Cowboys quietly upgraded every group on defense

[jobberone]

If @Alexander is thinking we are unproven at DT then I'm partially in agreement.

But we're in Nickel a lot (like many teams) and we can slide Hardy, Lawrence, Mincey and Russell inside if the latter makes the team. We have a lot of edge rushers who are unknowns trying to make the roster or PS.

You have Hayden and McClain at the 1/3 and a lot of unknowns behind them.

And he has a point considering we had trouble with the run last year.

Lots of questions but lots of versatility and competition.

 

[Parcells4Life]

Judge Doty trumps anything the nfl wants.

It's not like the NFL just threw out a 10 game suspension to see if it would stick. They worded the language in a specific manner that was reviewed by the legal counsel.

They are aware of the possibilities of appeal and I believe NFL Network said Goodell was counting every thing Hardy did as a separate violation which will make it harder to reverse. That's what people are missing is trying to lump Hardy as a 1 time violator. Goodell is painting it as multiple time in short time period.

Bottom line is to original post if Hardy misses 6-10 games how does that change your opinion

 

[Galian Beast]

Yes and no. Durant got hurt too much and it depended on what Carter you would get week to week. That said, Brinkley, Gachkar and Rivers cannot come close to their talent and ability. Unless the Minnesota kid is a revelation, it is significantly weaker, even with Lee coming back, briefly before getting hurt again.

Again, I think you have to remember why these guys are here in the first place.

Brinkley was signed as a two down replacement for McClain if we couldn't get him re-signed.
Gachkar was signed to upgrade the special teams.
Rivers is just a body.

None of these players have anything to do with Carter or Durant.

We went in the season originally with the expectations of Durant - Lee - Carter

Lee got hurt so we got McClain

Durant - McClain - Carter

Durant got hurt, and Carter struggled with consistency.

Hitchens - McClain - Carter

And with Carter as the strong side safety, his snaps were generally limited.

We drafted Hitchens last year and this year we got Wilson, and we got Sean Lee back and re-signed McClain who wasn't originally part of the 2014 equation.

However you look at it, we've upgraded.

What is better

A) Durant - Lee - Carter
B) Durant - McClain - Carter
C)Hitchens - McClain - Carter
D)Lee - McClain - Hitchens

Would it have been nice to have kept Carter and Durant as depth? Absolutely, but that would have been extremely expensive depth, that we didn't have last year either. I'm going with D, hands down. And you have Wilson and Brinkley as depth, which I would say is much better than the depth we had last year which was Wilber and Cam Lawrence. I even think Nzeocha could have been better than either of these two.

 

[Galian Beast]

If @Alexander is thinking we are unproven at DT then I'm partially in agreement.

But we're in Nickel a lot (like many teams) and we can slide Hardy, Lawrence, Mincey and Russell inside if the latter makes the team. We have a lot of edge rushers who are unknowns trying to make the roster or PS.

You have Hayden and McClain at the 1/3 and a lot of unknowns behind them.

And he has a point considering we had trouble with the run last year.

Lots of questions but lots of versatility and competition.

You say we had trouble with the run, yet we were ranked 8th against the run last year. I think that is pretty good.

As you said, we're a team that is primarily in the nickel. The 1 technique is generally going to be a two down player, and we have both Hayden and McClain there. I think that is good enough to suffice for those two downs. Then you have the nickel where Crawford can slide into the 1, and a defensive end or our ample options at the 3 technique DT can slide in as well.

Whaley, Coleman e.t.c. Bishop also could factor into either the 1 or the 3.

I'm not at all worried about the 1 technique spot.

 

[jobberone]

You say we had trouble with the run, yet we were ranked 8th against the run last year. I think that is pretty good.

As you said, we're a team that is primarily in the nickel. The 1 technique is generally going to be a two down player, and we have both Hayden and McClain there. I think that is good enough to suffice for those two downs. Then you have the nickel where Crawford can slide into the 1, and a defensive end or our ample options at the 3 technique DT can slide in as well.

Whaley, Coleman e.t.c. Bishop also could factor into either the 1 or the 3.

