Here's why I think we will have a top 10 defense this year

[Stash]

It’s an interesting topic. Personally I look more towards talent levels, but both matter.

Definitely an interesting topic.

And it’s why I think it’s not an either/or argument, but both.

I don’t deny that losing Parsons just before the start of the season was a big detriment. Losing Lawrence hurt as well.

But every defensive player that the Cowboys signed, drafted, or traded for performed poorly. That’s not just bad luck or bad players. That’s bad coaching.

In my mind though if you gave Eberflus Myles Garrett he will have a pretty solid at worst defense. Kenneth Murray on the other hand has had 4 different DCs in his career and no one has been able to fix him despite being a phenomenal athlete.

And yet Eberflus brought him in thinking he could ‘fix him’. Even worse, he stubbornly kept him on the field when he was clearly a disaster. That stubbornness and refusal to adjust made bad situation even worse.

IMO coaching at this level is pretty similar with some obvious outliers which I agree can be a difference maker when you get a truly special coach, but those are rare. Especially with today’s technology and team budgets anything new another teams does is on tape, broken down, and duplicated within a couple weeks.

I disagree with that. I think it’s an oversimplification and not nearly that easy. If it were, everyone would be doing it and offensive and defensive numbers would be nearly identical. That’s clearly not the case.

But I do feel that it’s a quickly evolving league and you’re either innovating or being passed by.

And I think that’s been our problem for years, no innovation. We’ve been hitting retreads for decades. Men well past their prime. Go back to Monte Kiffin running on fumes. At one time, the best in the league, but well past his prime by the time he got to Dallas. Marinelli after that, and on and on and on.

I look less truly at scheme and more at a coaches ability to pick players and adapt their scheme to fit quality players rather than sticking players into a scheme. That’s where I think coaches can truly move the needle. It’s when a guy like McVay can be so excited and sure about spending a late pick on some scrub names puka nacua and turn him into an elite player year 1. As good as the player i doubt very few OCs are giving a late round pick that many looks and getting that type of production.

And how do you feel that Eberflus did in this area?

 

[thunderpimp91]

Definitely an interesting topic.

And it’s why I think it’s not an either/or argument, but both.

I don’t deny that losing Parsons just before the start of the season was a big detriment. Losing Lawrence hurt as well.

But every defensive player that the Cowboys signed, drafted, or traded for performed poorly. That’s not just bad luck or bad players. That’s bad coaching.


And yet Eberflus brought him in thinking he could ‘fix him’. Even worse, he stubbornly kept him on the field when he was clearly a disaster. That stubbornness and refusal to adjust made bad situation even worse.


I disagree with that. I think it’s an oversimplification and not nearly that easy. If it were, everyone would be doing it and offensive and defensive numbers would be nearly identical. That’s clearly not the case.

But I do feel that it’s a quickly evolving league and you’re either innovating or being passed by.

And I think that’s been our problem for years, no innovation. We’ve been hitting retreads for decades. Men well past their prime. Go back to Monte Kiffin running on fumes. At one time, the best in the league, but well past his prime by the time he got to Dallas. Marinelli after that, and on and on and on.


And how do you feel that Eberflus did in this area?

Good post and it deserves a good response which I’ll do when I get back to a computer and not just responding on my phone.

To the last point though I think Eberflus did a pretty horrible job of acquiring talent. Granted I’ll give him a little bit of grace in that Jerry has his role in that as well and likely limited him to budget friendly options to choose from. I can’t think of any of the offseason additions that actually paid off though….Murray, Sanborn, Elam, Fowler were all pretty big duds for us. I guess Solomon Thomas was a good addition? Plus I don’t love extending OSA just to throw him into a hybrid 3-4 system.

It’s a situation where it never felt like the left hand knew what the right hand was doing. Shame on Eberflus for being stubborn with the back end of his defense that got continuously beat, A good chunk of the talent failure falls on the GM though.

 

[LouBrown]

This idea that we should limit expectations this season based on last seasons results is quite stupid. How many players from last years defense still start? Not many. How many of them are even on the team? Not many at all. That’s like saying we had a crap player at X position last year, we have a new player at that position but we shouldn’t expect too much bc the guy last year sucked. One has nothing to do with the other. The change has been so drastic in personnel that it’s borderline stupid to compare the two. Now, that doesn’t mean the defense will be good. It just means we have no idea. Saying a jump from here to here isn’t realistic or this is more realistic expectation for the unit is all talk. It comes from nothing.

