Archer: Cowboys' defensive line is thinning out even more

Cowboys' defensive line is thinning out even more
11:08 PM CT
Todd Archer
ESPN Staff Writer

IRVING, Texas – Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli is choosing to take a positive view on the state of the defensive line.

On Tuesday, defensive end Benson Mayowa had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. The Cowboys are optimistic he will be back for the start of training camp or not long thereafter. Three weeks ago rookie defensive tackle Maliek Collins suffered a broken foot in the first organized team activity; he could be out until the start of the season.

“Get them out of the way now,” Marinelli said of the injuries, “and get ready to go.”

But in addition to the injuries, he will have to contend with the four-game absence of Randy Gregory because of a suspension. Last year’s leader in sacks, DeMarcus Lawrence, is also facing a four-game suspension.

Marinelli hopes this is not a precursor to another 2013. In his first year with the Cowboys, he rolled through 19 different defensive linemen because of injury, ineffectiveness or both. It would be an even 20 if you count linebacker Kyle Wilber as a defensive end because he saw some time as a pass-rusher.

When the Cowboys lined up defensively Tuesday the defensive line consisted of Jack Crawford, Tyrone Crawford, Cedric Thornton and Ryan Russell.

Marinelli isn’t taking a what-me-worry approach to the defensive line. He’s just waiting for training camp to start before making any real judgments.

“It's just better in pads,” Marinelli said. “When I see it in pads, then it's just a different game. I try not to over-evaluate and teach. And then evaluation comes in camp.”

The Cowboys signed Mayowa as a restricted free agent on a three-year deal worth $8.25 million. He has just two career sacks, but they saw in him the potential to be a contributor and perhaps even start the first week. Depending on his recovery he could still start Week 1 against the New York Giants.

Despite the injuries and suspensions, the Cowboys aren’t ready to explore the free-agent market just yet.

"I think we've created competitive situations on our defensive line,” coach Jason Garrett said. “Now a couple of these guys have been injured over the course of OTAs and have not been available to us, but we're confident these guys will be back. We have a couple of situations where we're dealing with suspensions at the outset of the season. But we like the guys we put together and we like the competition that's going on out there, guys competing for playing time.”

Somehow Marinelli made it work with multiple pieces in 2013. With the way 2016 has started, he might have to make it work again.

Getting real tired of Marinelli.

He should be bitching up and down to get talent in here for the DL, which is his supposed specialty.

Instead, he is content with a bunch of injured no-talent slobs.

All I know is I want a coach with passion, a guy that wants to win. Not one that "hopes he can" and especially one as damn close as he is to retirement.

boozeman said:

Getting real tired of Marinelli.

He should be bitching up and down to get talent in here for the DL, which is his supposed specialty.

Instead, he is content with a bunch of injured no-talent slobs.

All I know is I want a coach with passion, a guy that wants to win. Not one that "hopes he can" and especially one as damn close as he is to retirement.

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Not much we can do now.

In the last 3 draft we've spent two 2nd's, a high 3rd and high 4th on the DL, on top of Crawford and signing Thornton. The investment hasn't been bad, it's just that right now we have dickheads 1 and 2 suspended for the first 4 games.

Lawrence/Thornton/Crawford/Gregory/Tapper/Collins/Crawford/Irving/Russell is a damn fine rotation to me, the problem is that most of those guys are unrealiable due to injury or idiocy.

Simpleton said:

Lawrence/Thornton/Crawford/Gregory/Tapper/Collins/Crawford/Irving/Russell is a damn fine rotation to me, the problem is that most of those guys are unrealiable due to injury or idiocy.

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You are reading a lot of potential into Lawrence and Gregory as our starting DEs and Crawford starting and remaining effective for an entire season.

This is what happens when you keep taking shortcuts and burning picks to reach.

2nd and 3rd for Lawrence because we had to have a pass rusher.
2nd for Gregory because the "price justified the risk", despite his total freefall
3rd for Crawford, who can't stay healthy.

