Did we fix the Defense?

[Irvin88_4life]

I think it could have been addressed more. There's no question Martin is going to be a good player, but we had/have an absolutely horrific front 7 the last two years. Martin may make sense down the line, but there is no arguing that (for once) the O-line was in significantly better shape than the DLine going into this draft. A 1st round OG was not ideal in this situation.

Looking at 7th rounders who should have been 5th rounders or whatever is great and all, but that fact is they were not considered to be players that will impact in year 1, and probably not even in year 2 that's why they dropped to day 3.. To say they in any way go to "fixing" the defense for 2014 is a huge stretch, Going by history even Lawrence will probably not be a significant contributor in his rookie year at 21. They all may have a great impact down the road, who knows, but the excitement is too high IMO for RD 7 guys because they happen to be good value there.

I like a lot of the picks, I dislike the trade for Lawrence and vehemently dislike the Hitchenson pick. But the question was "Is the defense fixed". At least for 2014, I could make a solid argument that even with an average amount of normal NFL injuries, it might actually be worse. And unless some people surprise significantly to the upside, it won't be much better.

I hate to say it but yes our OL played better but Leary might not play much longer, Free might go back to his usual play. We have no depth on the interior. Yes OL was a need, now that being said DL is a bigger need yes but no DL was rated higher at our pick, no trade down we take Martin. How can people hate building the trenches

 

[Irvin88_4life]

I could tell you if I knew how they are going to eliminate the constant penalties.

I thought we did much better with penalties last season

 

[wileedog]

I hate to say it but yes our OL played better but Leary might not play much longer, Free might go back to his usual play. We have no depth on the interior. Yes OL was a need, now that being said DL is a bigger need yes but no DL was rated higher at our pick, no trade down we take Martin. How can people hate building the trenches

I don't hate building the trenches in any way. I just think one trench was already built to competency and the other is in complete disarray, even today after the draft.

I understand sometimes the board just doesn't fall the way you want it to, but the fact is that a first round impact player NEEDED to be on the D front 7. We didn't or couldn't make that happen.

I'm not even blaming Jerry per se, sometimes you just lose just to bad luck. The board didn't fall well for us and a trade couldn't be made. It happens. But IMO we didn't get enough quality, 'help now' players to the defense to make a significant impact on this defense for 2014. Losing the 3rd rounder certainly didn't help.

Going forward I am more optimistic for the players taken today. I'm just answering the question for this year.

 

[ShiningStar]

not sure how we could do worse, expect to have two games where we dont stop an offense. Other than that, probably by pure accident we get better, and than we 'll look real good if another teams has decent injuries, other than that, we added bodies, might remove some, but at the end of the day we can all agree that they have one thing in common, they all breathe, after that, its a gamble that i doubt vegas would put money on.

 

[IAmLegend]

No.. but it's a step in the right direction.

 

[Irvin88_4life]

I don't hate building the trenches in any way. I just think one trench was already built to competency and the other is in complete disarray, even today after the draft.

I understand sometimes the board just doesn't fall the way you want it to, but the fact is that a first round impact player NEEDED to be on the D front 7. We didn't or couldn't make that happen.

I'm not even blaming Jerry per se, sometimes you just lose just to bad luck. The board didn't fall well for us and a trade couldn't be made. It happens. But IMO we didn't get enough quality, 'help now' players to the defense to make a significant impact on this defense for 2014. Losing the 3rd rounder certainly didn't help.

Going forward I am more optimistic for the players taken today. I'm just answering the question for this year.

I feel lawrence is a first round impact player. This was a deep draft and push guys down. He was rated on Cowboys board as 1st round. Plus the injury guys coming back and what we added in FA this DL isn't in that bad of shape.

Still need to make high picks next year though. Great rotation is how you win

 

[wileedog]

I feel lawrence is a first round impact player.

Fair enough, we can disagree. I think he will be better down the road when he bulks up. I don't think he will play to the level Ware did even injured last year at the of age 21, and more likely will spend this year as a situational pass rusher at best.

 

[JsnSA]

The biggest problem with our defense was injuries. We won't know if that has been fixed until deep into next season.

 

[waving monkey]

Fixed? No. At least not yet. We're going to have to see how Melton, Bass and Crawford come back from their injuries.

Probably need another high draft pick on the defensive line to close the gap even more.

Hatcher and Ware were big talents... And I'm not sure if they've been replaced (or close to it for that matter).

I like the direction the defense is headed but still a lot of uncertainty.

I agree one more draft for the DL and we roll. Not that I think we wont be better this year.
With actual above street talent we might be able to stop some opponents offenses.

 

[Irvin88_4life]

Fair enough, we can disagree. I think he will be better down the road when he bulks up. I don't think he will play to the level Ware did even injured last year at the of age 21, and more likely will spend this year as a situational pass rusher at best.

