Source: Cowboys 'Looking' At Former First-Round CB DeAndre Baker

Source: Now That He's Cleared Of Legal Trouble, The Dallas Cowboys Are 'Looking' At Former Giants First-Round CB DeAndre Baker

Mike Fisher | Nov 17, 2020

FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys are "looking'' at free agent cornerback DeAndre Baker, an NFL source tells CowboysSI.com, a concept that would give a struggling team with plans to turn the page in its secondary a free chance at a 2019 NFL first-round pick.

The New York Giants drafted Baker in the first-round (30th overall) of the 2019 NFL Draft; Dallas, we're told, had a second-round grade on him, so the Cowboys' evaluation of the former Georgia standout mirrors' the Giants.

The 5-11, 190-pound former college All-America appeared in 15 games for New York last season, but the Giants released him in September following an offseason overflowing with legal trouble - trouble that he was cleared off this week when a district attorney's office in Florida dropped charges against Baker, who was being prosecuted on four counts of robbery with a firearm and faced a minimum of 10 years in prison if convicted.

The Giants remain uninterested, and unconvinced that he's the "great locker-room guy'' he claims to be.

“I can be a great guy in any locker room they put me in,” Baker told the New York Daily News. “I never had a record in my life. I was never in any trouble in my life and still to this day I haven’t been in any trouble, up until this event. I don’t think I’m a risk to any team. I feel like I’m a benefit to any team right now.”

The Cowboys could use that sort of benefit. In addition to the 2020 secondary struggling as part of this 2-7 team (and now without injured prized rookie Trevon Diggs), a volume of key members of the unit are in the final seasons of their contracts. Safety Xavier Woods and cornerbacks Chidobe Awuzie and Jourdan Lewis are free after this year.

DeAndre Baker, 23, was the Jim Thorpe winner in college and is just 19 months removed from being the 30th overall pick. All things considered, it's easy to understand the Giants' position - and it's easy to justify the Cowboys' "look.''

Published Nov 17, 2020

MIKE FISHER

Mike Fisher - as a newspaper beat writer and columnist and on radio and TV, where he is an Emmy winner - has covered the NFL since 1983 and the Dallas Cowboys since 1990, is the author of two best-selling books on the Cowboys.