They're returning 7 starters lol. Off the top of my head:

Quinnen Williams
Kenny Clark
Eze
Overshown
Bland
Revel
Hooker

The idea that there's been some defensive talent overhaul is silly. The only real changes are:

S: Wilson - Thompson
Nickel: Steward - Downs
LB: Murray - Winters
Edge: Clowney - Gary

There will be different subpackages with other corners and that sort of thing, but in nickel the majority of the players are the same.

 

[LouBrown]

Q/Clark/Thompson/Locke/Winters/Gary/Ogboner are all proven NFL players. That's 7 upgrades. More if any of the rooks pan out. There is simply no way that anyone can't see this, it's blatantly obvious.

Q and Clark were on this team last year. They were both there for Detroit and Minnesota.
Ogbonnia is a rotational piece who plays an average of 36% of snaps.

They've upgraded at safety and one of the LB spots, that's it. I don't know why we are trying to lie to ourselves lol.

 

[Stash]

Good post and it deserves a good response which I’ll do when I get back to a computer and not just responding on my phone.

Sounds good. I always enjoy our conversations.

To the last point though I think Eberflus did a pretty horrible job of acquiring talent. Granted I’ll give him a little bit of grace in that Jerry has his role in that as well and likely limited him to budget friendly options to choose from. I can’t think of any of the offseason additions that actually paid off though….Murray, Sanborn, Elam, Fowler were all pretty big duds for us. I guess Solomon Thomas was a good addition? Plus I don’t love extending OSA just to throw him into a hybrid 3-4 system.

They clearly didn’t have a long term plan.

They re-signed Bland earlier than they needed to and kept Osa because they thought they were getting a bargain. Both mistakes.

And why they brought Zimmer back for one year still baffles me. When you make decisions like that, you can’t be surprised when things go badly.

At least now I think they have a long term plan in place. I just hope there’s a potential successor to Parker if and when he should get a head coaching job.

It’s a situation where it never felt like the left hand knew what the right hand was doing. Shame on Eberflus for being stubborn with the back end of his defense that got continuously beat, A good chunk of the talent failure falls on the GM though.

Eberflus wasn’t dealt the best hand, but he never helped matters either. He did what he did and never wanted to adjust.

Even when they added Williams and the heavier fronts started to have some success, Eberflus went right back to his thing and things inevitably got worse again.

I’ll be keeping an eye on the 49’ers defense this year. I think they’re going to get much worse.

 

[LouBrown]

It’s an interesting topic. Personally I look more towards talent levels, but both matter.

In my mind though if you gave Eberflus Myles Garrett he will have a pretty solid at worst defense. Kenneth Murray on the other hand has had 4 different DCs in his career and no one has been able to fix him despite being a phenomenal athlete.

IMO coaching at this level is pretty similar with some obvious outliers which I agree can be a difference maker when you get a truly special coach, but those are rare. Especially with today’s technology and team budgets anything new another teams does is on tape, broken down, and duplicated within a couple weeks.

I look less truly at scheme and more at a coaches ability to pick players and adapt their scheme to fit quality players rather than sticking players into a scheme. That’s where I think coaches can truly move the needle. It’s when a guy like McVay can be so excited and sure about spending a late pick on some scrub names puka nacua and turn him into an elite player year 1. As good as the player i doubt very few OCs are giving a late round pick that many looks and getting that type of production.

There's no special coordinators because they all become head coaches pretty quickly lol.

If you can't generate a 4-man passrush, it doesn't really matter what your DC is trying to do. That's just talent. You can counter that with blitzing, but then you just need talent at corner, and even then, you are going to get burned.

For all the talk of what CP did in Philly....nobody wants to talk about the fact that they have used a ton of draft capital to try to find an edge (3 thirds) for 2026, had Davis lose 26 lbs so he could be a more effective rusher, and already have Carter, Ojomo, and a first-round rusher already. That's not to mention the draft capital they've used at corner.

 

[thunderpimp91]

There's no special coordinators because they all become head coaches pretty quickly lol.

If you can't generate a 4-man passrush, it doesn't really matter what your DC is trying to do. That's just talent. You can counter that with blitzing, but then you just need talent at corner, and even then, you are going to get burned.

For all the talk of what CP did in Philly....nobody wants to talk about the fact that they have used a ton of draft capital to try to find an edge (3 thirds) for 2026, had Davis lose 26 lbs so he could be a more effective rusher, and already have Carter, Ojomo, and a first-round rusher already. That's not to mention the draft capital they've used at corner.

Lot of good tidbits in there Lou.

I’m hopeful that CP can help optimize the CB position here in Dallas, and he gets a ton of credit for turning guys into top players at the position. Hes also had elite talent to work with which doesn’t get discussed nearly as much.

