There’s no question about where the Cowboys have put their focus in terms of roster building as of late.
By allocating a ridiculous amount of draft capital to their secondary, and spending first round picks on each level of the defense 3 of the past 4 years, Dallas is looking to build their next generation of “Doomsday.”
For years the Cowboys’ defense has “failed” their offense, often giving up an abundance of yards and touchdowns and keeping then-quarterback Tony Romo from winning the big games he’s so criticized for. Learning from their past mistakes the Cowboys have looked for ways to get younger, more athletic, longer, and overall nastier on their defense. They’ve attempted to become a stout pass defense with top tier edge rushers and talented cornerbacks.
And, for much of last season, there was reason to believe that the transformation is underway.
Both Chidobe Awuzie and Jourdan Lewis had excellent rookie seasons, and should be able to improve even further during their sophomore campaigns. DeMarcus Lawrence had a career year, leading the team with 14.5 sacks and forcing offenses to account for him week after week. Sean Lee continues to be a top tier linebacker when healthy, and the pieces around these marquee players have begun to perform as well.
This offseason, the Cowboys hired former Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Kris Richard to handle the job of “pass game coordinator” and secondary coach. Richard helped to coach the Legion of Boom to much success in Seattle, and brings with him an impressive pedigree of coaching up a secondary.
Richard, along with the other defensive coaches, have decided to move former first round pick Byron Jones to cornerback full time. And, when combining Jones with Awuzie on the boundary and Lewis in the slot, the Cowboys have their own impressive group of corners forming.
Plus, by drafting Leighton Vander Esch in the first round of the 2018 draft, and adding him to what we hope is a healthy group of Sean Lee and Jaylon Smith, the Cowboys have created an athletic and rangy group of linebackers to work with.
The Cowboys have put an emphasis on building their defense “the right way” in recent years. They appear to have the young pieces in place for a top ten type of defense in the near future. The question now becomes, how long will it take for them to reach this level?
For Jason Garrett’s sake, it might need to happen this year.
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I believe the Cowboys finished #8 in total defense last year. So being a top 10 defense in the near future doesn’t sound like a good objective. IMHO, a top 5 defense in total yards, points against, takeaways and sacks is where this defense needs to be to finally get some post season success.
Check you source, anything on Dallas official website is a lie, try using nfl.com or espn, anything that Dall
as writers are not paid to flat out lie to receive a paycheck. I posted espns top Defenses and Dallas was 18th out of 32 teams, How Elite is that , lol
I think we are making the same point, but you didn’t quite get it.
And not sure where you get your data, but I did check mine. Here it is.
http://www.espn.com/nfl/statistics/team/_/stat/total/position/defense
They finished ranked #8. Those rankings are for yards against. My point was that’s not a great stat, imo. I care more about takeaways, points against, 3rd down conv, etc. That’s where I think this defense has to get better if we are going to win another championship.
Ah, I think Championship , and the Dallas Cowboys should not be in the same sentence unless your are making a joke, because those to words together are very funny. IMO this year they finish 3rd just in the nfc-east, not counting the whole nfc as a group, which is loaded with teams much better then them. Dallas only has a one trick pony on offense, Zeke, Defense is suspect.
Interesting that you fail to mention a pass rush except by referring to Tank? They have quite a few pieces on the D line to work with, from Maliek Collins if healthy, Kony Ealy a nice FA addition, Gregory reinstated who mgiht be the best pure pass rusher besides Tank, Tapper may not even make the club, Covington & Armstrong as pure pass rush specialists, Taco hopefully in a better performance for year 2, Datone Jones, Jihad Ward are interesting additions, plus Irving comes back after a 2nd year of 1st 4 games suspended. So all told, might be a (VERY?) good unit. I still would like to see them draft a true 1 tech but Marinelli seems intent on refusing to invest a 1st round pick in what he deems a not too important position.
The D line has along way to go before it’s in the Eagles’ class.
Are you kidding me? You have a guy that’s proven nothing but the hype continues…….you have Lee who can’t stay on the field and now a new guy……yeah I’m thinking this D isn’t going to be anywhere near ‘elite’…..how much do they pay you to write this stuff?
Dallas was 18th out of 32 teams in 2017. http://www.espn.com/nfl/statistics/team/_/stat/defense, This is only Elite in the minds of Dallas writers, who have been writing this propaganda for 20 years with 2 playoffs wins to show for it, They write this garbage and get a paycheck and fans believe it is true, Lmao This is Elite Defense I would hate to see the worst Defenses. Im not an Eagles fan, I just hate being lied to every year for the last 2 decades.
Your source is for total tackles not total defense. They finished ranked #8, which is quite good, but yards against is a crappy judge of an elite defense, imo.