the broken LB they always pick in the 2nd round and flukes like Collins.

They clearly haven't executed their plans well on defense, consistently reaching for undersized and injury-prone players.

Crawford and both DE's have been mostly broken/dysfunctional and they finally admitted defeat and signed Thornton at 1T. Lee plays every other year, Carter came and went, McClain can't be relied upon. They can't draft quality CB's outside of Newman, despite a crazy draft cadence in the 1st round.

That bungling especially hurts the safeties as they get no help up front and must also watch for broken coverages at LB and CB.

This defense lacks rocks around which to fill in sand. Instead it's mostly if not all sand.

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This is very true although the defense may be starting to form, but as always, it is reliant on factors such as the LB's health and the brains of our young DE's.

If Lawrence and/or Gregory can get their shit straight we have the makings of a pretty deep DL. Let's just leave Gregory out for now, but Lawrence/Crawford/Thornton/Tapper/Collins/Irving/J. Crawford/Mayowa doesn't have any Von Miller's or JJ Watt's but it has the potential to be a nice group that can rotate in and out at different positions.

The biggest question mark is health at LB, if Smith and Lee can get on the field and stay on the field we basically have our own Kuechly/Thomas Davis duo, if they can't, well, you know the drill.

The unfortunate thing is that you can see the light at the end of the tunnel in some areas but you know something will inevitably go wrong.

Who from our defense could you picture starting in this year's pro bowl? Be honest.