The Dallas Cowboys are in offseason mode after being ousted from the playoffs before reaching the NFC Championship Game for the 28th consecutive year.
Dallas will have some questions to answer and holes to fill after DC Dan Quinn's departure to be the head coach in rival Washington.
I have been writing a series grading all of the Cowboys players by position group, and the defense began yesterday with the defensive tackles.
We will continue today with one of the Cowboys' strongest units, the defensive ends.
All grades and stats are provided by Pro Football Focus Premium.
Players who did not participate in at least 10 games are excluded from the overall rankings.
Defensive Ends/EDGE
The Cowboys only have one player who can be labeled as an EDGE, but five other players who are strictly labeled as defensive ends.
Micah Parsons
PFF Overall (NFL Rank): 92.7 (2nd)
PFF Rush Defense (NFL Rank): 68.1 (40th)
PFF Pass Rush (NFL Rank): 93.7 (2nd)
Micah Parsons earned 2nd-team All-Pro in his third season, and rightfully so.
Parsons is/was a one-man wrecking crew on the defensive line, harassing quarterbacks from various spots on the defense.
The first thing Cowboys fans will mention about the 2023 season in regards to Micah is how few holding calls he drew on opposing offensive linemen.
Despite going 3/4 of the season without a holding call, Parsons still finished with 64 tackles, 18 tackles for loss, 33 QB hits, 69 hurries, 103 pressures, and 14.0 sacks.
Parsons did not lead the NFL in sacks, but he was a split second away from adding to his 14.0 total by leading the NFL in hurries and pressures.
Micah is in the NFL Defensive Player of the Year conversation, but unfortunately, total sacks are usually the metric to determine the award.
Grade: A
I fall short of giving Parsons the A+ grade here because there were too many games where teams schemed him out of the picture.
It could partially be blamed on the defensive scheme, but Parsons had five games where didn't record a sack or more than two tackles.
The best players aren't phased out of the game in that way, and hopefully, the new defensive coordinator can create more opportunities for him to shine.
DeMarcus Lawrence
PFF Overall (NFL Rank): 91.3 (7th)
PFF Rush Defense (NFL Rank): 92.4 (2nd)
PFF Pass Rush (NFL Rank): 80.3 (20th)
DeMarcus Lawrence just played his 10th season with the Cowboys, and I feel like this was the best season of his career.
Lawrence was a force to be reckoned with in the run game, and as poor as the defense was in that area, it's scary to imagine what it would look like without him.
Tank, as he's so affectionately been dubbed, ranked 2nd in the NFL with a 92.4 rush defense grade, just falling in behind Maxx Crosby (92.7).
He made numerous plays where his instinct was enough to diagnose and blow up plays in the backfield.
Most of these plays came on critical 3rd and 4th downs.
Grade: A-
Lawrence draws the A- from me this time around.
He was excellent against the run, but the explosion to rush the passer isn't as effective as it used to be.
Lawrence was nearly unstoppable on rush downs but left more to be desired from a pass rush standpoint.
Dorance Armstrong
PFF Overall (NFL Rank): 70.1 (52nd)
PFF Rush Defense (NFL Rank): 58.2 (84th)
PFF Pass Rush (NFL Rank): 70.1 (51st)
Dorance Armstrong is sometimes forgotten as the starting defensive end opposite of Lawrence.
Armstrong might be forgotten, but it doesn't stop him from making a name for himself on the other side of the line.
He finished 2023 with a career-high in tackles (38), and added another 7.5 sacks to his career total.
He made some heady plays in the rotation and was a key depth piece along the defensive line.
Grade: B-
It is a testament to Armstrong's talent that he remains on the field in favor of Tank when Micah lines up on the edge.
He is a smart veteran but was often out of position when it came to defending the run.
His value to the defense is still slightly weighted more in the pass rush department instead of as an overall player.
Sam Williams
PFF Overall (NFL Rank): 68.5 (54th)
PFF Rush Defense (NFL Rank): 62.5 (63rd)
PFF Pass Rush (NFL Rank): 73.2 (41st)
Sam Williams was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2022 draft with character concerns that haven't shown to be an issue outside of one incident.
Williams played just 28% of the defensive snaps so he wasn't able to have the impact that I'm sure he anticipated coming into his sophomore campaign.
Yet he was still able to make an impact on the team through another avenue: special teams.
Mad special teams genius Jon “Bones” Fassell saw Williams' 4.46 40-yard dash time and made him a gunner on the kicking team.
Grade: C+
Although Williams was able to scrounge and find another way to contribute to the team, he still fell short of expectations for a second-year 2nd round pick.
What brings his grade lower is also his propensity for bone-headed plays that extend drives for opposing teams.
Dante Fowler Jr.
PFF Overall (NFL Rank): 64.4 (72nd)
PFF Rush Defense (NFL Rank): 62.0 (65th)
PFF Pass Rush (NFL Rank): 70.7 (47th)
Dante Fowler Jr. is a “Dan Quinn guy” who was drafted as the 3rd overall pick of the 2016 NFL Draft while Quinn was the head coach in Atlanta.
Fowler does nothing except make splash plays in the backfield or get completely driven out of the screen.
There's no in-between, and it makes Fowler a volatile player in the rotation.
He finished the season having played 25% of the defensive snaps on a rotation where he's used as a pass rush specialist.
Grade: B-
Fowler brought to the Cowboys exactly what he was signed to do: be a pass rush specialist.
He finished the season with just 4.0 sacks, but that was good enough to finish tied for 4th on the team.
Fowler also finished with eight tackles for loss in rush defense.
As a Quinn guy, it will be interesting to see if the Cowboys attempt to retain his services next season.
