Cowboys CB Nahshon Wright has little hope in contract year
What are your expectations from Nahshon Wright entering his fourth season with the Cowboys?
Nearly half of the players going to training camp this summer won’t be coming away with roster spots. One of them is probably CB Nahshon Wright, who despite being a 2021 third-round pick has been barely noticeable for the Dallas Cowboys.
Wright was the last of three third-rounders for Dallas three years ago; DT Osa Odighizuwa and DE Chauncey Golston being the others. While Odighizuwa has emerged as an underrated stud in the middle of the defensive line and Golston should be back for backup duty, Wright hasn’t established himself in any way at the cornerback position.
At the very least, Wright has outlasted second-round bust Kelvin Joseph. But both were quickly outclassed by DaRon Bland, who’s gone from a fifth-round pick in 2022 to an All-Pro in just two seasons. Bland’s ascension shows there was no lack of opportunity for Wright, Joseph, Israel Mukuamu, or other CB prospects to ascend in Dallas if they’d played their part.
Far from it; Wright has barely even played. He actually saw a career-low 7% of the Cowboys’ defensive snaps in 2023 after playing on 27% the year before. To put that in perspective, Wright appeared on 50 snaps last season and Trevon Diggs saw 101 in just two games.
To his credit, Wright has been one of Dallas’ busiest special teams players over the last three years on multiple units. But that won’t save him in 2024 as the Cowboys have a new rookie prospect to work with and are continuing to pan for depth and developmental talent. They drafted Wake Forest’s Caelen Carson in the fifth round last April and have been kicking the tires on spring league players with NFL experience like Gareon Conley and Deandre Baker.
With Diggs, Bland, and Jourdan Lewis the clear top three corners this season, only two or three roster spots remain. Carson should get one of them, and then you also have Israel Mukuamu and Eric Scott as returning prospects. Scott, a hot name in last year’s training camp, could be tough to oust in his second season. Mukuamu’s footing isn’t much better than Wright’s at this point but he at least has some position flex as a safety in his favor. You also have to account for C.J. Goodwin, the veteran special teams ace, in roster math with the defensive backs.
Wright is also handicapped by an expiring contract that counts $1.44 million against Dallas’ 2024 cap and only has about $200k in dead money remaining. He now has to be worth more than the $1.2 million in cap relief that the team can get from releasing him, and that’s a tough sell based on how his career’s gone so far. Realistically, if the Cowboys do sign Baker, Conley, or anyone new before camp, Wright might not even make it to Oxnard.
Assuming he doesn’t make the team this year, it will be a “told you so” moment for all those who called Nahshon Wright a reach when the Cowboys made him a Day 2 pick. You can’t teach his 6’4” size, but that was about all he had going for him, being rated as a late-round prospect at best. Will McClay is great but he’s far from perfect, and Wright is a clear example of the scouting department getting it wrong.
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