Last year, the Dallas Cowboys signed cornerback Jourdan Lewis to a $2.83 million deal without sweating much and while benefiting from NFL accounting rules that allowed them to consider it as a $1.38 million salary cap charge.
Easy peasy.
But in 2025, Lewis' price will be much higher after he put together one of the best seasons of any nickel cornerback in the league. And he won't be quiet about it, too.
"Know other nickels aren’t doing what I’m doing," Lewis tweeted on Monday. "Secondaries aren’t doing what we’re doing period. We do not 2 to 1 read, we do not zone drop. When you turn on the tape all you will see is us vertically carry from 1st to 4th down. Sincerely tired of the disrespect"
Lewis has been underrated pretty much for his entire career and how he's so sick of it he's explaining the Xs and Os implications on social media.
Carrying verticals from the slot position is one of the factors that makes the nickelback position one of the hardest in the game of football. When Lewis says the Cowboys don't "2 to 1 read," he's talking about safety play. In many schemes, safeties are asked to read the No, 2 receiver (in the slot) and help out the nickel if he goes vertical (if not they go to the No. 1, hence 2 to 1 read). In the case of Lewis, it's all him in the slot.
Lewis furthered the narrative with another post talking about his health, noting he didn't get paid last year because of a nasty foot injury that reduced his caliber of play.
"Only thing that changed was I obliterated my foot," Lewis posted. "The year before that, while playing match (coverages), I had 3 INTs and 12 PBUs."
The Cowboys have many players to worry about in the upcoming free agency period and the most discussed ones are DeMarcus Lawrence, Osa Odighizuwa, Chauncey Golston, among others. But don't forget about Lewis and don't underestimate how much Dallas will have to pay up.
And he'll have earned every cent.
