The Dallas Cowboys’ secondary was inconsistent in 2024, ranking 17th in pass defense (218.1 yards per game allowed) and giving up too many explosive plays downfield.
Their struggles in coverage cost them in critical moments, even with one of the league’s most talented pass rushes. But 2025 may finally be the turning point.
With Trevon Diggs, Kaiir Elam, DaRon Bland, and rookie Shavon Revel Jr., Dallas is shaping a secondary that could be both deep and dangerous.
Paired with Micah Parsons and a front that finished 3rd in the NFL in sacks (52), the Cowboys have the makings of a surprise top defense.
Trevon Diggs Returns as the Cornerstone
When healthy, Trevon Diggs is a true No.1 cornerback.
His ability to create turnovers—14 interceptions across 2021-2022—gives Dallas a shutdown presence they lacked for much of last season.
Diggs’ return in 2025 allows the Cowboys to lock down opposing WR1s, freeing Bland and Elam to attack more aggressively.
Kaiir Elam Could Be the Breakout Player
Kaiir Elam has the size (6’2”) and physical style to thrive in Dallas’ system. While inconsistent early in his career, Elam showed flashes in press-man coverage.
If he takes the next step in 2025, pairing him with Diggs could give the Cowboys one of the most physical corner tandems in the NFC.
DaRon Bland: The Playmaker Opponents Fear
No defensive back has turned more heads in the last couple of years than DaRon Bland, who posted nine interceptions and an NFL-record five pick-sixes in 2023.
Even in 2024, when quarterbacks targeted him more aggressively, Bland continued to prove he could change games with his ball skills.
With Diggs back in the lineup, Bland should see more favorable matchups, which could mean another turnover-heavy season.
Shavon Revel Jr.: Rookie Depth with Big Upside
Rookie Shavon Revel Jr. may not start right away, but his athleticism and instincts give Dallas another developmental piece when he returns from injury.
The Cowboys dealt with injuries across the defensive backfield in 2024, and having Revel Jr. deep in the season, as a fresh option, could be critical against spread-heavy offenses.
Micah Parsons and the Pass Rush Elevate the Secondary
The Cowboys’ defense thrives when the pass rush and coverage play off each other.
Micah Parsons already has 52.5 career sacks in four seasons, averaging more than 13 per year.
In 2024, Dallas ranked in the top 10 in pressure rate (36.1%), constantly forcing the quarterbacks into rushed decisions. The defense ranked third in the NFL with 52 sacks last season.
With Parsons leading the way, the secondary’s ball-hawking ability only becomes more dangerous.
Cowboys Pass Defense: Year-to-Year Comparison + 2025 Outlook
How Pass Rush and Coverage Work Together
Why Dallas Can Be a Top Defense in 2025
The Cowboys’ formula is built for success:
- Coverage helps the rush. When Diggs and Elam hold their ground outside, Parsons and the front can collapse the pocket.
- The rush helps coverage. With 52 team sacks last season, Dallas forced plenty of mistakes—the kind Bland thrives on.
- Depth matters. With Revel Jr. providing rookie upside, Dallas is less vulnerable to injuries than in 2024.
If the Cowboys can tighten their pass defense to top-10 levels while maintaining their elite pressure rate, their defense could leap from inconsistent to one of the NFL’s top five in 2025.
a Dallas Cowboys fan, since the 70’s all the sports media groups need to wake up and Jerry Jones the Cowboys defense can’t stop the run the Cowboys defense is terrible
You need to wake up!! Whatever sports media group your talking about is in your dreams!! The sports media group your talking about don’t exist in real life!! And even if the defense can’t stop the run, it doesn’t mean the defense is terrible!! Stopping the run is only one part of playing defense!! The defense is also responsible for coverage, rushing the passer and getting turnovers!! And with the corners and edge rushers we have, we’re gonna be no worse than top 10 in sacks and turnovers!! And putting them no worse than top 10 is me being hard on them!! With all the talent we have at those positions, I wouldn’t be surprised if we were to 5!! So like usual, you have no idea what your talking about!!
