Post by prossman on Mar 22, 2015 14:22:50 GMT -7
New Look Cowboys Defense Cooking Up Trouble
Posted on March 22, 2015 by Nicholas Welp 0 Comments
Corey-White
Time to revisit the Cowboy’s kitchen and see what’s cooking up on defense. They lost a bunch of linebackers, signed a bunch of linebackers, gained a premier pass rusher with a checkered past, lost a cornerback with a lot of snaps under his belt, and claimed another cornerback off of Rob Ryan’s defensive squad.
Jasper Brinkley has a good chance to start in Dallas. ProFootballFocus gave Brinkley a +2.5 on the year for 2014. Fans of Minnesotta favored his return as a 2-down run stuffer, which will be his role in Dallas. He’ll come off the field on 3rd down when another cornerback comes on. He’s not the playmaker Rolando McClain is.
Rolando McClain remains unsigned and may as well be over the rainbow. He has a jury trial coming up, his house was burned down by an arsonist, he accumulated a few injuries as the season progressed, and he has a history of being out of football shape. Dallas can wait; while having a healthy McClain for a full season would be dynamic no other team is rushing out to sign the mercurial player.
Safety Keelan Johnson was a quiet signing back in January. He too had some trouble with the law. As an UDFA he had played two games with the Eagles but spent 2014 out of Football. He was a draftable senior captain who was 2nd on his team in tackles and 1st in interceptions, and 11th in the country in ints. He is currently the fourth safety.
Corey White graded out like a bottom of the NFL cornerback while playing for New Orleans. He has experience at every position, but he’s struggled to hold up against the demands of playing cornerback after three years in the NFL. He played college ball at Samford so his best football might be ahead of him.
If Marinelli can get the 6’1 205 lbs cornerback to play, he’d be an outstanding reclamation. Coming out of college most scouts believed he’d be a safety in the NFL, but his size at corner was too desirable for New Orleans to make the switch. He was a starting cornerback who was replaced; despite that he has experience at safety and slot cornerback. Dallas may chose to see him at a couple DB spots, but he needs time to hone his technique for whatever position they chose.
Signing Greg Hardy was a coup. Dallas doesn’t just add a significant contributor, they take him away from the rest of the league. Dallas will still need a pass rush when Hardy is suspended, but he should be ready for the most important games of the year at the end of the season. On the field he’s a potential All Pro, and is only twenty six years old.
Strongside Defensive End: Greg Hardy, Kenneth Boatright
One Tech: Nick Hayden, Terrell McClain, Josh Brent, Amobe Okoye, Chris Whaley
Three Tech: Tyrone Crawford, Ken Bishop, Davon Coleman
Weakside Defensive End: DeMarcus Lawrence, Jeremy Mincey
Weakside Linebacker: Sean Lee, Keith Rivers, Keith Smith
Middle Linebacker: Jasper Brinkley, Cameron Lawrence
Strongside Linebacker: Anthony Hitchens, Kyle Wilber, Andrew Gachkar, Dekoda Watson
Left Cornerback: Brandon Carr, Corey White
Strong Safety: J.J. Wilcox, Jeff Heath
Free Safety: Barry Church, Keelan Johnson
Right Cornerback: Orlando Scandrick, Tyler Patmon
We’ll See: Morris Claiborne
With this roster, the needs start at cornerback. At the end of the game, in nickel defense, who is the third cornerback: Corey White or Tyler Patmon. Dallas likes those two for their potential but the Cowboys need a player who won’t cost them games in the meantime. There are players into the fourth round, like Doran Grant, Josh Shaw and Alex Carter, who could play this position. Byron Jones is regarded as similar to those three players, but he’s not on my board right now.
Dallas could upgrade it’s roster most quickly at MLB and One Tech. Since there are so few established 43 Mikes in the 250+ lbs range, expect Dallas to be looking at the multitude of good linebacker prospects in the lower weight class with great speed.
This draft has strong options early like Denzel Perryman and Benardrick McKinney who could step in and play the Mike right away with some excitement. In the middle of the draft players like Hayes Pullard or Stephone Anthony could also develop into those kind of players. Later round players like Reshard Cliett and Cameron Nwosu played at small schools, but have good athletic traits. Nwosu went to SMU and is likely to be at Dallas day. All these players project more position flex than a Mike-only player like Jasper Brinkley.
At one tech Amobe Okoye and Chris Whaley are options returning from injury. They also have three tech traits, but won’t supplant Tyrone Crawford. Dallas enjoys incumbent one tech starter Hayden’s run defense but he’s rarely pressured the QB.
While players weighing 320 lbs or more like Iowa DT Carl Davis seem ideal at the one, Marinelli has rarely used players weighing more than 300. The heaviest DT to play under Marinelli in the last five years was a 315 lbs player on the bottom of Chicago’s 2011 roster, before Josh Brent returned to Dallas weighing 320 lbs. There’s a handful of 308 lbs players with Marinelli, but it’s not his normal to go for a 320 lbs player like Iowa’s Carl Davis or a 342 lbs player like Washington’s Danny Shelton.
Malcom Brown of Texas could be the highest rated DT on Dallas’ board. He looks ideal for Marinelli except that at 319 lbs he’d be one of the heaviest DTs the coach went out of his way to acquire. He’s seen as fast and graceful as 320 lbs DTs go, has shown the speed to be a three, and power to play one.
In the second Dallas could look to Mario Edwards, a player with traits similar to Tyrone Crawford. Michael Bennett of Ohio State next is like a more athletic Nick Hayden and may be better suited to start right away at the one. Gabe Wright of Georgia and Grady Garrett of Auburn fit Dallas’ template in the the 4th and will probably rise as defensive linemen. Xavier Cooper and Marcus Hardison may be available in the fifth.
Defensive tackle is deep with players like Louis Trinca-Pasat, the lesser known defensive tackle from Iowa, fitting Dallas’ template and expected to be available as late as the 6th round. At 6’2 and 290 lbs, he’s far closer to the Cowboys’ prototype than his teammate Davis is. All he did in college was rack up sacks, leading his team with eight tackles for a loss as a senior.
Dallas could acquire three starters on defense just by drafting to those positions. None of the incumbents are so secure they could hold off a promising rookie. Two of these spots, the MLB and the DT, focus on run defense and may not need a high draft pick to get a good player.
I’m @nickwelp on Twitter and AustonianAggie in the comments.