Last year, Dallas Cowboys veteran defensive back CJ Goodwin was named one of the captains for the group, representing special teams along with kicker Brandon Aubrey. But this spring, the writing appeared to be on the wall for the 36-year-old Goodwin–he was not asked by the Cowboys to re-sign, leaving him a free agent after eight seasons in Dallas. Goodwin had been a fixture in the kicking game for the Cowboys, but at age 36, the team was ready to move on.
Goodwin played 12 years in the NFL, the first four of which we spent bouncing through practice squads and finally onto the roster of the Falcons and Cardinals. He came to the Cowboys in 2018 and engrained himself as a special teams ace, sticking through three head coaching changes and playing 2,221 snaps on special teams, and just 62 on defense.
But he did not get on the field at all with the defense last year, even as the secondary was crumbling and battered by injuries, a good sign that it was time to hang up the cleats.
CJ Goodwin’s Impressive Journey
Goodwin’s journey from fringe NFLer to Cowboys stalwart was a fascinating one. He only played one season of football in high school at Linsly High in West Virginia, and originally went to Bethany College to play basketball. But he began playing football when he transferred to Fairmont State, and then to California (Pennsylvania).
Goodwin was working on a farm owned by Hall of Fame defensive back Mel Blount while in college when he asked Blount if he could get him a tryout with the Steelers, the team for which Blount had starred for 14 years in the 1970s and 80s.
“I looked at him, I thought he was crazy,” Blount told Rob Metzger of WOTV in West Virginia. “Like, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Yeah, Mr. Mel, I want a tryout.’ So, sure enough, made a call to the general manager, Kevin Colbert at the time, and they brought him in, worked him out. Next thing you know, he’s in camp and performing well. So, I am proud of CJ because he got an opportunity and he took advantage of it.”
Cowboys Special Teams Under Pressure
Of course, losing Goodwin will put some pressure on Cowboys special teams coordinator Nick Sorensen, whose unit had an up-and-down season in 2025 and seemed to get worse in kick coverage as the year progressed. Goodwin possesses a lot of institutional knowledge and that will need to be replaced somehow.
Sorensen was hired in 2025 and after that one season, there were already questions about whether he would be fired as the team fired defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus.
In January, team COO Stephen Jones confirmed that Sorensen would be back, but said, “We certainly want to be better there. We’ve got some good pieces with our returner, our punter, our kicker and our snapper. But usually when you get some good defensive players, those turn into pretty good special teams players, too.”
Cowboys Captain Announces Retirement After 12 Seasons