And AGAIN, stop lying to everybody, you have NOT been a Cowboys fan since the 70s!! There’s no way you can be a fan for that long and know literally nothing about the team or about football in general!! You literally don’t know anything!! So there’s no way you’ve been a Cowboys fan since the 70s…. It’s not possible!!
Nice article Cody,
If everything goes as well or better than you suggest, teams will minimize their exposure and run the ball on Dallas. Right now, Mazi Smith and Jay Toia are the only things standing in the way of that. To make things worse, many of the teams they face have the wherewithal to run on high quality run defenses, much less Mazi Smith. That starts in a little more than a week with the best offensive line and RB in the league. I like the rest of the defense, but until they fix an ongoing problem that is cheat code known league wide, I have grave reservations.
We also have Perrion Winfrey, and he’s shown that he can disrupt the run if he needs to!! And I think Mazi Smith would be a beast against the run if these defensive coordinators would stop making him lose weight every year!! He went from being a beast in college to getting ran over in his first year because Dan Quinn made him lose a bunch of weight, and then Mike Zimmer came in and made him gain all that weight back and by week 10, Mazi started looking good against the run, and now Matt Eberflus comes in and makes Mazi lose a bunch of weight again, and that’s why he’s not the player he was drafted to be!! It’s bad enough for a new young player to have to go through 3 different defensive coordinators in the first 3 years of his career, but having to change his weight in all 3 of those years just makes it even harder for a player to get going in the NFL!! Mazi was drafted to be the player he was in college, but he can’t be that player if he’s being told to lose weight one year and then gain it back the next year and then lose the weight again the next year!! He played at a certain weight in college, and he was really good in college, so these defensive coordinators need to stop messing with his weight and let him play at the same weight he played at in college and the same weight he was at when he was drafted, and he’ll be the player he was in college and the player he was drafted to be!! I really don’t understand why these defensive coordinators don’t see that!! And now everybody is trying to put the bust label on Mazi, when in reality it’s not his fault he hasn’t made the jump yet, it’s the defensive coordinators fault for making him change so much every year!! I guarantee that if these defensive coordinators would let Mazi play at the same weight he played at in college for 2 years in a row, he would be the player he was drafted to be!! It’s possibly that if he can just play at the same weight he’s at now for 2 years in a row he can be a lot better, and now that we have Eberflus, it’s possible that will happen, so we could see a better Mazi by the beginning of next year!! But I personally would rather have Mazi play at the weight he was in college because he’s a lot bigger and a lot stronger at that weight!! But who knows, maybe Eberflus will turn Mazi into the run stopper he was meant to be and make him a good pass rusher too!! The only reason him and Quinn made Mazi lose weight is because they wanted him to rush the passer too, the only problem is that Quinn only had 1 year to work with him and then Zimmer came in and made Mazi gain the weight back and he only had 1 year with him too, so maybe Eberflus will have the chance to work with him for more than a year and turn him into the player he wants him to be!! But only time will tell with that!! I will say that Mazi did look a lot better in the 3rd preseason game, so maybe he’s finally getting a hang of it!! But like I said, I would rather him play at the weight he was in college, I would feel a lot better about him that way!! But I could be wrong, so I’ll just wait and see how good he is this season!!
I agree Mazi was ruined by conflicting coaching philosophies that had him losing then gaining now losing weight. If Quinn had let him establish himself as the lane clogging force he was in college he probably would have been fine. But instead they took the best 1 tech in the draft and tried to make a pass rushing, 300 lb 3T! Winfrey is a nice player but he isn’t big enough to hold his spot and can be easily moved by a powerful OT. Some spot 1T work on pass rush downs maybe, but he isn’t built no substitute for a bonafide starting 1T. As a matter of fact, none of our 1Ts are bonafide starters. I could see Jerry making a trade here. It’s their most pressing need.
Ravens just cut CJ Okoye, 6’6” 370lbs! Git im Jerry!!!