Optimistic about our D

[Hawkeye19]

They finished as the 8th overall defense last year. It’s been years since we have had a championship caliber defense— but I think we are on our way— with only a couple holes/flaws. Here is why I believe this unit jumps from top 10 to top 5 this year:

1. PassRush depth. We have not been this deep in a long time. Marinelli wants a strong rotation— and I think this unit is deep and talented enough to consistently disrupt teams passing games even more than they did last year.

2. LBer team speed. Jaylon is healthier and showing more explosiveness. LVE is the best athlete at LBer in this draft class. His speed and coverage ability will help shrink the field. Joe Thomas and Covington are nice additions and Wilson and/or March-Lillard round out a nice corps.

3. Kris Richard. Enough has been said about him already— but a tougher mentality and a more aggressive style should result in more turnovers and better secondary play.

Our only legit holes are at S and 1Tech. Irving/Collins/Ward/Price is not a bad interior rotation— and with the pressure from DE, some of these guys will see favorable matchups.

Safety is where we can get hurt imo. We are young and vulnerable on the back end. Adding ET would go a long way to shoring this hole up— but even if the trade doesn’t occur, I think they will be protected by a great passrush and better overall coverage by the LBs.

Barring setbacks from injuries (Lee/D Law in particular) I think this D can shoulder more of the load than they have in years. Excited to see them take the field and hopefully take the next step in their development.

 

[CPanther95]

Anyone who believes the Cowboys had anywhere near the 8th best defense in the league last year probably also believes the Steelers had the 5th best defense.

Neither are even remotely close to that.

 

[tomsanders921]

Anyone who believes the Cowboys had anywhere near the 8th best defense in the league last year probably also believes the Steelers had the 5th best defense.

Neither are even remotely close to that.

It helps the stats when you play the Giants twice and the eagles backups the last week of the season.

The defense was not half bad when they were healthy. I still don't trust them to consistently get stops when the game is on the line. Maybe that will change this year.

Last year they would look good for awhile, and then out of nowhere they have a possession where they look like they have no clue what they are doing.

 

[Sydla]

Let's be clear.

They were 8th in yards allowed. That's it. Now, people assume that's the best stat and most predictive stat because when the networks and NFL.com rank defenses they often use yards allowed. But it's really a pretty shoddy way to rank defenses.

And if you look across the board at a multitude of stats........ the Cowboys defense was pretty damn average.

Also, one other nit. With Collins coming off a foot injury again and Irving out for four games and knucklehead to boot, we aren't exactly set at the 3 Tech either, at least to start the season.

 

[Doc50]

They finished as the 8th overall defense last year. It’s been years since we have had a championship caliber defense— but I think we are on our way— with only a couple holes/flaws. Here is why I believe this unit jumps from top 10 to top 5 this year:

1. PassRush depth. We have not been this deep in a long time. Marinelli wants a strong rotation— and I think this unit is deep and talented enough to consistently disrupt teams passing games even more than they did last year.

2. LBer team speed. Jaylon is healthier and showing more explosiveness. LVE is the best athlete at LBer in this draft class. His speed and coverage ability will help shrink the field. Joe Thomas and Covington are nice additions and Wilson and/or March-Lillard round out a nice corps.

3. Kris Richard. Enough has been said about him already— but a tougher mentality and a more aggressive style should result in more turnovers and better secondary play.

Our only legit holes are at S and 1Tech. Irving/Collins/Ward/Price is not a bad interior rotation— and with the pressure from DE, some of these guys will see favorable matchups.

Safety is where we can get hurt imo. We are young and vulnerable on the back end. Adding ET would go a long way to shoring this hole up— but even if the trade doesn’t occur, I think they will be protected by a great passrush and better overall coverage by the LBs.

Barring setbacks from injuries (Lee/D Law in particular) I think this D can shoulder more of the load than they have in years. Excited to see them take the field and hopefully take the next step in their development.

Lots of reasons to be optimistic at this time of year.

 

[Verdict]

They finished as the 8th overall defense last year. It’s been years since we have had a championship caliber defense— but I think we are on our way— with only a couple holes/flaws. Here is why I believe this unit jumps from top 10 to top 5 this year:

1. PassRush depth. We have not been this deep in a long time. Marinelli wants a strong rotation— and I think this unit is deep and talented enough to consistently disrupt teams passing games even more than they did last year.

2. LBer team speed. Jaylon is healthier and showing more explosiveness. LVE is the best athlete at LBer in this draft class. His speed and coverage ability will help shrink the field. Joe Thomas and Covington are nice additions and Wilson and/or March-Lillard round out a nice corps.

3. Kris Richard. Enough has been said about him already— but a tougher mentality and a more aggressive style should result in more turnovers and better secondary play.

Our only legit holes are at S and 1Tech. Irving/Collins/Ward/Price is not a bad interior rotation— and with the pressure from DE, some of these guys will see favorable matchups.

Safety is where we can get hurt imo. We are young and vulnerable on the back end. Adding ET would go a long way to shoring this hole up— but even if the trade doesn’t occur, I think they will be protected by a great passrush and better overall coverage by the LBs.

Barring setbacks from injuries (Lee/D Law in particular) I think this D can shoulder more of the load than they have in years. Excited to see them take the field and hopefully take the next step in their development.

I'm optimistic about the defense as well. I'm not really as worried about safety although we seem to have very little depth there. I am concerned about the one Tech though.

It seems as though not only do we have very little in terms of draft capital and or salary cap tied up there we really don't seem to value run stopping ability there either. It's not going to change, probably, buyback a I don't have to agree with that theory or like it.