 

[JBS]

They're returning 7 starters lol. Off the top of my head:

Quinnen Williams
Kenny Clark
Eze
Overshown
Bland
Revel
Hooker

The idea that there's been some defensive talent overhaul is silly. The only real changes are:

S: Wilson - Thompson
Nickel: Steward - Downs
LB: Murray - Winters
Edge: Clowney - Gary

There will be different subpackages with other corners and that sort of thing, but in nickel the majority of the players are the same.

“7 starters” hahahah

Q - wasn’t w dal this time last year
Clark - wasn’t w dal this time last year
Eze - yes
Bland - yes
Revel - yes. Not a starter last year
Hooker - yes - may not be starter this year

The 4 new names you mentioned are obviously the top 4 as far as impact but there are a handful if not more that will get significant time that are new to the team

 

[LouBrown]

“7 starters” hahahah

Q - wasn’t w dal this time last year
Clark - wasn’t w dal this time last year
Eze - yes
Bland - yes
Revel - yes. Not a starter last year
Hooker - yes - may not be starter this year

It doesn't matter who the starters were last July. It matters who the starters were on game day if we care about performance.

 

[DarkVader33]

Kenneth Murray on the other hand has had 4 different DCs in his career and no one has been able to fix him despite being a phenomenal athlete.

Why did Eber stubbornly keep playing him? That’s a coaching decision and his responsibility.

 

[LouBrown]

Lot of good tidbits in there Lou.

I’m hopeful that CP can help optimize the CB position here in Dallas, and he gets a ton of credit for turning guys into top players at the position. Hes also had elite talent to work with which doesn’t get discussed nearly as much.

Yea I think it's hard to argue that he got a lot out of the CB position in Philly or Denver, considering the pedigree of Surtain and Mitchell. Plus, they're moving DeJean to S so...

I get the optimism about CP but a lot of it is based on half truths lol

 

[LouBrown]

Why did Eber stubbornly keep playing him? That’s a coaching decision and his responsibility.

He cut his snaps in half week 10. It's not like Dallas had other good LBers to replace him with lol

 

[thunderpimp91]

Why did Eber stubbornly keep playing him? That’s a coaching decision and his responsibility.

Fair point and I agree. To play devils advocate though the solution Jerry drew up for him was trading for Logan Wilson.

Personally i would have preferred to turn to the young guys down the roster and if you go down at least you go down fighting and trying to find a spark of hope from somewhere. I’m not sure we had a starting caliber LB on the roster outside of Overshown who clearly wasn’t fully healthy.

 

[JBS]

It doesn't matter who the starters were last July. It matters who the starters were on game day if we care about performance.

Of course it matters. And even if you include them that’s fine. To suggest players coming into a new team w zero prep time makes no difference is dumb. But you can have it. This defense has plenty more new pieces than you are suggesting no matter how you slice it

 

[LouBrown]

Of course it matters. And even if you include them that’s fine. To suggest players coming into a new team w zero prep time makes no difference is dumb. But you can have it. This defense has plenty more new pieces than you are suggesting no matter how you slice it

It has plenty of new pieces. It does not have plenty of new starters.

 

[JBS]

It has plenty of new pieces. It does not have plenty of new starters

That’s fine. It’s not all that relevant. Way more than 11 players are needed to field a good defense.

 

[LouBrown]

That’s fine. It’s not all that relevant. Way more than 11 players are needed to field a good defense.

Ok but you're the one who brought up starters lol

 

[JBS]

Ok but you're the one who brought up starters lol

Yes and no. I mentioned it in my original post but it wasn’t the highlight of my post. You focused on it in your response. Counting Q as a starter last year for example is bogus. Either way, this defense has way to much change to compare to last season, imo.

 

[Stash]

Lot of good tidbits in there Lou.

I’m hopeful that CP can help optimize the CB position here in Dallas, and he gets a ton of credit for turning guys into top players at the position. Hes also had elite talent to work with which doesn’t get discussed nearly as much.

That is the other thing to consider.

Parker has been blessed with having high draft picks to develop.

But from what I’ve read, he did have significant influence in identifying that talent as well, so I consider that another positive thing.

There have also been some players that he couldn’t coach up, including Damarri Mathis in Denver and Adoree Jackson in Philadelphia.

Ja’Quan McMillian in Denver is an exception however. An undrafted free agent who has developed into a top 5 slot corner in the league.

 

[DarkVader33]

He cut his snaps in half week 10. It's not like Dallas had other good LBers to replace him with lol

That was still too much and way too late.