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Cowboys VP Stephen Jones: Pass rush cost us a chance at title last season; Why this year's unit is different
SportsDayDFW.com Follow @SportsDayDFW
Published: 03 August 2015 07:04 PM
Updated: 03 August 2015 07:04 PM
Dallas Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones joined the Ben and Skin show on KRLD-FM (105.3) for an interview Monday. Here are some highlights:
On how difficult it will be for La’el Collins to break through and earn playing time on Cowboys’ offensive line:
Jones: “You know, I was talking to some of the leadership on our team, and obviously Ron Leary, if you were to rate him, is an above average…he’s a good football player and would start for, I would think, any team in the NFL at the guard position. That’s obviously who he’s competing against because the other guy’s an all-pro, Zack Martin. Certainly, I can tell you Ron Leary ain’t gonna give that spot up without a big fight. He wants to keep his spot. That type of competition is great for this football team. We’ve got some really good depth in the offensive line, it’s a little disappointing that Chaz Green isn’t out there, because I think he’d be pushing Doug [Free]. Doug’s the leader of that group, I don’t want anyone to take that out of context, he’s going to be our starting right tackle this year, but he certainly would’ve seen a young Chaz Green as someone there that would’ve pushed him day in and day out. Certainly a guy like Darrion Weems is doing something like that with what he’s doing out there, so we’ve got some real depth in our offensive line there, certainly the top five as a unit are one of the best in the NFL and certainly they’re getting pushed. It is great to see those individual battles out there. They’re going on everywhere out there. The running back position, a spirited battle out there between [Joseph] Randle and [Lance[ Dunbar. It’s going to be interesting to see how this works out here in training camp.”
On Charles Haley working with Randy Gregory, defensive linemen:
Jones: “Well, when you put ‘HOF’ beside their name, that says all you need to say. People have explained that a little bit to Randy. He doesn’t quite know how to take Charles and he was probably a little before his time, but I think he slowly but surely figured out that Charles knows what he’s talking about. Certainly one of the best to ever play. He’s a champion, he’s as big a champion as there is probably in the history of the game. I think he’s one of few players to have five Super Bowl rings. To boot, he made a big contribution to each one of those, having over a hundred sacks in his career. To get to have a guy like that out there teaching guys – he’s certainly got a passion for how to rush the passer, and that’s certainly something that we’ve got to get better at. At the end of the day, it’s probably what cost us a chance to win a championship last year, we just didn’t quite have the pass rush we needed to stop an Aaron Rodgers when we needed to stop him or make the play that needed to be made when you’re trying to win a Super Bowl, so these guys are getting a lot of good teaching. Rod Marinelli is one of the best in the business, you’ve got Leon Lett, who’s certainly a Cowboys legend in his own right. It’s just a great group of guys out there helping these young guys hopefully get better at rushing the passer.”
How last year’s defensive line compares to this year’s on paper:
Jones: “I’d start by just looking at the new faces. You look at a guy like Greg Hardy or Randy Gregory, you just start with those two right there is a huge difference. Then you take a DeMarcus Lawrence, where he’s come in a short period of time. He’s totally redeveloped his body and is probably the perfect left end. You talk to Jason Witten about him, his eyes light up. He’s the real deal, DeMarcus Lawrence is. He’s strong, he reminds a lot of us around here of Tony Tolbert in our heyday. Just a hard playing guy. Obviously a guy like Tyrone Crawford is coming into his own. You just look at these young guys who are coming, and coming fast, compared to what we were trying to get it done with last year, we’ve just improved on paper a lot. Now we’ve got to have it translate to the field, and at the end of the day, have it translate into more wins and a chance to win a championship.”
On what position he would list Byron Jones at:
Jones: “That’s a good question. I think it’s one of those slashes – cornerback/free safety. That was truthfully, and I know you can get in trouble doing this, but that was one of the big reasons we drafted him, too. We really felt like he really brought versatility to the table. He played free safety at UConn his first two years of college, did a hell of a job doing it, then moved over and has already shown us he can play press corner. So he does bring a lot of versatility to the table and we’ll see how that works out.”