 

[QuincyCarterEra]

Defensive losses:
Hitchens
Matt Eberflus
Scandrick
Wilber
Mayowa
Benwikere

Defensive additions:
Joe Thomas
Ealy
LVE
Chris Richard
Armstrong
Covington
UDFAs
Gregory?

Our recipe for winning last season was very obvious

In games we gave up 332 yards or less we were 9-1. The one loss being the lowest yards we allowed all season, Seahawks allowing only 136 yards. In games we gave up more than 332 yards we were 0-6.

 

[Verdict]

Defensive losses:
Hitchens
Matt Eberflus
Scandrick
Wilber
Mayowa
Benwikere

Defensive additions:
Joe Thomas
Ealy
LVE
Chris Richard
Armstrong
Covington
UDFAs
Gregory?

Our recipe for winning last season was very obvious

In games we gave up 332 yards or less we were 9-1. The one loss being the lowest yards we allowed all season, Seahawks allowing only 136 yards. In games we gave up more than 332 yards we were 0-6.

Hitchens loss will be felt a little. The rest, not so much. I cannot believe we gave up a draft pick for Benwikere and he never saw any meaningful time. That one is mind boggling to me. Maybe I'm missing something but it seemed totally idiotic on so many levels.

 

[CouchCoach]

I am optimistic that they've finally gotten serious about paying attention to the D side; however, I feel this is going to be a year where they see where the real holes are in getting to that contender status with a D.

The only stats that really matter are scoring D and turnovers and how that relates to net turnovers.

 

[QuincyCarterEra]

Hitchens loss will be felt a little. The rest, not so much. I cannot believe we gave up a draft pick for Benwikere and he never saw any meaningful time. That one is mind boggling to me. Maybe I'm missing something but it seemed totally idiotic on so many levels.

Agreed on the Benwikere front. If you know the pick is conditional upon active games, DONT MAKE HIM ACTIVE IF HE ISNT GOING TO SEE THE FIELD.

I think we will miss Eberflus quite a bit. He's a very bright guy. The rest of the group is a bunch of meh.

A defensive group of Would have been pretty sweet if you ask me
DL-Rod
LB-Eberflus
DB-Richard

 

[CouchCoach]

A lot of the optimism seems to stem from getting SEA's DC that they didn't want and when he was the secondary guy had 3 out of 4 pbers. They are in a secondary rebuild and did not want this guy. I do not get the buzz on this guy at all. His old team, a better D team, doesn't want him and he takes a demotion to come to another team.

Is this that "oh, he'll be better because he's a Cowboy" thinking? I just do not get this, what am I missing about Richard?

 

[Longboysfan]

We're on the improving side on Defense now.
Not the hold on to what we've got.

 

[QuincyCarterEra]

Wow just stumbled upon this.

Only 10 defensive players were active for all 16 games last season- Jaylon, Byron, Brown, Tank, Woods, Crawford, Damien Wilson, Taco, Collins, and Wilber.

 

[Sydla]

A lot of the optimism seems to stem from getting SEA's DC that they didn't want and when he was the secondary guy had 3 out of 4 pbers. They are in a secondary rebuild and did not want this guy. I do not get the buzz on this guy at all. His old team, a better D team, doesn't want him and he takes a demotion to come to another team.

Is this that "oh, he'll be better because he's a Cowboy" thinking? I just do not get this, what am I missing about Richard?

He's fairly well respected. I wouldn't read a lot into Carroll not bringing Richard back. He's somewhat known for when he makes changes he goes all in. They got rid of pretty much most of their staff, including both coordinators, as Carroll was trying to shake up just about everything.

 

[Jake]

Anyone who believes the Cowboys had anywhere near the 8th best defense in the league last year probably also believes the Steelers had the 5th best defense.

Neither are even remotely close to that.

The Cowboys Achilles heel last season was 3rd down defense - 29th in the NFL allowing conversions last year. That makes the offense have to drive 80 yards all day.

Need to get the ball back in better field position and stop relying on 12 play drives to score.

 

[kskboys]

Hitchens loss will be felt a little. The rest, not so much. I cannot believe we gave up a draft pick for Benwikere and he never saw any meaningful time. That one is mind boggling to me. Maybe I'm missing something but it seemed totally idiotic on so many levels.

That's they kinda stooopid crapp you do when you draft stooopidly.

 

[Jipper]

The Cowboys Achilles heel last season was 3rd down defense - 29th in the NFL allowing conversions last year. That makes the offense have to drive 80 yards all day.

Need to get the ball back in better field position and stop relying on 12 play drives to score.

That stat just drives me nuts....i think it is one of the most frustrating situations when the team constantly can't get 3rd down stops....just where's a fan out watching the game

 

[kskboys]

That stat just drives me nuts....i think it is one of the most frustrating situations when the team constantly can't get 3rd down stops....just where's a fan out watching the game

Yup. And that's why I'm always screaming for NT's and DT's in general. The best way by far to stop other teams on 3rd down is up the middle disruption and pocket collapsing. Those slashers we keep plugging in there will make plays now and then, yes, and some negative ones, but they don't make up for the plays when the middle of our D is pushed aside because they're slashers.

 

[Verdict]

That stat just drives me nuts....i think it is one of the most frustrating situations when the team constantly can't get 3rd down stops....just where's a fan out watching the game

Yeah. Especially 3rd and long on a running play cal.

 

[Verdict]

He's fairly well respected. I wouldn't read a lot into Carroll not bringing Richard back. He's somewhat known for when he makes changes he goes all in. They got rid of pretty much most of their staff, including both coordinators, as Carroll was trying to shake up just about everything.

I think it's fair to look at it both ways. I don't know if Carroll wanted to get rid of Richard for a non football related reason or not, but we have endured piss poor DB coaching for what seems like forever so you have to be at least slightly optimistic that he is better than what we had.