I'm not at all worried about the 1 technique spot.

We gave up 4.2 YPA and 18 rushing TDs. We were 8th rushing D as you stated. Our success came more from the offense which scored ~100 pts more than their opponents. We were 15th in defensive PF.

I didn't look at the breakdown of runs which is necessary for looking at runs up the middle. My memory, which isn't as good as it was, remembers some problems with stops up the middle.

Hayden is not exactly an anchor there. I'm not worried about the 1/3 either but I have concerns.

 

[jnday]

I think everyone is well aware of how little they value 1-T. They have had Hayden starting there for three years. They just want a body that apparently knows what to do and tries hard. Nevermind if they do not have the ability to do more, like, make a play every now and then to attract more attention to allow others to make plays of their own.

For years, the team undervalued a big NT for the 3-4 defense and it hurt them. Hayden is now in the position that needs the upgrade. Only good things could happen if they put a player in the position that had talent. A space-eating run stopper would do wonders for this defense . It wasn't hard to run right up the gut against Dallas and get yards. A 3rd or even 4th round talent would be an upgrade. That is not too much of an investment IMO.

 

[CATCH17]

Agreed.

This LB corps took a serious hit.

Agree.. We have so many guys though that we should surely be able to replace them with good players.

I expect that position to be a strength again.

 

[Galian Beast]

We gave up 4.2 YPA and 18 rushing TDs. We were 8th rushing D as you stated. Our success came more from the offense which scored ~100 pts more than their opponents. We were 15th in defensive PF.

I didn't look at the breakdown of runs which is necessary for looking at runs up the middle. My memory, which isn't as good as it was, remembers some problems with stops up the middle.

Hayden is not exactly an anchor there. I'm not worried about the 1/3 either but I have concerns.

We have a bend but don't break defense that is designed to not give up the big play. The emphasis is to have an offense that can score early and force teams to pass, and to get to the QB. 4.2 ypa is around the league average, that isn't bad for a team that isn't emphasizing defending the run with the defensive line.

The better we get against the pass, the better off the run will be.

 

[jobberone]

We have a bend but don't break defense that is designed to not give up the big play. The emphasis is to have an offense that can score early and force teams to pass, and to get to the QB. 4.2 ypa is around the league average, that isn't bad for a team that isn't emphasizing defending the run with the defensive line.

The better we get against the pass, the better off the run will be.

Only one team gave up more rushing TDs than Dallas. That will hurt with 2pt conversions this year as well.

Best get that rush defense up to speed.

 

[Galian Beast]

Only one team gave up more rushing TDs than Dallas. That will hurt with 2pt conversions this year as well.

Best get that rush defense up to speed.

I think that is misleading.

Over the course of a 16 game season, we gave up 18 rushing touchdowns, while every team out the top 10 gave up at least 10. That means we just gave up more than 1 rushing touchdown per game.... Does this mean that we struggled to stop the run in the redzone, or that is how teams ultimately punched it in on us rather than passing?

We were only 11th in red zone scoring attempts allowed per game. While we gave up too high percentage of them, I think you have to look into more and more factors.

 

[hornitosmonster]

Judge Doty trumps anything the nfl wants.

Doty ruled on retroactive suspensions for domestic violence. Hardy got suspended for conduct detrimental to the league. Roger set up a new fight (pretty smart move)

 

[SilverStarCowboy]

That's only because ..... DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS period....welll plus base Nickle D is ran about 78% of the time around the NFL.


Roger Goodell needs to be Impeached.

 

[speedkilz88]

Doty ruled on retroactive suspensions for domestic violence. Hardy got suspended for conduct detrimental to the league. Roger set up a new fight (pretty smart move)

Pretty smart move if you want to tick off a Judge. That ain't smart.

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

I think there is real potential to get some investment back from a returning Morris Claiborne, especially in a reduced role, with an improved pass rush.

Linebacker - Not only did they draft a linebacker fairly high, but the return of Sean Lee is like adding a pro bowl player in the off-season.

