The Dallas Cowboys have thrown bad money on top of bad money at the cornerback position over the last few years.
That started with a 5-year, $97 million contract extension for Trevon Diggs in 2023, then continued with a 4-year, $90 million contract extension for Daron Bland in 2025.
Both have been staggering disappointments. Diggs was released toward the end of the 2025 season after refusing to board a team flight and remains a free agent. In the 3 seasons after signing his contract, Diggs had 3 interceptions.
In the 3 seasons before signing his contract, Diggs had 17 interceptions.
Bland had 14 interceptions in 2022 and 2023 but has just 1 interception over the last 2 seasons. It’s a stretch in which he’s missed 17 regular-season games due to injuries.
Still, somehow, Bland received votes on ESPN’s annual Top 10 position rankings list released on July 7 — 1 year after
The rankings, compiled by ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, are tallied after votes from a group of league executives, coaches, and scouts. Denver Broncos cornerback and 2024 NFL Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain II took the No. 1. spot for the 3rd consecutive season.
In ESPN’s annual roster rankings, the Cowboys’ secondary was singled out as their biggest weakness headed into 2026.
“Dallas doesn’t have many major problem areas, so an unproven cornerback room is the biggest red flag,” ESPN’s Mike Clay wrote on July 7. “This area must be better after the Cowboys finished last in defensive EPA, allowed a 58.4 QBR (29th) and generated only six INTs in 2025. DaRon Bland battled injuries in 2025 but remains the clear star of this group. Ex-Rams Cobie Durant and Derion Kendrick were added this offseason and will battle second-year man Shavon Revel Jr. (last among CBs in PFF grade in 2025), fourth-round rookie Devin Moore and others for starting roles.”
Daron Bland Called ‘Most Overpaid Player’ in 2026
Bland seems headed down that same path as Diggs, which is why Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon put him at the top of his list of the NFL’s “Most Overpaid Players” after the critical phase of the 2026 free agency cycle — although he wasn’t the only one on the roster to catch a stray.
“Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark were also strong candidates with output that doesn’t align with $20-plus million AAVs, but Bland is the clear-cut winner,” Gagnon wrote in March. “The 2022 fifth-round pick has one good season under his belt, but that was enough to earn him a four-year, $90 million deal. He’s missed significant time while being consistently rocked in coverage when on the field the last two seasons, all as the sixth-highest-paid corner in the sport.”
Big Money Came 2 Years After NFL All-Pro Season
With Diggs, at least, the Cowboys can say they paid him when he was coming off a season where he looked like 1 of the NFL’s best players. Over the 2022 and 2023 seasons, before he signed his contract, Diggs had 14 interceptions, made 2 consecutive Pro Bowls, and earned NFL All-Pro honors in 2022.
In Bland’s case, the Cowboys paid him 2 years after he was an NFL All-Pro in 2023, and after he’d already shown he was injury-prone. He’s missed 17 regular-season games over the last 2 seasons — the first 10 games in 2024 with a stress fracture and season-ending foot surgery that cost him the last 5 games in 2025.
“(Cowboys) gave Bland a huge extension,” The Ringer’s Bill Simmons said after Bland signed in August 2025. “Like $90 million. So, it’s like, ‘Well now that we don’t have to pay Micah Parsons, we have more money to overpay some of the other players on the team.’ I don’t even know if he’s a Top 20 cornerback.”
Bland’s 65.2 overall grade from Pro Football Focus ranked him 46th out of 114 eligible players at his position last season.
For all the money the Cowboys paid Bland, it did little to help their defense — they ranked dead-last in the NFL in passing defense in 2025 as they stumbled to a 7-9-1 record and missed the playoffs for the 2nd consecutive season.
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