Antwaun Woods is currently making headlines for his willingness to prevent Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster from pulling off a Terrell Owens-esque touchdown celebration at midfield in the Dallas Cowboys loss on Sunday, but there's an even more important headline that's come to light on Monday he'll likely be even more pleased with. After a nearly year-long battle in criminal court following charges of marijuana possession, possession of paraphernalia and evidence tampering that were levied in a December 2019 arrest, news has arrived that each of those charges has been dropped, per TMZ Sports.
The veteran defensive lineman was arrested on Tuesday, Dec. 3 in Frisco, Texas -- home of Cowboys headquarters -- hit with the three aforementioned infractions at a traffic stop. The reason for the stop itself was speeding, with Woods alleging traveling 77 mph in a 55 mph zone. The arresting officer alleged Woods attempted to discard marijuana by putting it in a water bottle, which led to the additional charges.
They were officially dropped on Friday, Nov. 6.
There is no news on if the speeding citation stuck. And while Woods can celebrate no punishment from criminal court, he'll still likely have to contend with convincing the NFL front office he didn't violate the personal conduct policy.
As for the football side of the equation, it's been an unpleasant 2020 for the former USC standout up to this point. Woods saw the Cowboys sign Dontari Poe as their starting nose tackle after having himself climbed from the ranks of camp body to the top seat as the team's 1-tech (left of center) in 2018, on the heels of taking a step back in his production and availability in 2019 due to injury, the latter combining with a change at head coach to Mike McCarthy to fuel the decision to grab Poe in free agency. It's also possible McCarthy was nervous about the 2020 availability on Woods due to the pending charges.
The 27-year-old not only was displeased with that move, but also the fact he was an exclusive rights free agent after playing out his initial two-year deal in Dallas -- because he hadn't yet accrued a minimum of three seasons in the NFL -- which forced him to either sign his ERFA tender with the Cowboys for $750,000, or not play at all in 2020. After a tenuous several months of mulling, Woods ultimately put pen to paper just ahead of training camp in late July, and has reclaimed his role as key piece of the Cowboys defensive line -- logging an average of 64 percent of the defensive snaps since Poe was released by the team after Week 7.
His fiery demeanor and the improved play of the defensive front with Woods now taking the bulk of snaps at nose tackle should make for a more pleasant 2021, assuming he can continue to operate in prime form. Woods will be a restricted free agent this coming offseason, which gives him more freedom to control his future.
As an RFA, Woods will be allowed to negotiate with other teams (something he couldn't do as an ERFA), but the Cowboys still have options in retaining him or gaining compensation if they allow him to walk. They can apply a first-, second- or original-round tender on Woods that would land them the respective draft compensation if another team chooses to then sign him, but seeing as he was undrafted and in how unlikely it is another team will ante up a first- or second-round pick in 2021 to sign him, the Cowboys decision would more likely center around a right-of-first-refusal tender -- basically a one-year contract that allows them to match anything another club offers Woods in free agency (no draft compensation is attached).
They could also just sign him to a multi-year deal, which would likely please him greatly, or let him walk altogether, the latter being tough to presume when considering their dire need at nose tackle.
Either way, in any of the above scenarios, Woods will make far more than he does now and has ever made in any year of his NFL career. And the path to bigger money is now cleared by the dismissal of the criminal charges, assuming the league's front office brushes them off as well.
