The Football Educator: Sizing Up the 2014 Cowboys Defense

[Moderately_Askew]

It is fact , any way that you look at it. Callahan stunk it up after having two if his free agents that he picked out himself , brought in to start . Funny how things changed when a new coach was brought in. Marinelli is given credit for some street free agents that played on the worst Dline in the league. They was horrible, but he gets credit like they were all pros. They was bad, just as expected. How is this great coaching?

The world isn't black and white. You can't just use blanket statements like you and some others like to use with no proof and only emotions. Callahan and Marinelli were given what they were given and they made the best of it they could.

I think the saying goes you can't make chicken salad out of chicken $#%!.

No one is crediting Marinelli like they were all pros, just the fact he made a rag tag bunch of street free agents into a semblance of a unit. He is credited for doing well in the past and I believe everyone expects for him to return to that level now that he has some talent.

 

[jobberone]

They won't be middle of the road and we won't contend.

Ok Risen. Stay your course. I'm off to Tahiti, sunshine and good times.

 

[CCBoy]

The world isn't black and white. You can't just use blanket statements like you and some others like to use with no proof and only emotions. Callahan and Marinelli were given what they were given and they made the best of it they could.

I think the saying goes you can't make chicken salad out of chicken $#%!.

No one is crediting Marinelli like they were all pros, just the fact he made a rag tag bunch of street free agents into a semblance of a unit. He is credited for doing well in the past and I believe everyone expects for him to return to that level now that he has some talent.

Hey, no argument with this fan. Marinelli is held in very good esteem throughout the NFL. Like yourself, I think I will side with that body of information here.

 

[CCBoy]

Ok Risen. Stay your course. I'm off to Tahiti, sunshine and good times.

Send me back a Mexican martini...umbrella and all.

 

[jnday]

The world isn't black and white. You can't just use blanket statements like you and some others like to use with no proof and only emotions. Callahan and Marinelli were given what they were given and they made the best of it they could.

I think the saying goes you can't make chicken salad out of chicken $#%!.

No one is crediting Marinelli like they were all pros, just the fact he made a rag tag bunch of street free agents into a semblance of a unit. He is credited for doing well in the past and I believe everyone expects for him to return to that level now that he has some talent.

Did Marinelli have a choice? He had to send players on the field. Yeah, there was a DLine fielded every week. They were the worst in Cowboy history and the worst in the league last year. Played like exactly like what they were. If the unit had played better than that. I would say that it was a great coaching job. The scouting dept found a couple of back-up quality players that may help the team in the future in a rotational basis, but that is not due to coaching. That is due to scouting. The point that I am making is that Marinelli had a unit that was destroyed by injuries and he had to use free agents that was walking the streets. When he fielded these players, the results were just what was expected. They played like street free agents. What exactly about the unit did you see that exceeded expectations? Many of these guys played a week after being signed. They had played the game before and they knew where to line up and how to play on the DL. Marinelli didn't have the time to make them anything more than they were and the players didn't have the talent to do any better than what they did. The results were just what they should have been. How is that great coaching? Callahan did a worse job IMO. A new coach was brought in to replace him and the improvement was easy to see. Callahan had Smith, Free, and two hand picked free agents of his choosing end the results were team record lows in rushing .

 

[CCBoy]

Did Marinelli have a choice? He had to send players on the field. Yeah, there was a DLine fielded every week. They were the worst in Cowboy history and the worst in the league last year. Played like exactly like what they were. If the unit had played better than that. I would say that it was a great coaching job. The scouting dept found a couple of back-up quality players that may help the team in the future in a rotational basis, but that is not due to coaching. That is due to scouting. The point that I am making is that Marinelli had a unit that was destroyed by injuries and he had to use free agents that was walking the streets. When he fielded these players, the results were just what was expected. They played like street free agents. What exactly about the unit did you see that exceeded expectations? Many of these guys played a week after being signed. They had played the game before and they knew where to line up and how to play on the DL. Marinelli didn't have the time to make them anything more than they were and the players didn't have the talent to do any better than what they did. The results were just what they should have been. How is that great coaching? Callahan did a worse job IMO. A new coach was brought in to replace him and the improvement was easy to see. Callahan had Smith, Free, and two hand picked free agents of his choosing end the results were team record lows in rushing .

