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Name: Juan ThornhillSchool: VirginiaHeight: 6’1”Weight: 210 lbs2018 stat line: 13 games Michael Gallup Jersey White , 98 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, 6 interceptions, 7 passes defensedThe Dallas defense took a huge step forward in 2018 and became one of the league’s best, and a lot of that had to do with the work of defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator Kris Richard, who brought with him the scheme that he had helped create in Seattle that became known as the Legion of Boom. There, the Seahawks’ defensive success thrived in large part because of their safeties. Earl Thomas was a rangy center-field safety and Kam Chancellor was more of a box safety who would punish any underneath throws or runs. In 2018, the Cowboys (hopefully) learned that they don’t yet have their dynamic safety tandem. They are halfway there, though. Xavier Woods had a breakout year at the free safety role, and he allowed the sixth-lowest passer rating among all safeties and forced incompletions on 80% of his redzone targets, more than any other safety. He still has room to grow but the Cowboys hope they have found their approximation of ET. Now they just need their Bam Bam Kam. Jeff Heath is an undervalued special teams player and is a key voice in the locker room, but he just isn’t getting it done as a safety. If the Cowboys do indeed look to the draft for a Heath replacement, Virginia’s Juan Thornhill is a great prospect. Thornhill first saw significant playing time in his sophomore year with the Cavaliers, where he split time between cornerback and safety. But entering his senior season Dak Prescott Jersey , Thornhill moved to free safety full time. With that, we’ll segue into the most concerning part about Thornhill, and that’s his fit as a free safety. He has his moments, but Thornhill didn’t show the kind of range in deep coverage the Cowboys look for out of their free safeties. Virginia probably chose Thornhill for that role because of his cornerback experience, but it didn’t produce the kind of stud results they may have been hoping for. Nevertheless, Thornhill had six interceptions in 2018 and 13 total picks in his three years playing there, so he has ball-hawking abilities. But the good news is that Thornhill flashes the kind of traits that would make him ideal for the strong safety, in-the-box role in Dallas. Thornhill exhibits some terrific football IQ and his fundamentals make up for any deficiencies. When defending the run, Thornhill takes great angles and generally makes sure to square up the ballcarrier, making good form tackles more often than not. Unlike Woods and backup safety Kavon Frazier, Thornhill won’t lay out players with big hits very often, but he does make fundamentally sound tackles. His coaches must have noticed this because Thornhill saw more work in the box as the season went on, and those were generally where he made his best plays. As a result, Thornhill often went up against tight ends and sometimes slot receivers in man coverage https://www.thecowbo...-elliott-jersey , and his experience as a cornerback kicked in. It’s not his strongest point, but he can hold his own in those situations. In this clip from Senior Bowl practice, Thornhill displayed the kind of tight coverage Dallas likes, even though the deflection was ultimately caught by the tight end:Throughout his time at Virginia, Thornhill was lauded for his leadership and for being a student of the game. He regularly studied game tape and worked hard on improving the mental side of the game, and as a result he’s displayed good anticipation of routes when in pass coverage. At times in 2018 for Dallas, Heath would get confused by various route patterns or miss tackles due to the poor angles he took. While Thornhill would certainly come with a learning curve as he adjusts to the speed of the NFL, his academic approach to football in college would help ease that adjustment. Despite his obvious strengths, Thornhill’s lack of elite athleticism may bring him down some team’s draft boards, which would allow him to fall to Dallas with their second round pick. However, if Thornhill tests well at the combine, he could shoot up draft boards and be taken earlier, putting him out of the Cowboys’ range. Still, if he is available at pick 58 Amari Cooper Cowboys Jersey , Dallas would be lucky to get the Cavalier. Plus, there’s the obvious puns about being “Out of the Woods and into the Thornhill” that this hypothetical safety duo could spawn. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones may be trying to position himself for the ability to declare victory, even if running back Ezekiel Elliott‘s holdout lasts into the regular season.“We’ve got a marathon here,” Jones said earlier this week. “We want Zeke when we get to the playoffs. We want Zeke when we’re in the dog days of the season.”Whether they sign Elliott to a new contract or not, they’ll likely get Zeke in the “dog days of the season.” Signed through 2020, Elliott risks tolling his contract for a full year if he doesn’t show up in time to get credit for the fourth year of his five-year rookie deal. Under the Joey Galloway arbitration precedent from nearly 20 years ago, a player under contract gets credit for the contract year by playing in eight games.Given the possibility that the Cowboys will request and receive a roster exemption of up to three weeks when Elliott returns, his best move would be to show up right after Week Six. That way, he’s guaranteed to be available for eight games — from Week 10 (a Sunday night contest vs. the Vikings) through Week 17 — even if the Cowboys use the maximum roster exemption.The Cowboys understand these rules, and they surely assume that Elliott will show up in time to get credit for 2019, setting himself up for 2020 being the final year of his contract. By talking about the season being a marathon and wanting Zeke for the “dog days” and the playoffs, Jones hints at a regular-season holdout of up to six weeks, a roster exemption to get Zeke into shape, and then having Elliott on the team for the final two months of the regular season.Of course https://www.thecowbo...der-esch-jersey , it’s possible that Elliott, who didn’t flinch at forfeiting a year of credit toward free agency, won’t care about letting his contract toll for a full year. If his goal isn’t to become a free agent but to get more money from the Cowboys, he could choose to skip the full season, giving up more than $3.5 million but preserving his body.While that wouldn’t secure the same path to free agency that Le'Veon Bell finagled a year ago, Elliott’s leverage over the Cowboys comes from the withholding of services. And Elliott, who seemingly stunned the Cowboys with his training-camp holdout, could shock them by not showing up at all this season.For now, they assume he’ll be there, perhaps no later than the days following the sixth Sunday of the season. Unless the two sides begin to make progress soon in their negotiations, it’s time to start looking at Week Six as the potential point of no return.