Cowboys: National media labels recent draft pick as cut candidate
The Dallas Cowboys have a plethora of decisions to make when it comes to their roster in terms of salary cap space. Some of those moves may involve letting go of some regular faces in the building. Brad Spielberger of Pro Football Focus dove into possible cut candidates for all 32 NFL teams earlier this […]
The Dallas Cowboys have a plethora of decisions to make when it comes to their roster in terms of salary cap space. Some of those moves may involve letting go of some regular faces in the building.
Brad Spielberger of Pro Football Focus dove into possible cut candidates for all 32 NFL teams earlier this week, and when it came to the Cowboys, it was defensive tackle, Neville Gallimore.
Salary Cap Details: $240,989 dead money, $2,743,000 cap savings
"The Cowboys have repeatedly tried to address the interior of their defensive line early in the draft, with Gallimore one of four interior defenders selected on Day 2 over the past four drafts. However, he hasn't shown overly encouraging signs of growth through three seasons.
"Gallimore’s 36.4 grade in 2022 ranked 107th out of 112 interior defenders with at least 300 snaps played on the year, and his 29.7 run-defense grade ranked 136th out of 142 players at the position. Gallimore has failed to log 10 quarterback pressures in any season to start his career, with just 26 total on 513 pass-rush snaps."
Gallimore was a part of the Cowboys' 2020 draft class which included wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, cornerback Trevon Diggs, and center Tyler Biadasz. In the case of Lamb and Diggs, they've both reached Pro Bowl/All-Pro status, and with the steady improvement of Biadasz, they'll be looking for sizeable pay increases soon.
This makes parting ways with Gallimore understandable for the Cowboys from a financial standpoint, but it also does from a performance aspect.
In Gallimore’s second career start against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 9 of his rookie campaign, he graded out as one of the best interior defensive linemen in the NFL in terms of run defense grade, run stops, and run stop percentage according to Pro Football Focus.
Gallimore continued showing that he was a force in the trenches six weeks later by making a few big plays in the red zone against the San Francisco 49ers, the biggest coming on a first and goal from the two-yard line.
Life in the NFL hasn't been so smooth for Gallimore since. He suffered a dislocated elbow just before the 2021 season and was placed on injured reserve. Gallimore was originally thought to be out for four to six weeks, but he didn't take a meaningful snap until Week 14, stunting his growth as a player.
The 16 games that Gallimore played this past season was a career-high for him, which is a notch in his belt as far as availability. However, despite having some flashes here and there, his production wasn't consistent.
Dallas needs more help on the interior and the cap space gained from letting Gallimore go could help with possibly getting a guy like Daron Payne. Or, the Cowboys may want to keep Gallimore and see if he can show some of his rookie juice and even more in year four.
Feature image via Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