They may have been lows until mid season when there was formed some offensive line player familiarity.

Familiarity is needed on the defensive front as well.

For transition, players on a roster need to be together to learn that team's process, to be able to grow together during a season.

To continually have to plug in players who just signed in at the lobby desk of a hotel, doesn't give coaching a chance to develop a direction. Things fall back to basic survival...and coaching can't, at that point, have enough time to overcome in the education process.

That's not a deficiency in coaching, just the intensity levels of the NFL.

If this observer had to place blame, it would be in a self directed Jay Ratliff and injuries to high cash value other players on that defensive line. Lee was operable just how long? The fill ins at linebacker, needed a clean picture at that point, and the receiving line just couldn't deliver.

 

[Moderately_Askew]

Did Marinelli have a choice? He had to send players on the field. Yeah, there was a DLine fielded every week. They were the worst in Cowboy history and the worst in the league last year. Played like exactly like what they were. If the unit had played better than that. I would say that it was a great coaching job. The scouting dept found a couple of back-up quality players that may help the team in the future in a rotational basis, but that is not due to coaching. That is due to scouting. The point that I am making is that Marinelli had a unit that was destroyed by injuries and he had to use free agents that was walking the streets. When he fielded these players, the results were just what was expected. They played like street free agents. What exactly about the unit did you see that exceeded expectations? Many of these guys played a week after being signed. They had played the game before and they knew where to line up and how to play on the DL. Marinelli didn't have the time to make them anything more than they were and the players didn't have the talent to do any better than what they did. The results were just what they should have been. How is that great coaching? Callahan did a worse job IMO. A new coach was brought in to replace him and the improvement was easy to see. Callahan had Smith, Free, and two hand picked free agents of his choosing end the results were team record lows in rushing .

This is the exact same argument from your last post...

No one said he did a great job, just giving him credit for what he had to work with. It doesn't matter if you have the best coach in the world if they have no talent to work with.

You keep stating this fantasy that Callahan handpicked his free agents, I don't know where this is coming from. Callahan was still the OL coach last year, the team acquired TFred, Leary developed, Free got his act together and guess what? The OL did pretty dang well last year.

Like I said before the world is not black and white, someone is just not good or bad. You have to evaluate and analyze the situations and problems.

Now that Marinelli has some talent on the DL everyone expects an improvement from a unit who is coached by a highly regarded individual around the league.

 

[Idgit]

I'm not "expecting" the worst. I am, and without putting words in Risen's mouth I suspect he is, doing what we all do this time of year. Speculating on what will be based on what we are going into the year with.

Again, quite frankly, this defense looked better on paper last year at this time than it does this year. There is certainly more potential this year, but also a ton more questions that simply have to fall right IMO for us to improve. Considering we are starting from a baseline of "worst in franchise history" last season, I think a little pessimism is understandable.

I think this is very true. We looked far better defensively on paper last season and ended up with a disaster. That's one reason I have a hard time getting very excited about the defense this season.

That said, things often don't turn out the way they look on paper. That's why the games are so much fun.

 

[Hostile]

Good to hear from you HOS

A question as to what you see in the DL. With 8-10 DL do you see two or three who specialist and fall back to play LB? Or play like Randy White or Ware and rome the line as run stoppers or blitz specialist? This would make the DL more versatile and keep the secondary and LBs from tiring.

Your thoughts

Depending upon how good Lawrence turns out to be I see something similar to Jimmy's D-lines minus Charles Haley. Or maybe I should say Crawford instead of Lawrence. The point is, Jimmy rotated guys and kept as many fresh as he could. We're going to do the same thing. The one guy I think can be a pass rush specialist who can also drop into LB in a 3-4 look is probably Martez Wilson, who intrigues me, but I think is probably a long shot to make this team.

