Archer: DL is where Cowboys should copy Seattle

Cotton

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DL is where Cowboys should copy Seattle

February, 4, 2014

By Todd Archer | ESPNDallas.com


IRVING, Texas -- In this copycat league that is the NFL, all of a sudden everybody needs tall and long conerbacks like Seattle’s Richard Sherman. One problem, there aren’t that many of those kinds of guys around.

Plus from a Dallas Cowboys’ perspective, they have already allocated their cornerback resources in Brandon Carr, Morris Claiborne and Orlando Scandrick. So scratch that possible remodel.

Where the Cowboys can attempt to emulate the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks is with their defensive line.

The Seahawks do what Rod Marinelli wants to do with the Cowboys. He just did not have enough quality players, rolling through 20 defensive linemen in 2013 because of injuries and poor play.

Seattle’s defensive line accounted for 33.5 sacks from eight players. The Cowboys defensive line had 29 sacks from six players.

Michael Bennett led the Seahawks with 8.5 sacks. Fellow free-agent pickup,Cliff Avril, was second with eight.Clinton McDonald had 5.5, and Chris Clemons had 4.5

Jason Hatcher led the Cowboys with 11, followed by George Selvie with seven and DeMarcus Ware with six. Kyle Wilber had two sacks from his defensive end spot before he was switched to outside linebacker later in the season, and Jarius Wynn had two sacks. Everette Brown added one sack.

The Cowboys want to rotate defensive linemen as much as possible to keep them fresh. That is a great approach when you have players worthy of being in the rotation. In the Super Bowl win against the Denver Broncos, the Seahawks had four linemen take at least 41 of 69 snaps, led by Bennett, who played 47. In the NFC Championship Game against theSan Francisco 49ers, they had four linemen take at least 31 of 55 snaps. In the divisional-round win against the New Orleans Saints, they had five linemen take at least 43 snaps.

That rotation kept opposing quarterbacks Peyton Manning, Colin Kaepernick and Drew Brees under pressure. The pressure could come from the inside or the outside. And it would come with mostly just four rushers, which allowed that back seven to be even more aggressive.

For far too long the Cowboys’ pass rush has been Ware and nobody else. This past season it was Hatcher, and sometimes Selvie and Ware. The Cowboys hope Tyrone Crawford can develop after missing last season with an Achilles injury, but the defensive line needs a ton of help.

For the Cowboys to make a jump in the defensive rankings -- forget being a top-five or 10 unit -- they need a better pass rush. For a better pass rush, they need better players. To get better players in free agency they need to hope the defensive line market is as slow as it was in 2013 when Bennett received a one-year, $5 million deal, and Avril received two years and $15 million from the Seahawks. That could allow Dallas to either keep Hatcher (unlikely), or get lucky with some other prove-it type deals. The easier way to get better players is the draft, but will the right players be available at the right time?

If the Cowboys get a better pass rush, their secondary will look a lot better.
 

Simpleton

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No f'ing shit, I wanted us to sign two of their DL who were free agents last year, of course they got reasonable deals and we didn't and/or couldn't but hey.
 

Donpingon

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The Giants and Seahawks both have shown that DL pressure wins Super Bowls
 

Plan9Misfit

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How can we be expected to sign d-linemen? You can't have steak on every plate. And we need to be sure to solidify those DB spots. Because you just can't have enough DBs. So who needs a pass rush and d-line run support when your DBs consist of Matt Johnson and stuff?
 

UncleMilti

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Archer forgets one big fact in spouting out numbers between the Cowboys and Seahawks. I bet most of the Seahawks sacks came when they needed it most, vs "shit time" sacks the Cowboys rack up (esp. Ware) when the game is already out of reach.
 

Texas Ace

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"Everywhere" is where the Cowboys should copy Seattle.
 

Cowboysrock55

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The Giants and Seahawks both have shown that DL pressure wins Super Bowls
And in the case of the Seahawks having the best secondary in all of football...

Their D-line isn't exactly packed with elite guys. What Seattle does have is a shit ton of depth to keep guys fresh. An approach every team wishes they could copy.
 

Smitty

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And in the case of the Seahawks having the best secondary in all of football...

Their D-line isn't exactly packed with elite guys. What Seattle does have is a shit ton of depth to keep guys fresh. An approach every team wishes they could copy.
They have a hard hitting, physical secondary for sure, but take note of where and how those DBs were acquired.

They have an elite safety in Thomas. Then they have a bunch of guys who were picked in the 4th-6th rounds. Seriously.... Sherman, Thurmond, Maxwell, Browner, Chancellor..... all late picks.

Some credit needs to go to the front office for finding these guys late, but you also have to realize where they invested their prime resources and how that is making the DBs look much better.

Unless you actually think that guys like Maxwell and Thurmond are better overall players than Carr, Claiborne, and Scandrick. I don't.

Meanwhile their DL is disgustingly deep. Their backups probably would have started here over anyone but Ware, and that's just because of his name, really. Also their LB corps has been heavily invested in with early picks in Wagner and Irvin.

No doubt they have good players littering their secondary, and perhaps most importantly they are all physical and good tacklers, but it just goes to show once again that if you prioritize the front 7, filling in your back 4 is so much easier. My point is, you put some of those DBs in Dallas and ask them to play the same physical style, they get flagged for interference and beat over the top time and time again.
 

