DeMarcus Lawrence, Cowboys excited about return
October, 22, 2014
By Todd Archer | ESPNDallas.com
IRVING, Texas -- The trade deadline is Oct. 28, but the Dallas Cowboys already feel like they have a big acquisition on the way in rookie defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence.
Lawrence will begin his second week of practice on Thursday as he works his way back from a broken right foot suffered in training camp and can make his season debut Nov. 2 against the Arizona Cardinals.
On 105.3 The Fan in Dallas on Tuesday, owner and general manager Jerry Jones said Lawrence had “everybody frothing at the mouth,” at practice last week. The Cowboys placed Lawrence on short-term injured reserve, which knocked him out of the first eight games, but allowed him to get 100 percent healthy after surgery.
The Cowboys have an obvious need for a pass rusher with only seven sacks in seven games. Coach Jason Garrett acknowledged the pass rush was not good in the win against the New York Giants and must improve as the season goes on.
“You have to win one-on-one rushes,” Garrett said. “You have to get more pressure with your down guys. Maybe it’s one-on-one rushes, maybe it’s rush games, maybe it’s bringing people. i don’t think we did a good enough job affecting the quarterback in [Sunday’s] game. You talk all you want about not having any sacks but you also have to affect the guy. I thought they did a pretty good job in their passing game getting the ball out quickly. We didn’t get a chance to get to the quarterback and disrupt the passing game as much as we liked. There were some good individual efforts, and at times we did a good job in that area, but we continue to have to improve there. It’s a really important part of playing good defense.”
That’s where Lawrence comes in. The Cowboys gave up their second- and third-round picks to the Washington Redskins in order to move up to the 34th pick in the second round to take Lawrence. He was their third-rated right defensive end in the draft behind Jadeveon Clowney and Anthony Barr, who went first and ninth overall, respectively.
Lawrence had 20 sacks in two years at Boise State and was having a productive camp until getting hurt in a pass rush drill against Tyron Smith.
“Just working on my movement, getting back into it so at times I felt a little rusty, but then again I felt like I never left, if you know what I mean,” Lawrence said of his practice work last week. “It’s really just getting back into football shape.”
Lawrence said his foot has not given him any issues in his rehab, and the time in the weight room has made him stronger.
“I feel like I put on at least 10 pounds basically just working out every day. That’s all I could do,” Lawrence said. “I feel like I’ve gotten a lot stronger and in some way I feel like I ain’t lost my step either. It’s a good feeling I have about coming back.”