 

[CCBoy]

Depending upon how good Lawrence turns out to be I see something similar to Jimmy's D-lines minus Charles Haley. Or maybe I should say Crawford instead of Lawrence. The point is, Jimmy rotated guys and kept as many fresh as he could. We're going to do the same thing. The one guy I think can be a pass rush specialist who can also drop into LB in a 3-4 look is probably Martez Wilson, who intrigues me, but I think is probably a long shot to make this team.

Nice ringer to bring out, in Martez Wilson...this camp has a lot of drama and directions.

 

[jnday]

They may have been lows until mid season when there was formed some offensive line player familiarity.

Familiarity is needed on the defensive front as well.

For transition, players on a roster need to be together to learn that team's process, to be able to grow together during a season.

To continually have to plug in players who just signed in at the lobby desk of a hotel, doesn't give coaching a chance to develop a direction. Things fall back to basic survival...and coaching can't, at that point, have enough time to overcome in the education process.

That's not a deficiency in coaching, just the intensity levels of the NFL.

If this observer had to place blame, it would be in a self directed Jay Ratliff and injuries to high cash value other players on that defensive line. Lee was operable just how long? The fill ins at linebacker, needed a clean picture at that point, and the receiving line just couldn't deliver.

This is part of the point that I am making when it comes to Marinelli. He is being credited with a great coaching job, but he done nothing other than trot these guys out in the field. He didn't have time to coach them. Any success they had from these players came from the talent that they have. It takes more than a couple of weeks for a coach to have an impact on a player. Marinelli had little impact. He didn't have time. The job promotion couldn't have been based off of last year. The fact remains that he coached the worst DL in the history of the Cowboys. The results from last season were to be expected considering the situation .

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

Ahhh. Lots of fine reading.

And I tend to agree that many of these players excite, based on possibilities.

Yes, there is a "but" coming.

But out of desperation is born this motley crew of defensive players.
If a coach can put the pieces of the puzzle together, great, we will half a almost average defense. if he cannot, look for our offense to half to score at least 35 points per game (ever game) to win.

I suspect that this is a lot of whistling past the paved yard.

Here is hoping that you are correct about the McClains.
Something I definitely doo not want: Our corners to develop a attitude.

Before they develop a attitude they need to develop a semblance of CONSISTENT talent. Then and only then should they half a attitude like Robert "Man, I Got Old in a Hurry!" Conrad. Conrad, the guy who lost a celebrity bike raise to that Welcome Back Cotter guy weenie with the mustache.

If the Boys develop a defense that can hold its own and hold the oppoents to below 20 points a game, I will eat 4 steaks to celebrate and an extry one to salute the McClains.
But this is all talk.
Only the season will tell.

Good post, good hopes. Good god, y'all.

 

[xwalker]

Did Marinelli have a choice? He had to send players on the field. Yeah, there was a DLine fielded every week. They were the worst in Cowboy history and the worst in the league last year. Played like exactly like what they were. If the unit had played better than that. I would say that it was a great coaching job. The scouting dept found a couple of back-up quality players that may help the team in the future in a rotational basis, but that is not due to coaching. That is due to scouting. The point that I am making is that Marinelli had a unit that was destroyed by injuries and he had to use free agents that was walking the streets. When he fielded these players, the results were just what was expected. They played like street free agents. What exactly about the unit did you see that exceeded expectations? Many of these guys played a week after being signed. They had played the game before and they knew where to line up and how to play on the DL. Marinelli didn't have the time to make them anything more than they were and the players didn't have the talent to do any better than what they did. The results were just what they should have been. How is that great coaching? Callahan did a worse job IMO. A new coach was brought in to replace him and the improvement was easy to see. Callahan had Smith, Free, and two hand picked free agents of his choosing end the results were team record lows in rushing .

I can understand your point about Marinelli, but not about Callahan.

