There is a version of this Cowboys defense that works. The version where Rashan Gary is healthy and disruptive, where Donovan Ezeiruaku takes a second-year leap, where first-round rookie Malachi Lawrence develops faster than anyone expected, and where coordinator Christian Parker’s new 3-4 hybrid scheme creates enough confusion up front to manufacture pressure in waves.
That version is possible. Whether it is probable is what Dallas is answering right now at OTAs in Frisco.
The problem is not subtle. According to NFL.com, Dallas finished the 2025 season tied for 24th in the league with 35 team sacks.
Jadeveon Clowney led the team with 8.5 of those and is no longer on the roster. Myles Garrett broke the NFL single-season sack record that same year with 23, doing alone in Cleveland what Dallas could not manage as a unit.
The gap between what the Cowboys have and what a functional pass rush looks like is not a small one.
The Group Brian Schottenheimer Is Working With
Gary is the floor. The former Green Bay Pro Bowler had 60 pressures on 446 pass-rush snaps in 2025, a 13.5 percent pressure rate, with 7.5 sacks and 20 quarterback hits.
His true finish rate of 11.7 percent and impact pressure rate of 4.5 percent indicate genuine quality even when the sack column does not fully reflect it. He is a legitimate starting-caliber edge rusher.
He is also 28 years old, and recorded no sacks in his final nine games with the Packers last season.
Ezeiruaku is the wild card. The 2025 second-round pick out of Boston College played through a torn labrum in his hip across the back half of last season, never appearing on the injury report, and still generated 43 pressures on 343 pass-rush snaps. His true finish rate of 5.6 percent was the concern.
The pressure creation was not. Pro Football Focus named him to its 2026 All-Breakout team, citing a 66.8 pass-rush grade as the second-best among qualified rookie edge rushers in 2025, alongside an 8.1 percent run stop rate that ranked in the 85th percentile at the position.
He underwent hip surgery in the off-season and is expected to be fully cleared for training camp. All seven of Dallas’ 2026 draft picks are now under contract, with Lawrence the last to sign ahead of OTAs.
“The way Ezeiruaku moves through contact tells you the labrum was costing him in the fourth quarter of games last year,” one data analyst noted. “His pressure numbers are what a 66-grade pass rusher produces.
His finish numbers are what a player produces when his hip is giving out under load. Fix the hip, fix the finish rate. That is not a complicated equation.”
What Lawrence Has to Figure Out Early
The Cowboys selected Lawrence with the 23rd overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, after trading back from 20th with the Philadelphia Eagles.
The UCF product recorded 7 sacks and 11 tackles for loss in 12 games in 2025, earned First Team All-Big 12 honors in his final college season, and finished his UCF career with 20 sacks across 37 games. He signed a four-year, fully guaranteed rookie contract worth $20.22 million and is the first UCF player ever selected by Dallas in the first round.
The transition is not automatic.
Lawrence is a stand-up pass rusher learning a new position inside Parker’s 3-4 hybrid scheme, and the Cowboys are being patient.
Schottenheimer told reporters during OTAs that Lawrence has been picking things up quickly, but the expectation is that Gary and Ezeiruaku carry the larger snap share early in the season. Lawrence’s 6-4, 253-pound frame and closing burst are first-round traits. His floor in year one, in a new system under a new coordinator, is less certain.
Entering the offseason, analysis tracking the Cowboys’ situation pointed consistently to the same gap: Dallas needed a pass rusher who could produce from day one, not just project upward.
According to RotoWire, an award-winning independent resource covering NFL mock draft projections and real-time player analysis, draft models throughout the cycle graded Lawrence as a player whose athleticism and production gave him a stronger case for immediate impact than his draft position suggested.
Whether that projection holds in a new scheme, under a new coordinator, is what training camp in Oxnard will begin to answer.
The Depth Behind the Top Three
James Houston is the fourth name in the room. He had 25 pressures on 182 pass-rush snaps in 2025, a 13.7 percent pressure rate that matches Gary’s, and a true finish rate of 24 percent that is the best in this group by a wide margin.
Five-and-a-half sacks on 25 pressures is a rare conversion rate. The problem is that Houston has never sustained health across a full season, and the Cowboys cannot build a pass-rush plan around a player whose availability is not reliable.
Sam Williams rounds out the rotation. His career pressure rate of 10.7 percent is functional, but his true finish rate dropped to 4.2 percent in 2025.
Williams is a depth piece, not a solution. Dallas re-signed him to a one-year deal with that understanding, and the value is in keeping pass-rush snaps cheap while the higher-ceiling options develop.
“This group needs Ezeiruaku and Lawrence to be honest contributors by October,” one observer noted. “Gary cannot carry 40 percent of the pass-rush snaps into November without something breaking down.
If those two are still in their adjustment phase in week eight, Dallas will be looking at the same 32nd-ranked defense it had in 2025, just with a different scheme name attached.”
Parker’s Scheme and Why It Matters More Than Headcount
The Cowboys finished 32nd in points allowed in 2025. Parker is installing a heavier 3-4 front built around Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark at defensive end, Otito Ogbonnia at nose, and edge rushers who can operate in space off the line.
The design is to create pre-snap uncertainty, not to rely on one player winning one-on-one matchups on every third down.
Schottenheimer has pointed to recent Eagles teams as a model, noting that neither Philadelphia squad that went deep in the playoffs had a pass rusher above eight individual sacks, but both generated consistent pressure by rotating through multiple threats.
Dallas’ interior is stronger than it has been in years. If the edge group can reach 10 percent pressure rate collectively and Parker’s scheme does what it is designed to do, the defense can function above its raw sack totals.
Both Lawrence and Ezeiruaku are on track for full participation at Oxnard, with mandatory minicamp beginning June 16.
Ezeiruaku has been working through individual drills at OTAs, with the coaching staff managing his load carefully as he recovers from the hip procedure.
For further context on where this group’s pressure numbers currently stack up, Inside The Star’s own breakdown of the Cowboys’ pass-rush gap maps each rusher’s finish rate and pressure rate in detail.
The Honest Assessment
This Cowboys pass rush will not win games by itself in 2026. It is not built to. It is built to be functional enough that an offense featuring CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, and Dak Prescott can operate without a 30-point deficit becoming routine by halftime.
“The most realistic version of this group is seven to nine sacks from Gary, six to eight from Ezeiruaku if he holds up, and four from Lawrence while he adjusts,” a fan who tracks edge-rusher analytics closely noted. “That is 20 combined from the top three. Dallas has not had a coherent starting point at edge since Parsons left. Having one is already different.”
Whether the depth holds, whether Lawrence progresses fast enough, and whether Parker’s scheme masks the individual limitations of this group are questions that will run through the first eight weeks of the season.
OTAs are voluntary and the sample size is small. But the direction is clearer than it has been in two years, and at this position, after two off-seasons of churn, that counts for something.
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