Some time back, in the early years of fantasy football, someone decided that it wasn’t fair for the offense to get all the glory. The IDP (Individual Defensive Players) leagues were born.
The punters were feeling a bit left out and they got added too.
Now that everyone finally got to join in, even the head coaches in some leagues, the size of league rosters and drafts, expanded. As did the pre-draft homework for fantasy owners.
As with the Cowboys’ offense, there are some automatic picks on the defensive side of the ball.
Micah Parsons should be among the first defenders to go in most draft formats. Depending on the league scoring, so should Osa Odighizuwa.
Marshawn Kneeland and Sam Williams will challenge Dante Fowler for the other edge spot on the defensive line.
The backfield is going to be where a lot of questions will be found for fantasy owners to answer pre-draft.
Who Will Rise?
Right now, the top three linebackers are, assuming Parsons will be more on the line than off, Kenneth Murray, Jack Sanborn, and Marist Liufau.
DeMarvion Overshown may not return from his second knee injury until around Thanksgiving Day. For leagues drafting later, they will have the advantage of seeing some preseason action before making any decisions.
In the defensive backfield, the safeties will probably be late round picks at best.
The cornerbacks are a little more chaotic right now.
DaRon Bland should be looked at early. Trevon Diggs is expected to start in Week 1 against the Eagles. If he looks good in camp, he too should go high in fantasy drafts.
Kaiir Elam, Caelen Carson, and Shavon Revel are late rounds, or in-season waiver wire acquisitions at best.
The IDP Sleeper Candidate
Working our way back to the defensive line is where we will find the sleeper pick for fantasy owners on the Cowboys’ roster. Specifically, at the defensive tackle slot next to Odighizuwa.
Mazi Smith, the 2023 first round pick, has not exactly invoked comparisons to Bob Lilly, Jethro Pugh, Randy White, or Russell Maryland with his play.
He did have a better season in 2024 than he did in his rookie year in 2023. But that was a ridiculously low bar to clear.
So don’t be surprised to see Smith getting dropped back to a back-up role if he fails to take the next step this fall.
That would open the door for Jay Toia, the Cowboys’ seventh round pick back in April.
Toia is already being looked at as pushing Smith and the Cowboys don’t even start training camp until next week.
If you have a pick to spare near the end of your IDP draft, consider taking Toia. You’ll thank me later.
a Dallas Cowboys fan, since the 70’s with players leaving through free agency and also through retirement furthermore with Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb eating up most of the Cowboys salary cap even I don’t know most of these young Cowboys players on the roster and Micah Parsons and George Pickens are next to eat even more of the Cowboys salary cap money
You don’t know most of the young players, because your not a Cowboys fan!! It’s not hard to learn who we have on the team…. All you have to do is be a fan and watch the NFL network or find sites that’s always talking about the Cowboys!! And so you know, we’ll have more cap room when Parsons signs his contract!!
We won’t know more about Toia until training camp, right? Just guess work now. He must have fundamental kinks if he fell to the 7th round, same for the other 7th rounder Akingbote. Cowboys have to feel insecure about their interior defensive line. Opening day, the Eagles will test that defense immediately by throwing their vaunted running game at them.
The only reason Jay Toia fell to the 7th round is because he don’t rush the passer too good!! He’s only good at stopping the run!! And he’s really good at that!! If he was just decent at rushing the passer, he would’ve been drafted a lot higher!! But he’s just a run stopping specialist!!
I like Jay Toia, but I don’t think he’ll take Mazis place!! He’ll probably just be the backup!! I think with Mazi getting his chance to play at the same weight for the 2nd year in a row, it’ll get him back to the way he played in college!! He went through a lot when he was drafted!! First that idiot Dan Quinn made Mazi lose a bunch of weight and play a different style than he’s used to playing, and then last year Mike Zimmer made him gain the weight back and go back to his normal playing style!! So he went from playing college at his normal weight, to playing with a big weight loss, and then back to his college weight in just 3 years, and that’s a lot for a young player to go through!! But this year he wasn’t told to change his weight again, so I think he’ll be a lot better this year just because he gets to play at the same weight as he did last year, and the weight he played at in college!! As you said, he played better last year than in his rookie year, and if you look, he got even better towards the end of the season, and I think it’s because he was playing at the weight he was used to playing at, and since he’s staying at that same weight, I think he’ll be even better this year!! Plus, it’ll help that he has a really good defensive line coach and one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL!! So I think all of that will be what makes him have his breakout year!!