Callahan was the OL coach in both 2012 and 2013. Frank Pollack was the assistant OL coach in 2013.

One of the players that Callahan brought in was Bernadeau. He was terrible in 2012 but when finally healthy in the 2nd half of 2013 he was quite good.

The other guy that was brought in, Livings, was the 2nd best OL in the 1st few games of 2012 but then got injured and his play declined significantly.

I've been curious about how much of the 2013 OL success should be attributed to Pollack, but there's not way to really know if he was the key or if it was just being in the 2nd year of Callahan's OL scheme.

I would prefer to give Pollack the credit because then they wouldn't need to hold on to Callahan after this season; however, there is just not enough evidence to know for certain.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Callahan had good running games in NY with no QB, and he also is the one who supposedly was the main "scout" and force behind drafting Frederick.

 

[Hostile]

Callahan had good running games in NY with no QB, and he also is the one who supposedly was the main "scout" and force behind drafting Frederick.

Wrong thread? Just a guess.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

No, addressing what xwalker was saying.

 

[burmafrd]

Talent. How much do we really have?

those trying to compare us to the 90's line are full of crap. There is no one with the talent of either Haley or Lett. Maryland and Tolbert and maybe Jeffcoat in his declining years. MAYBE.

I think Lawrence can be a Jeffcoat. Not much more. Sylvie could be a Tolbert. Crawford and Melton could be Casilas and Maryland- could be. If they do become that good then we will have a solid D line and a decent pass rush and that is about it.
I expect nothing from Spencer; and not much from the rest of them.

So overall I expect some improvement from the D line. Not a lot.

As regards LB, it is hard to truly appreciate how much losing Lee hurts. And frankly to expect anything from him again would be a mistake. Call it a weak body, bad luck or both he should be quietly forgotten.

Carter is a total enigma; he HAS to play well for us to have a decent LB corps this year. McClain is basically a hail mary. The others- one step above JAG level mostly.

I think Carr can be pretty good. Mo- who knows? Scandrick will ball.

Our safeties? Decent and no more.

Overall I think the D will rank about 25th this year with a little luck and if more of the guys produce then I think they will.

 

[Hostile]

No, addressing what xwalker was saying.

Gotcha, thought you may have intended the Linehan run calls thread.

 

[Silver N Blue]

Thanks. There are a lot of ifs for this Defense, but most of those ifs are not beyond the possible at all. In fact, many of them are probable.

The Offense is solid as any in the NFL and we added capacity to run. If they maintain anything close to last year's level, and the Defense really improves, it will be a fun year.

As always enjoy reading your take. As with you Lee is a major damper on the upcoming season that only added to the pile of the past few years. You said it best in your reply here; quite a lot of "if's". If I had to pick through all of those give me that LB core of Carter, Lee, McClain....that is an "if" I could enjoy for years! Either way great post.

 

[jnday]

I can understand your point about Marinelli, but not about Callahan.

Callahan was the OL coach in both 2012 and 2013. Frank Pollack was the assistant OL coach in 2013.

One of the players that Callahan brought in was Bernadeau. He was terrible in 2012 but when finally healthy in the 2nd half of 2013 he was quite good.

The other guy that was brought in, Livings, was the 2nd best OL in the 1st few games of 2012 but then got injured and his play declined significantly.

I've been curious about how much of the 2013 OL success should be attributed to Pollack, but there's not way to really know if he was the key or if it was just being in the 2nd year of Callahan's OL scheme.

I would prefer to give Pollack the credit because then they wouldn't need to hold on to Callahan after this season; however, there is just not enough evidence to know for certain.

Pollack has impressed me. I hated the Callahan hiring from day one and he hasn't impressed in his time in Dallas. You mentioned Bernadeau and he did play some decent games towards the end of last season under Pollack. He has done this several times in his career, but his play is inconsistent and he has never maintained a high level of play. Even Free played better with Pollack coaching him. Fred played well under Pollack and didn't have a rookie slump. Callahan is kinda unneeded on this staff and Jerry should have let him go this offseason.