Cowboys’ Terence Steele Signs RFA Tender

The Cowboys have Terence Steele back in the fold. More than a month after Steele received a second-round restricted free agent tender, ESPN.com’s Field Yates notes the fourth-year tackle signed it to lock in that second-tier RFA price (Twitter link).

Steele will be tied to a $4.3MM salary as a result of this signing. While Steele has a ways to go before completing rehab from ACL surgery, he is again under contract with the Cowboys. A player not signing his RFA tender would allow teams to rescind the tender and pay the player 120% of his 2022 salary. Steele having made $895K last year made this an easy decision.

This will be an interesting year for Steele. The Cowboys reached an agreement to bring back Tyron Smith on a restructured deal, keeping the All-Pro tackle on the NFL’s longest-running contract. They are planning to use the All-Decade left tackle on the right side, where he finished last season. Steele’s injury led to Smith moving to right tackle, a transition that kept first-round pick Tyler Smith at left tackle. This leaves Steele without a surefire starting spot in 2023.

Dallas is planning to give Steele, 25, a look at guard once he returns, though it will be a while before he receives clearance. He suffered the ACL tear in mid-December, though the Cowboys have said the former UDFA is ahead of schedule on his rehab journey.

While the Cowboys will look at Steele as a guard, the 40-game starter is set to be — assuming both Smiths enter the season healthy — the team’s swing tackle. This would be a significant downgrade for Steele, who is eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2024. The Cowboys lost left guard Connor McGovern in free agency, potentially creating a best-five scenario in which Steele replaces him. But the Texas Tech product has only played tackle as a pro or in college, when he was a four-year Red Raiders starter at either right or left tackle. Pro Football Focus graded Steele as a top-10 run blocker among tackles last season.

PFF graded Steele 23rd overall among tackles in 2022, marking growth from his 2020 and ’21 seasons. The Cowboys turned to Steele to replace La’el Collins in 2020, when he missed the full season due to injury, and in 2021 during the since-departed blocker’s drug suspension. Tyron Smith‘s extensive injury past does swing open a door for Steele to regain his right-side gig, but the younger lineman enters his walk year in an unusual place.