P_T

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Ah yes... it's painfully obvious that this should be done (should have been done), unfortunately there is one gigantic flaw in this "plan". Even if Jones could identify where the problems are (which he can't), he does not possess the skill as a talent evaluator to properly address the problem, and finally, the organization's cap situation prevents them from making sufficient improvements even if he could navigate the first two (problems).

Jerry Jones is the hat-trick of FAIL.
 

Cowboysrock55

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They have a hard hitting, physical secondary for sure, but take note of where and how those DBs were acquired.

They have an elite safety in Thomas. Then they have a bunch of guys who were picked in the 4th-6th rounds. Seriously.... Sherman, Thurmond, Maxwell, Browner, Chancellor..... all late picks.

Some credit needs to go to the front office for finding these guys late, but you also have to realize where they invested their prime resources and how that is making the DBs look much better.

Unless you actually think that guys like Maxwell and Thurmond are better overall players than Carr, Claiborne, and Scandrick. I don't.

Meanwhile their DL is disgustingly deep. Their backups probably would have started here over anyone but Ware, and that's just because of his name, really. Also their LB corps has been heavily invested in with early picks in Wagner and Irvin.

No doubt they have good players littering their secondary, and perhaps most importantly they are all physical and good tacklers, but it just goes to show once again that if you prioritize the front 7, filling in your back 4 is so much easier. My point is, you put some of those DBs in Dallas and ask them to play the same physical style, they get flagged for interference and beat over the top time and time again.
Red Bryant 4th round pick
McDaniel Undrafted
Mebane 3rd round pick
Clemons undrafted

Backups
Michael Bennett Undrafted
Cliff Avril 3rd round pick (Free Agent)

Yeah not exactly a D-line of top resources like you make it sound. In fact the Seahawks have invested very little in their D-line financially speaking and in terms of draft picks.

The lone first rounder in their starting front 7 in Bruce Irvin was a relative nonfactor this year registering 2 regular season sacks and 0 post season sacks.

Anyone that knows anything about that Seattle defense knows it is built around the talented secondary.
 
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boozeman

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Red Bryant 4th round pick
McDaniel Undrafted
Mebane 3rd round pick
Clemons undrafted

Backups
Michael Bennett Undrafted
Cliff Avril 3rd round pick (Free Agent)

Yeah not exactly a D-line of top resources like you make it sound. In fact the Seahawks have invested very little in their D-line financially speaking and in terms of draft picks.

The lone first rounder in their starting front 7 in Bruce Irvin was a relative nonfactor this year registering 2 regular season sacks and 0 post season sacks.

Anyone that knows anything about that Seattle defense knows it is built around the talented secondary.
They invested money and draft picks, in numbers to sign players like McDaniel, Bennett and Avril in free agency. They traded for McDonald. They drafted replacements last April for who they will lose on the DL in free agency with a third (Jordan Hill) and a fifth (Jesse Williams). All of these were paired with Mebane, Clemons and Bryant.

Our investment in the DL? Paying out the ass for Ware, franchising Spencer twice, drafting Tyrone Crawford in the second round two years ago. Our drafted DL in the last five plus years are Hatcher eight years ago, a supplemental pick on Josh Brent in 2010 and Sean Lissemore in the seventh in 2010 who we dumped because he did not fit the scheme (after signing to a decent extension). Everyone else on the roster on the DL to start the season was an undrafted free agent.

I know I wanted DL help even when only had a three man line. Yet we kept paying Spears and Ratliff every year.

Seattle's defense may be built partially by the secondary, but they are not trading away 2nd round picks for dorks like Claiborne, paying Brandon Carr $100 million and throwing away picks on guys that can't play like Matt Johnson and B.W. Webb. I won't even get into the other seven draft choices we have spent in the back four since 2009 that are barely starters or reserves elsewhere or aren't even in the league.
 

Carp

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The bad thing is that I don't see this as a particularly good class of DL. There are some guys, but this group doesn't do much for me.
 

boozeman

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The bad thing is that I don't see this as a particularly good class of DL. There are some guys, but this group doesn't do much for me.
There are no marquee names after Clowney, but there are players in the class if you know what you are looking for to fit the scheme.
 

Carp

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There are no marquee names after Clowney, but there are players in the class if you know what you are looking for to fit the scheme.
Sure, but guys like Donald, Hageman, and Sutton could go much higher than they normally would. Jernigan too.
 

boozeman

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What we really need to do is after Garrett is fired go after Dan Quinn to be the HC. He took over the scheme from Gus Bradley and they did not miss a beat and in fact, got even better.

All in all, if you want to "copy" Seattle's defense get a few more young hungry no name players looking to make money. Aside from Sherman, who is a big name? Moreover, the highest paid player is Red Bryant, believe it or not.

Get aggressive players who have a chip on their shoulder and play like they have something to prove. That is one thing, to a man, all of these players said. They wanted to prove they were the best and went out there and knocked the shit out of Denver, and pretty much everyone else they played this year.
 

boozeman

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Sure, but guys like Donald, Hageman, and Sutton could go much higher than they normally would. Jernigan too.
So what? What are you going to do? Wait for a "better year"?

But gosh, it seems every year is a great year for WRs and CBs though.

Sorry, I don't buy that. You see a lot of "stacked" classes that end up being far less than they were touted.
 

Carp

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So what? What are you going to do? Wait for a "better year"?

But gosh, it seems every year is a great year for WRs and CBs though.

Sorry, I don't buy that. You see a lot of "stacked" classes that end up being far less than they were touted.
I didn't say that at all. The point more was that, to me anyways, this is a tough class to get healthy on.
 
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