I laughed so hard at the thought off Morris paying off an investment and Lee acting like a pro blow player. He cant even play in regular games. He should volunteer a pay cut!

 

[percyhoward]

You say we had trouble with the run, yet we were ranked 8th against the run last year. I think that is pretty good.

That's total yards. We ranked in 8th total rushing yards allowed, mainly because we ranked 27th in rushing attempts faced. Teams didn't run much on us last year because of the combination of our own offense's TOP, and because of the success our opponents had against our pass defense. Per-carry we ranked 15th against the run, which is an improvement over last year, but still just average. More importantly, the percentage of run plays on which we allowed a first down ranked 18th, and in short yardage and goal line we ranked 20th.

IOW, run defense was a little below average.

 

[jnday]

Only one team gave up more rushing TDs than Dallas. That will hurt with 2pt conversions this year as well.

Best get that rush defense up to speed.

Upgrading Hayden would help with improving the run defense, but the 1tech is not valued at draft time. I think the stats you provided should make Marinelli reconsider his beliefs on the 1tech as a start. I don't think he is such a good coach that he is beyond questioning.

 

[Blackspider214]

I think you may have underestimated how well our LBers who are gone played last year. Carter made this team better along with Justin Durant. Press the brake a little on Sean Lee returning to full steam ahead. I also was expecting big things from our troubled Dline especially with Josh Brent who I think would of been a handful if he made it through training camp.
If Claiborne comes back it will be a huge surprise in my mind. In three years I think we have seen the real player and that guy did not get an extension of his contract.

I think you are overestimating Carter and Durant. Carter was so up and down. Just a year ago he quit on this team 3 times. Durant was too injury prone to be counted on.

 

[percyhoward]

Only one team gave up more rushing TDs than Dallas. That will hurt with 2pt conversions this year as well.

31st in run TD allowed is an alarming stat, but I think the team is looking at that as the effect of allowing so many conversions on the way to the red zone, mainly because of an inability to get any kind of a pass rush. More than 70% of our opponents' drive series resulted in another first down. That ranked 24th. And we were especially bad on 3rd down, where we ranked 29th.

What's interesting is, our defense wasn't bad at all on the opponent's side of the field. We ranked 14th in the percentage of opponents' drives that did not reach midfield. But once the opponent crossed the 50-yard line, our defense allowed a TD 42% of the time, which ranked 30th in the league.

The thinking may be that we gain more by having enough fresh bodies to rush the passer and keep teams out of the red zone in the first place than by strengthening the middle of the DL and trying to make teams one-dimensional once they're already there.

 

[Galian Beast]

That's total yards. We ranked in 8th total rushing yards allowed, mainly because we ranked 27th in rushing attempts faced. Teams didn't run much on us last year because of the combination of our own offense's TOP, and because of the success our opponents had against our pass defense. Per-carry we ranked 15th against the run, which is an improvement over last year, but still just average. More importantly, the percentage of run plays on which we allowed a first down ranked 18th, and in short yardage and goal line we ranked 20th.

IOW, run defense was a little below average.

You're writing your own narrative and selling the defense short. Team was 13th in defensive passer rating.

Again, I don't think you quite understand that this is a bend but don't break defense. The whole point is to make teams work the field in order to advance and score, giving up more chances for turnovers. That's exactly what happened, despite not having a great pass rush.

Teams didn't run on us much last year, and they won't this year, especially with our increased pass rush.

It's a chain of events.

Pass rush makes the secondary better. Secondary makes it less effective to pass the ball and also increases turnovers. This means the offense gets more opportunities. The more opportunities the offense gets, the more they score. The more the offense scores, the less teams will run against us. The more one dimensional they get, the better the pass rush gets, the better the secondary gets, the less effective their pass offense is, the less effective their overall offense is...

Look at all the top teams in the league, and how many rushing attempts they faced, they're not all teams with road graders.

 

[percyhoward]

You're writing your own narrative and selling the defense short.

No, I was explaining why you can't use total yards to judge a defense, and why our run defense was slightly below average according to more meaningful metrics.