ESPN: Cowboys' front seven ranked 32nd in NFL

[perrykemp]

Fairly negative article on ESPN today:

Cowboys' front seven ranked last

Todd Archer (ESPN)

The Cowboys lost DeMarcus Ware, Jason Hatcher and (in the saddest, most ridiculous minicamp story of the year) Sean Lee from a defense that allowed 2,056 rushing yards and recorded just 36 sacks last year. Henry Melton arrives as a younger, more system-suited replacement for Hatcher, but everything else is a shambles. Bruce Carter, Justin Durant and DeVonte Holloman form the most anonymous linebacker corps in the league, and only Carter has any significant starting experience. Anthony Spencer may start the season on the PUP list as he battles back from microfracture surgery on his knee. And of course, the Cowboys are so cap-stressed that they wouldn't be able to sign a veteran reinforcement, even if one becomes available this late in the offseason.....

http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas-cowboys/post/_/id/4729076/cowboys-front-seven-ranked-last

 

[JoeyBoy718]

Before or after the Sean Lee injury?

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

I remember there was a point when we use to be considered to have one of the best front 7's in the league with Spears, Hatcher, Ware, Spencer, Ratliff, Bruce and Lee. That wasn't long ago.

I've stated that I think our front 7 will be better than people think this year. But as it stands, its hard to argue against anyone ranking us last in the NFL. Its not even debatable actually. But I am excited to see how some of our guys like Crawford and D-Law perform. We're more so last ranked based on the uncertainty's of our front 7.

 

[StarBoyz83]

I'd say they would have to be 32nd. No lee so whos worth saying anything about besides melton and church. Its a front 7 full of more question marks than last year. Doesnt mean they cant be decent but for now it looks bad.

 

[NeonNinja]

Good find Mr. Packer fan...

 

[TellerMorrow34]

They should be ranked there.

There are too many question marks right now with no real answers about them.

Could Melton be an upgrade from Hatcher? Yeah he could be but we don't know how he'll rebound from an injury. So that's completely unknown.

Crawford has never played significant time in the NFL so he's completely unknown. We don't know what Demarcus will be since he's a rookie. Will Selvie at least give us what he gave us last year? Another unknown.

They should be ranked that way until they prove otherwise.

 

[Fla Cowpoke]

I was worried about this until I saw it was based on Pro Football Focus rankings.

 

[Hoofbite]

Rankings are not from ESPN, FWIW.

It's hard to argue. The most proven pass rusher is Selvie and the LBs are shaky without Lee.

Lots of young players with very little time to have shown much. In a "show me" league Dallas has far too many unknowns.

 

[Frozen700]

lmao..of course

 

[Hoofbite]

I was worried about this until I saw it was based on Pro Football Focus rankings.

Actually they aren't.

It's a list comprised by some guy (I've never heard of him) based on Football Outsiders' work.

Same guy ranked OL last week and had Dallas #1.

http://www.sportsonearth.com/articl...-new-england-patriots-baltimore-ravens#!WIdBY

Football Outsiders has a pretty good reputation I believe, and having Dallas on both ends of the rankings would rule out any sort of anti-Dallas bias.

 

[Fla Cowpoke]

And then I wondered to myself, "who the hell is Mike Tanier and why should I care what he says"? Checked his bio, hardly impressive and to make it worse he's an Eagles fan.

I don't have a problem with them being ranked 32nd per se....the best we can saw about almost all of them is there are question marks. It is funny how he says that we should have been smart and signed a big money guy and talks about how cash strapped we are. We currently have 10.2m in cap space. We could have resigned Ware but we felt he was too expensive for the production. Seems kind of wise to not throw a ton of money at a guy who looks to be breaking down.

His quote: "One quibble I would make is that they could have attempted to keep Ware, signed Jared Allen, Julius Peppers or pick a veteran in free agency if they wanted to by doing more poorly structured deals that affected their ability to do business in the future." Is he seriously saying we would have been better off with a crappy contract? Sheesh.

I'd be willing to put some money down with the dude that they won't end up as the worst defense in either yards allowed or scoring defense this year.

 

[ufcrules1]

Fairly negative article on ESPN today:

Cowboys' front seven ranked last

Todd Archer (ESPN)

The Cowboys lost DeMarcus Ware, Jason Hatcher and (in the saddest, most ridiculous minicamp story of the year) Sean Lee from a defense that allowed 2,056 rushing yards and recorded just 36 sacks last year. Henry Melton arrives as a younger, more system-suited replacement for Hatcher, but everything else is a shambles. Bruce Carter, Justin Durant and DeVonte Holloman form the most anonymous linebacker corps in the league, and only Carter has any significant starting experience. Anthony Spencer may start the season on the PUP list as he battles back from microfracture surgery on his knee. And of course, the Cowboys are so cap-stressed that they wouldn't be able to sign a veteran reinforcement, even if one becomes available this late in the offseason.....

http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas-cowboys/post/_/id/4729076/cowboys-front-seven-ranked-last

I can't disagree. Wish we weren't so cap stressed.

 

[daveferr33]

Not Surprising.

When was the last time the Cowboys took a D-Tackle in the top half of the draft? Willie Blade in the third round in 2001?

The last two draft classes were supposedly deep at the Defensive tackle position. The Cowboy came away with ONE Seventh Rounder--Ken Bishop.

 

[Hoofbite]

Source for the rankings.

http://www.sportsonearth.com/articl...fensive-front-sevens-in-the-nfl-ranked#!WImxk

 

[Idgit]

I think this is right on, actually. Though, I do think 'shambles' probably isn't a fair estimation of the young depth we'll be counting on. They're all question marks, though. We were really bad last year, lost three of our best players, and added a bunch of unknowns with relatively limited upside (and two or three with actual significant upside potential). We had a truly awful defense last year, and it's easy to look at things on paper and say that the front 7 got worse.

 

[burmafrd]

Until they show otherwise it is hard to argue being dead last. We were last even with the three we had that were established players.

RIght now we have Melton and that is all as regards a player that has proven he can do it and is healthy enough to do it.

Spencer- who knows if he can play and if he will be any good.

Carter is a yo yo up and down.

Sylvie did get those sacks before he got worn down but basically 2/3 of a season from him- only time in his career he showed anything.

Lawrence is a rookie.

The rest of them had not shown enough to really be credible.

so as I said it is hard to argue us starting out rated last.

 

[Fla Cowpoke]

Actually they aren't.

It's a list comprised by some guy (I've never heard of him) based on Football Outsiders' work.

Same guy ranked OL last week and had Dallas #1.

http://www.sportsonearth.com/articl...-new-england-patriots-baltimore-ravens#!WIdBY

Football Outsiders has a pretty good reputation I believe, and having Dallas on both ends of the rankings would rule out any sort of anti-Dallas bias.

Eh, I guess it was Archer that mentioned Pro Football Focus, but let me say it another way. It's almost impossible to rank Dallas because the 15 to 16 guys that will make up our front 7 haven't played together in this system before and in many cases are guys that are hard to project.

We had no ability to rotate guys last year so we had our good players overworked and the guys next to them just weren't very good. At the very least, we seem to have better depth and the ability to cut guys plays in half, which is what has been successful for Marinelli in the past....sending waves of fresh rushers at offenses.

 

[DFWJC]

Fully understand why they'd be ranked that badly, or at least in that range.

But I don't for one second think they'll end up actually being that bad.

 

[cowboyblue22]

i don't remember thedefense stepping up to help win a game to get into the playoffs the last three years. they only won eight games with ware spencer hatcher lee last three years just saying

 

[burmafrd]

does not matter if they are JAGS fresh or not