Will not hard to be as good as injuried Ware last year....6 sacks? Very doable for a situational rookie pash rusher.

Ware over ran the play numerous times last season and lawrence is a very decent in ruin support.

That being said you can't replace Ware or his HOF career but let's not kid ourself about Ware last season, he didn't play great at all many due to injury but yes his production last year can be replaced even by a rookie

 

[iceberg]

Now that the dust has settled (except for late UDFAs), did we fix our defense? We seemed to have filled the one critical position of need and added the depth we needed – plus we will have another 3 Million to spend on a FA when we get the salary cap relief from cutting Miles Austin.

We took 3 DL – one with a first round grade at the only pressing position of need. Bishop and Gardner came in the 7th but Bishop is a great scheme fit and no one would have blinked had we taken him in the 5th. Gardner likely would have gone much higher except for his injury. With those three our DL rotation looks like this IMO:

LDE – Selvie / Lawrence / Mincey

3 Tech - Melton / Bass

1 Tech - McClain / Hayden / Ken Bishop

RDE - Crawford / Spencer / Ben Gardner


At LB we took two guys that can be solid special teamers as rookies and add depth behind the starters. Holloman and Wilber will likely be greatly improved next year with the experience they got this year. Carter is a wildcard but could easily improve over last year (and should).

At DB we added a developmental CB and S, but the main improvement should come from Wilcox, Heath and Hamilton improving from the normal jump second year players make, with all three already having more experience on the field than rookies should get.

We added the pass rusher we needed, a future All Pro OG, some good rotation types and still have the 3 million in June. I would call this draft a success.

let me ask a quick question? can you fix the last rated defense in 1 draft?

 

[waving monkey]

Fair enough, we can disagree. I think he will be better down the road when he bulks up. I don't think he will play to the level Ware did even injured last year at the of age 21, and more likely will spend this year as a situational pass rusher at best.

Of cours e he will be better down the road so will all the NFL rookie's

 

[Kaiser]

But the question was "Is the defense fixed". At least for 2014, I could make a solid argument that even with an average amount of normal NFL injuries, it might actually be worse. And unless some people surprise significantly to the upside, it won't be much better.

To repeat, I should have asked if the defense was upgraded as much as we could in one offseason, not that it was "fixed".

But I'll take you up on it, go ahead and make a solid argument that this defense will be worse than last year. An injury at 1 Tech puts Hayden or Bishop into the game this year, last year it brought in a guy who was on his living room couch the week before - and was back on that couch a few weeks later. I don't see any "solid argument" that we will be worse off.

 

[iceberg]

To repeat, I should have asked if the defense was upgraded as much as we could in one offseason, not that it was "fixed".

But I'll take you up on it, go ahead and make a solid argument that this defense will be worse than last year. An injury at 1 Tech puts Hayden or Bishop into the game this year, last year it brought in a guy who was on his living room couch the week before - and was back on that couch a few weeks later. I don't see any "solid argument" that we will be worse off.

i don't think we'll be in last place again. i don't think we should have been there last year. just a lot of things came together and wow, there we were. we're not as bad as the stats said and we can fix this.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Not sure you can fix the defense in one draft but I'd be happy with average this year.

 

[SilverStarCowboy]

Did Dallas fix the Defense, depends on what it took to fix it.

Needed a Pass Rushing DE.

Needed a 3 tech DT or two.

Needed Safety help.

Needed a couple of LBs for depth.

What else?

Because IF this is what we needed, which it certainly IS, then maybe something did actually get fixed.

 

[xwalker]

Ken Bishop and that kid from Stanford are much better than where they were drafted. Wait and see.

Davon Coleman looks good also. He was playing out of position in college at the 1-tech. I think he has a good upside as a 3-tech.

 

[Blackspider214]

Realistically its going to take 1 more draft to fix that thing we call a defense and Im being positive when I say that

You are being very optimistic when you say one.

 

[wileedog]

To repeat, I should have asked if the defense was upgraded as much as we could in one offseason, not that it was "fixed".

But I'll take you up on it, go ahead and make a solid argument that this defense will be worse than last year. An injury at 1 Tech puts Hayden or Bishop into the game this year, last year it brought in a guy who was on his living room couch the week before - and was back on that couch a few weeks later. I don't see any "solid argument" that we will be worse off.

Ware and Hatcher are gone;. Lawrence is an undersized rookie supposed to replace Ware, which probably won't happen. Melton is replacing Hatcher yet has never had a good a year as Hatcher did last year and is coming off major surgery.

Heydon has pretty much shown he is not much better than a guy coming in off his coach, and Bishop is a rookie 7th round draft choice. Is that what you are hanging your hat on?

 

[Cowboy Brian]

I think we made a ton of progress on the defensive side of the ball. It all depends on how this players shake out, we could very well have re-built our d-line in one offseason.