No instead of recognizing the DL as the most important investment on defense, we trade a 1st and 2nd for Claiborne, passing on a guy 10x more impactful in Cox or even Poe. Or we take a born DE or 3T like Ratliff and make him play NT.

Leon Lett was our last bonafide stud interior lineman playing the position he was meant to. Since then Jerry has believed he'll always be able to find guys like him in the 7th round, ignoring the fact that Tony Casillas was the 2nd overall pick and Russell Maryland was the 1st overall.

Our approach to building is over-eager, lazy, dumb, and stubborn. It's how we always end up with the Kavika Pittmans of the world when if we just stood pat we'd have had Tony Brackens instead.

Simpleton said:

Not much we can do now.

In the last 3 draft we've spent two 2nd's, a high 3rd and high 4th on the DL, on top of Crawford and signing Thornton. The investment hasn't been bad, it's just that right now we have dickheads 1 and 2 suspended for the first 4 games.

Lawrence/Thornton/Crawford/Gregory/Tapper/Collins/Crawford/Irving/Russell is a damn fine rotation to me, the problem is that most of those guys are unrealiable due to injury or idiocy.

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You are right there isn't much that can be done now, but going forward, they probably need to stick to the scouts saying who are the best DL versus Old Rod.

I think the guy can talk a good game and impress kids coming into the league, but you can't field a quality DL doing that by piecemeal.

Simpleton said:

Lawrence/Thornton/Crawford/Gregory/Tapper/Collins/Crawford/Irving/Russell is a damn fine rotation to me

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Really?

Anyway, I don't blame Marinelli for the talent they don't bring in. I can't imagine any coach doesn't want as much talent as he can get. Not his fault if the Joneses (including Garrett) don't do it.

Chocolate Lab said:

Really?

Anyway, I don't blame Marinelli for the talent they don't bring in. I can't imagine any coach doesn't want as much talent as he can get. Not his fault if the Joneses (including Garrett) don't do it.

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Yes, Lawrence has been a plus player since he came back from the injury. Sealed the playoff game in Detroit, had a sack against Green Bay, 8 sacks last year despite playing on a defense that was often behind. Crawford had 5 sacks last year with a jacked up shoulder, dude was benching less than me, think about that. Thornton is a legit starting DT. I feel good about J. Crawford as depth, as well as guys like Irving, Mayowa, Collins and Tapper but clearly those are projections moreso than Crawford.

Gregory of course is the biggest question mark and whether or not the rookies/Russell/Irving/Mayowa can develop into rotational pieces or even starters.

There are plenty of question marks but if those guys are on the field, healthy, not suspended, I feel good about them as a group.

Now, if we were the NY Jets I wouldn't feel good about that DL but with our OL, running game and offense in general, that DL is more than good enough if we get the type of offensive performance that we expect.

boozeman said:

You are right there isn't much that can be done now, but going forward, they probably need to stick to the scouts saying who are the best DL versus Old Rod.

I think the guy can talk a good game and impress kids coming into the league, but you can't field a quality DL doing that by piecemeal.

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I don't understand your angst against Marinelli who have we passed over because he did not want him?

He did not want Floyd and we came out way ahead on that, we could have had a DT in the 2nd but Garrett was hell bent on getting a TE.

I just don't understand how Marinelli has been at fault?

Simpleton said:

Yes, Lawrence has been a plus player since he came back from the injury. Sealed the playoff game in Detroit, had a sack against Green Bay, 8 sacks last year despite playing on a defense that was often behind. Crawford had 5 sacks last year with a jacked up shoulder, dude was benching less than me, think about that. Thornton is a legit starting DT. I feel good about J. Crawford as depth, as well as guys like Irving, Mayowa, Collins and Tapper but clearly those are projections moreso than Crawford.

Gregory of course is the biggest question mark and whether or not the rookies/Russell/Irving/Mayowa can develop into rotational pieces or even starters.

There are plenty of question marks but if those guys are on the field, healthy, not suspended, I feel good about them as a group.

Now, if we were the NY Jets I wouldn't feel good about that DL but with our OL, running game and offense in general, that DL is more than good enough if we get the type of offensive performance that we expect.

