Cowboys DE Sam Williams will miss the 2024 season with a torn ACL he suffered in camp over the weekend, so the team now has a need there. Former Cowboys scout Bryan Broaddus takes a look at some of the players on the street the team could look to bring in to help the pass rush, including a former 1st-rounder who could help set the edge.
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00:00I think Charles Harris, who is a 29 year old defensive end that was with the Detroit Lions
00:22last year, and I sat down and watched him actually play against the Chiefs, the Cowboys,
00:27the Packers, and to me, of the names I'm going to give you, this is the guy that's got the
00:35most juice when we talk about coming off the football, when we talk about the quickness,
00:40the explosiveness.
00:41I'm trying to find a similar player to the one you just lost in Sam Williams.
00:48And Charles Harris seems to fit that bill better than the other two guys, in my opinion.
00:55This guy's got some initial quickness.
00:57He stays very active.
00:59He can close down from the back end very well when the ball goes away from him.
01:06He does a really nice job on the edge of holding up in the running game.
01:11When the ball was at him, it seemed like that to me, when his ability to play with his hands
01:16extend and get rid of the blocker and then get in on the play, I thought that was pretty
01:21good by his standards.
01:25He'll rush to the level of the quarterback.
01:27You don't see him going past the quarterback at all.
01:32A lot of times, these defensive ends, these edges, they'll go too far up the field.
01:36The tackles will just push them by, and the next thing you know, they're not a factor
01:41in the play.
01:42You can use this guy on twist stunts.
01:44He's got pass rush moves.
01:46He's got some shifty moves to him as well.
01:50I talked about the change of direction, the chase, the spin.
01:54All these things are really, really positive about him getting to the quarterback.
02:00You can see him at times walk these blockers back into the quarterback, especially the
02:05Kansas City game, that first game of the year.
02:07He was taking the Kansas City tackles and walking them back.
02:10Do you watch him, and are you a little bit surprised that a team like Detroit doesn't
02:15have him back?
02:18I honestly don't know in the games.
02:20Like I said, I watch Kansas City, Dallas, Green Bay, New Orleans, and Minnesota.
02:24Games where he was involved in plays, and I'm surprised this kid doesn't have a job.
02:28I really am.
02:29He's 29 years old, though.
02:30Former first round pick, right?
02:32Right.
02:33At a Mizzou.
02:34Yeah, the same draft as Tacos, Taco Charlton draft, so, but yeah, he's a, I'd like him
02:40to-
02:41He's holding out for a nice deal, I bet.
02:42Well, you know, I don't know.
02:43Maybe he thinks-
02:44He's bounced around the league.
02:45He's a little bit better than he is, but when I compared him to, okay, the next one I would
02:51say I would take is Carl Lawson.
02:54That would be the next one.
02:55And he used to be incredible.
02:56I would love to know what he is now, because he's gotten banged up a little bit.
02:59He has.
03:00He's a little undersized.
03:01Yeah.
03:02Too much Auburn.
03:03Yeah, he's, there's the initial quickness there.
03:05He'll play off the blocks with his hands, but when he has to restart, it's a problem
03:12for him.
03:13If he gets stopped and then has to restart, he's not going to be a factor at all.
03:19You think it's the knees?
03:20The knees are where he's-
03:21No, I think it's the fact that he's not, he tries to use quickness, but he doesn't have
03:28it like he used to, and now he's planning to play back to a way that he once played.
03:34And there's too many times where he rushes down the middle.
03:38And you know, if you can't get to the corner, if you can't get there quick enough, you're
03:43going to be in trouble.
03:44I mean, Tyron Smith, and Jordan Maillotta, I watched him against Philadelphia.
03:48Jordan Maillotta can kill you if you rush Jordan Maillotta down the middle.
03:52I'm like, okay, let's watch him against some tackles in this division, you know?
03:56Watch him against Jordan Maillotta, and it's like, hmm, that wasn't very good.
04:00Where you should get with Maillotta, you've got to get the corner, get around him, because
04:03if he gets his hands on you, you're done.
04:06But he's got to be careful about that, because when he gets, when he goes down that middle
04:12or he gets pushed inside, they just wall him down.
04:16So that sounds like a big thumbs down on Carl Lawson.
04:19Yeah, he plays as a right edge.
04:22Now, I'll say this, though.
04:24I'll say this.
04:26He's had experience playing with Mike Zimmer.
04:29He's been with Mike Zimmer before.
04:31And so Zimmer might know him and say, okay, I could do this with him.
04:36But to my opinion, his ability isn't as good as what Charles Harris' ability is right now.
04:44The third guy that I looked at was N'Gokwe, Yannick N'Gokwe.
04:48He was with the Chicago Bears last year.
04:50He's been getting workouts here as of late.
04:52Yeah, he's another 29-year-old guy.
04:54I watched him against Green Bay, I watched him against Kansas City, and I watched him
04:57against the Commanders.
05:00And he's kind of a stand-up edge, is how he plays.
05:04Sometimes hand down.
05:05He does have a little initial quickness, though.
05:08He's a little bit quicker to grab the edge than where you look when you start to talk
05:13about Carl Lawson and what he's doing.
05:17But the one thing that he has a hard time with is he's one of those guys that gets stuck
05:24on blocks.
05:26And he gets stuck in the running game, and he gets stuck in his pass rush.
05:34You can move this guy.
05:36I mean, move him like you get into him, and you can move him.
05:40He doesn't play with much stoutness, and I think that's a little bit of a problem.
05:45I think he lacks strength.
05:47At one time, he did have strength.
05:49Right now, I don't think he has as good a strength.
05:53He's a guy, I think, that kind of needs to play on the move.
05:55The spin move is his best move.
05:58So if he could get up the field, and he spins on a tackle, then that usually could throw
06:02the guy off.
06:04So that's another one way that he finds ways to separate.
06:07And that's how he gets himself free.
06:09It's not by just getting to the corner and dipping around and then getting to the quarterback.
06:14But he's got to be able to kind of spin, play on the move, because a little bit like Lawson,
06:21if he gets hooked up, then he's going to be in a little bit of some problems.
06:25He didn't play the low block particularly well.
06:27He gets double teamed a ton.
06:29It's kind of like teams are like, okay, we're not going to let him beat us.
06:34But I feel like you could single block him more than you really have to double team block him.
06:38So I've saw him plenty of times get pushed past the quarterback.
06:43We talk about you need to be on the level where to rush and be capable of getting back
06:47to the quarterback.
06:48I think that's a little bit of a problem for him.
06:51So if I had to say in the order that I would go for the Cowboys, Harris, Lawson, and Gakue
06:58would be the order that I would put him in.
07:00If Jerry Jones asked me my opinion like he did last in 2005.