I wanted to take a look at the players that our Dallas Cowboys have under contract for 2015 both to get a sense of where they may lean in the upcoming draft as well as to get an idea for what the actual identity of this team is designed to be. I populated a best-guess depth chart of the current Cowboys team and who is signed through 2015 and for what amount to sniff out where the team may be leaning. I started with the Offense, and now we are on to the Defense. You could make a case for using a 1st round 2014 pick on both Tackle and Guard on offense, as well as a Day Two pick on receiver and running back. That wouldn't be the end of the world if you couldn't also make a case to draft a player at every single position there is on Defense.
Easily the biggest weakness of the team is the Defensive End spot. At draft time the only question will be whether or not there is someone worthy of the #16 pick, or if someone drops enough to trade-up for. A long running scouting mantra is that Pass Rushers are the easiest players to scout, which is why you often see Top Ten picks at the position often succeeding. DE is both a short term and a long term concern for this team, and finding someone to come off the edge is the only thing that will save this team from last years historically bad defensive performance.
I have my 9-Tech and 7-Tech's jumbled up in here and nobody would really be set in stone, because a healthy Spencer may end up actually your best pass rusher. There is a serious lack of talent here for both 2014 and going forward, and the team needs to pray that some sort of combination of Crawford, Rayford, Mincey, Spencer and Selvie can serve as #2-4 edge players on this team. Ideally those players will be Crawford and Rayford given their cheap future contracts, but perhaps Mincey will surprise. You'd have to imagine that the team is hoping and praying for one of the top "rushmen" to drop tomorrow night so that this position can begin to be healed.
Melton's contract is pretty simple, if he returns as a dominator he's paid as such and if not they can move on. It is pretty rare that you can get that sort of trial period with a young player who has excelled in another scheme, as typically those free agents command long term deals. Opinions on Ben Bass vary but hopefully he can add some sort of depth. It's tough to really say much about his 26 career snaps to make one thing he's worth counting on though.
To me the 1-Tech is a less essential position at least in terms of the money/premium picks you need to spend on the position. Of the 4 defensive line slots it is the easiest to hide a non-versatile starter at. It does seem that the Cowboys if anything have non-versatile starters lined up at that spot, as opposed to any sort of embarrassment of riches. If Melton doesn't work out DT has potential to be just as bad as DE, so a premium pick there won't surprise me either.
Bruce Carter is a free agent after this season. Even if he plays well in 2014 it leads to the question of whether he's putting it all together finally, or if the effort level is due to this being a contract year. That touchdown he let up at the Meadowlands is one that will irk old-school football fans as it was pretty lazy. We did see in 2011 Carter struggled in a 3-4, before being solid the next year after a year in the system. Maybe the same will happen after a down 2013 in a 4-3. Feelings about him going into 2014 are a hell of a lot different than they were in the 2013 offseason though, that much is for sure. It wouldn't shock me to see a 3rd or 4th round pick spent on a linebacker because of al this.
The fact that Lee and Holloman are both under contract gives them some possibilities if Holloman is a player. If Carter struggles and Holloman shows starting caliber play you could move Lee to Will and stick Holloman in the middle if he isn't going to be given the more tradition Tampa 2 coverage responsibilities. However as Lee's contract starts to escalate the team really needs him to be one of the top linebackers over 16 games as opposed to one of the top linebackers over 9 games. The heart of the defense can only have so many angioplasties.
I'm assuming that Wilber will remain at SLB. To me he's a perfectly acceptable player at that position as it is not in the top-half of importance as far as positions on defense go. He's basically solid enough that you can get away with him.
The amount of players signed here looks a lot better on paper than it is in reality. Carr should be a potential June 1st 2015 cut given how high his cap number is unless he is one of the top corners in the game. Claiborne might enter 2014 penciled in a starting spot just because of his college talent level, but he needs a hell of a year to justify that 2012 trade. Those are the types of moves where if they aren't great players you set your team up to fail in the future by missing out on two cheap talented players. They could have had the equivalent on defense of TFred and TWill, i.e. guys you are happy to have starting on your team but who also don't hold you back financially from making moves to better yourself elsewhere. Instead they have a guy playing plenty-average, who seems ready to make excuses about it, and you are more or less stuck with him. Scandrick will be with the team at least until 2016 just based off of numbers along with pretty good 2013 play. Hopefully BW Webb bounces back from 2013, as he does at least have the athletic ability to play the position and be a decent #3 option down the line.
Safety is a spot where we may actually have a chance at some good fortune in 2014 and beyond. There are a lot of players signed at the safety position at very reasonable rates. It will now be a matter of A) Can these guys develop into good starters or B) Can the financial flexibility they have at this position allow them to increase the front-7 so that you can hide these guys. It'll be a highly underrated blessing if we can get solid play out of this current crop. I'm a fan of Church and hopefully Wilcox develops into a hard-hitting force back there. Matt Johnson needs to avoid the trainers room if he's going to make the team, and Heath showed little to be confident in.
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At the end of the day, taking a deep dive into the defensive depth chart didn't make me feel any better about the team then looking at it from a top level. Hopefully this can start to get fixed with some development from 2011-13 draft picks, as well as a monster draft this year.