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That's nice but how come they didn't make an attempt to do more there than they did?
SportsDayDFW.com Follow @SportsDayDFW
Published: 03 August 2015 07:04 PM
Updated: 03 August 2015 07:04 PM
Dallas Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones joined the Ben and Skin show on KRLD-FM (105.3) for an interview Monday. Here are some highlights:
On how difficult it will be for La’el Collins to break through and earn playing time on Cowboys’ offensive line:
Jones: “You know, I was talking to some of the leadership on our team, and obviously Ron Leary, if you were to rate him, is an above average…he’s a good football player and would start for, I would think, any team in the NFL at the guard position. That’s obviously who he’s competing against because the other guy’s an all-pro, Zack Martin. Certainly, I can tell you Ron Leary ain’t gonna give that spot up without a big fight. He wants to keep his spot. That type of competition is great for this football team. We’ve got some really good depth in the offensive line, it’s a little disappointing that Chaz Green isn’t out there, because I think he’d be pushing Doug [Free]. Doug’s the leader of that group, I don’t want anyone to take that out of context, he’s going to be our starting right tackle this year, but he certainly would’ve seen a young Chaz Green as someone there that would’ve pushed him day in and day out. Certainly a guy like Darrion Weems is doing something like that with what he’s doing out there, so we’ve got some real depth in our offensive line there, certainly the top five as a unit are one of the best in the NFL and certainly they’re getting pushed. It is great to see those individual battles out there. They’re going on everywhere out there. The running back position, a spirited battle out there between [Joseph] Randle and [Lance[ Dunbar. It’s going to be interesting to see how this works out here in training camp.”
On Charles Haley working with Randy Gregory, defensive linemen:
Jones: “Well, when you put ‘HOF’ beside their name, that says all you need to say. People have explained that a little bit to Randy. He doesn’t quite know how to take Charles and he was probably a little before his time, but I think he slowly but surely figured out that Charles knows what he’s talking about. Certainly one of the best to ever play. He’s a champion, he’s as big a champion as there is probably in the history of the game. I think he’s one of few players to have five Super Bowl rings. To boot, he made a big contribution to each one of those, having over a hundred sacks in his career. To get to have a guy like that out there teaching guys – he’s certainly got a passion for how to rush the passer, and that’s certainly something that we’ve got to get better at. At the end of the day, it’s probably what cost us a chance to win a championship last year, we just didn’t quite have the pass rush we needed to stop an Aaron Rodgers when we needed to stop him or make the play that needed to be made when you’re trying to win a Super Bowl, so these guys are getting a lot of good teaching. Rod Marinelli is one of the best in the business, you’ve got Leon Lett, who’s certainly a Cowboys legend in his own right. It’s just a great group of guys out there helping these young guys hopefully get better at rushing the passer.”
How last year’s defensive line compares to this year’s on paper:
Jones: “I’d start by just looking at the new faces. You look at a guy like Greg Hardy or Randy Gregory, you just start with those two right there is a huge difference. Then you take a DeMarcus Lawrence, where he’s come in a short period of time. He’s totally redeveloped his body and is probably the perfect left end. You talk to Jason Witten about him, his eyes light up. He’s the real deal, DeMarcus Lawrence is. He’s strong, he reminds a lot of us around here of Tony Tolbert in our heyday. Just a hard playing guy. Obviously a guy like Tyrone Crawford is coming into his own. You just look at these young guys who are coming, and coming fast, compared to what we were trying to get it done with last year, we’ve just improved on paper a lot. Now we’ve got to have it translate to the field, and at the end of the day, have it translate into more wins and a chance to win a championship.”
On what position he would list Byron Jones at:
Jones: “That’s a good question. I think it’s one of those slashes – cornerback/free safety. That was truthfully, and I know you can get in trouble doing this, but that was one of the big reasons we drafted him, too. We really felt like he really brought versatility to the table. He played free safety at UConn his first two years of college, did a hell of a job doing it, then moved over and has already shown us he can play press corner. So he does bring a lot of versatility to the table and we’ll see how that works out.”
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That's nice but how come they didn't make an attempt to do more there than they did?