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No kidding, it's a building process and we have been putting young talented pieces on the D-line over the course of the last 3 drafts. Now it's time to actually start seeing some of that develop. People have no patience, it's like if the guy doesn't produce big as a rookie fans are ready to move on. The pieces are getting put together and if not for suspensions I would have really high hopes for the D-line this year. I really like the talent we have put together through the draft.

Cowboysrock55 said:

No kidding, it's a building process and we have been putting young talented pieces on the D-line over the course of the last 3 drafts. Now it's time to actually start seeing some of that develop. People have no patience, it's like if the guy doesn't produce big as a rookie fans are ready to move on. The pieces are getting put together and if not for suspensions I would have really high hopes for the D-line this year. I really like the talent we have put together through the draft.

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I think that we're in the long hot months of the offseason makes everyone feel impatient, they really just want something to change, but since nothing important is going to happen in football but injuries, it's just a lot of anxiety. Everything will seem less dire once Marinelli's fielding a mediocre defense with sub par talent, again.

Simpleton said:

Now, if we were the NY Jets I wouldn't feel good about that DL but with our OL, running game and offense in general, that DL is more than good enough if we get the type of offensive performance that we expect.

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But that's a different argument. Yes, we do have a DL that might be *good enough* if the offense carries the team and constantly puts up big leads. But that doesn't make them a damn fine defensive line like some teams around the league.

I think we've been so bad for so long up front that anything decent starts to look good.

Chocolate Lab said:

But that's a different argument. Yes, we do have a DL that might be *good enough* if the offense carries the team and constantly puts up big leads. But that doesn't make them a damn fine defensive line like some teams around the league.

I think we've been so bad for so long up front that anything decent starts to look good.

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I think we just have no idea what this D-line is yet. They clearly weren't "there" last year. But we have a strong youth movement taking place on the D-line. You're talking about very talented young D-lineman progressing and developing. It's easy to just say, well they aren't "good enough" but no one knows that yet. They may end up being wonderful if they can keep their asses out of suspension.

Chocolate Lab said:

But that's a different argument. Yes, we do have a DL that might be *good enough* if the offense carries the team and constantly puts up big leads. But that doesn't make them a damn fine defensive line like some teams around the league.

I think we've been so bad for so long up front that anything decent starts to look good.

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Yes, but when I'm looking at our personnel decisions I do it with the assumption that our offense will be roughly what it was in 2014. We had far less talent on our DL, and the defense in general in 2014.

Of course our DL can't carry our team like some can but our roster isn't built that way, and when next offseason rolls around DL will surely be at the top of my needs list.

We've been DL focused and rightly so, but the linebacking corps is definitely lacking.

Lee is the leader and a critical cog. I'm hoping Thornton's addition helps him. Every team would be proud to have a healthy Sean Lee. But the health...

McClain, Hitchens, Gachkar, Wilber, Wilson... yuck. No wonder they're cutting McClain all kinds of slack. That's not a good group and certainly not a reliable one.

ravidubey said:

We've been DL focused and rightly so, but the linebacking corps is definitely lacking.

Lee is the leader and a critical cog. I'm hoping Thornton's addition helps him. Every team would be proud to have a healthy Sean Lee. But the health...

McClain, Hitchens, Gachkar, Wilber, Wilson... yuck. No wonder they're cutting McClain all kinds of slack. That's not a good group and certainly not a reliable one.

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That is a decent LB corps...not sure what you are whining about.

Carp said:

That is a decent LB corps...not sure what you are whining about.

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If you say so Carp. I'm keeping fingers crossed that Lee doesn't get hurt and McClain can keep his shit together at least in our most important games. Hitchens should improve, but overall that starting group is thin and I feel will rarely play together healthy.

Hitchens is underrated...he is a legit starter. McClain keeps coming back...you just have to hope with time comes maturity. He still flashes and is supremely talented. Wilson is a guy I think can develop.

The reality is our long-term future at LB is based on Smith...I really hope he can come back to what he was...he jumped off the screen...when he was talked about as the top prospect for this draft they were right.