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By Bob Sturm 1h ago
The Cowboys had not even played a single play in 2020 when their depth was tested. Given the weirdness of the entire preseason — one that included the Cowboys having an “open practice” where no players wore numbers on their uniforms to protect any secrets that might have existed — the pregame reports left many scrambling for information right before kickoff. In pregame, it was revealed that the starter at right tackle was a player who was a longshot to even make the roster, Terence Steele. Steele was an undrafted rookie from Texas Tech who surely had a chance to be one of many developmental kids on the practice squad, but now he would be starting in place of right tackle La’el Collins in his first NFL game without the benefit of even one preseason game to simulate live fire.
Steele gave it his best effort in 2020, but he also would only have five players on the entire roster who would play more snaps than he did in 2020. A player most were shocked to see make the roster would play the sixth-most snaps on the team.
By the end of October, the Cowboys also were without Tyron Smith at left tackle, Blake Jarwin at tight end, Dak Prescott at quarterback, and center Joe Looney would not remain in the same spot. Then Zack Martin went down in November. At one point Dallas had borderline roster players starting everywhere on offense except the skill positions on the outside. And here is the thing about that: When you have a borderline roster player at quarterback, then your skill position players quickly diminish in ability, too. If you can’t get them the ball, they cease to be as dangerous.
Meanwhile, on defense, similar value was lost at many spots — and they were ill-prepared at still others. By the end of the season, 25 defenders played at least 180 snaps in the 2020 season for Mike Nolan. And while a number approaching 18 or so is normal, 25 is a sign of bad evaluations, poor health and substandard performances. All that happened in 2020.
Depth was tested again and again — and among the things that failed in Mike McCarthy’s first season was that there was not excellent and quality depth to be found.
The good teams have it, but how? If the good teams pay their top players the top salaries, then we can easily find several teams that attempt to field top-heavy rosters. Some go too far, but others win Super Bowls, so having well-compensated superstars is not a detriment at all. But, realities dictate that a top-paid QB can exceed 20 percent of a salary cap. If you take the top-10 paid players on a roster you will often exceed 60-65 percent of the cap with those players. That seems absurd to try to pay the other 50 players with just 35 percent of your cap and expect to have any depth whatsoever.
The Cowboys hit at about 60 percent of the cap for their top-10 players, but the depth was still poor last season. The odd part is that we could argue that they never had a chance because their tackle position was hit repeatedly with injuries that had them playing their fifth and sixth tackles when most NFL teams never even carry more than four. So, the point would be you can plan all you want but if you lose both veteran quarterbacks and all your veteran tackles to injury, your depth preparation plans no longer matter. You are probably in for a long year.
However, with word of Prescott missing time in camp now with some relatively small concerns with his shoulder strain, it does force us to once again face the realities that this is an incredibly physical sport and around the league somebody gets hit hard with a massive injury almost every single day. Some are significant to the fortunes of the entire season and others simply cause a young prospect to miss his window. But, the teams standing at the end were able to have a heaping helping of quality depth where they can “next man up” their way through a problem and the good fortune of avoiding injuries to the wrong pieces or having them concentrated on the same part of the roster over and over again.
They were prepared for a possible quarterback health issue last year with Andy Dalton as the backup and it didn’t matter. This year they seem far less prepared with Garrett Gilbert (Cooper Rush and Ben DiNucci also), but the point with any backup QB should be this: Can this guy go 2-2 if he had to start for a month? And if you can get that with a backup QB making the league minimum, then you have to accept that. There is no reason to believe Gilbert is incapable of that with this offense. We also are purely speculating.
The general reason for today’s piece is to articulate this point: In camp practices, I am taken by the effects of the many new names from free agency, the massive draft class, and the return of the injured pieces from 2020. The Cowboys appear to have tremendous depth at many spots and I wanted to give you a few examples:
Cornerback
This is the one that sent me down this path. Trevon Diggs and Kelvin Joseph are the latest and heaviest investments in this spot. But, you also have two veterans still here in Anthony Brown and Jourdan Lewis. Those four are pretty salty. Add last year’s fourth-rounder Reggie Robinson, who has been properly pushed back to corner, and this year’s third-rounder Nahshon Wright. That is six who look like capable and clear roster guys. But wait, Maurice Canady has flashed as a slot option after opting out last year. Seven? That is pretty impressive.
Safety
This one was also addressed again Wednesday with the Malik Hooker introduction after adding two Falcons starting safeties in the offseason in Damontae Kazee and Keanu Neal (who is playing a linebacker/safety box hybrid) to compete with last year’s breakout star Donovan Wilson. All of that seems well in front of last year’s opening-day starter Darian Thompson and other depth players like Jayron Kearse and Stephen Parker and sixth-round rookie Israel Mukuamu from South Carolina (conversion player). Again, we don’t know about the top level, but we do know they are packed with options.
Linebacker
This was always going to be an odd fit and I wrote about this at great length in May. But, the Cowboys invested heavily in both linebacker spots when they gave Jaylon Smith a substantial extension and picked Leighton Vander Esch in Round 1. Then they signed Neal to “play linebacker” and drafted Micah Parsons at No. 12 in the 2021 NFL Draft and even took another key one in Jabril Cox from LSU in Round 4. In a defense where they will almost never play more than two linebackers, they have five who all have a case to be one of that starting pair. They almost seem to be expecting injuries here — which is advisable, anyway.
Defensive tackle
How about this one? Now, the Cowboys definitely needed help here and it would be great if they had a clear full-time starter, but look at all of these bodies that seem well above “replacement level”:
• Neville Gallimore flashed many times in his rookie year.
• Trysten Hill played his best football in 2020.
• Carlos Watkins has played plenty in Houston and is 27.
• Brent Urban is coming off the best year of his career in Chicago
• Osa Odighizuwa was the preferred third-round pick from UCLA who plays full time inside.
• Chauncey Golston, the other third-rounder from the Parsons trade-down, can move inside from the edge any time you want.
• Justin Hamilton really helped last year and Quinton Bohanna is the largest defensive tackle this team has had in ages. There is no way they are keeping eight defensive tackles, but again, this is what depth looks like and throwing numbers at a problem.
Offensive tackle
The Cowboys looked thin in 2020 at this spot and the health of Tyron Smith is always a talking point. But, Smith and Collins are back and are very strong starters. Behind them, Dallas has added the veteran swing tackle I have always liked from Buffalo, Ty Nsekhe — he’s much better than the 2019 and 2020 swing tackle situations. The Cowboys drafted Josh Ball in the fourth round and he looks like a potential starter at some point. And behind them, you have last year’s options in Brandon Knight and Steele, who if nothing else, each gained a ton of experience last season to help develop them.
I won’t keep going, but defensive end and wide receiver have similar stories of quality numbers. They are thin in a few spots — there is a difference between top-end quality and having many mid-level talents battling. There have been years when the Cowboys were so dangerously thin that they needed an undrafted rookie who was not thought of as a roster player to start on Opening Night. This 2021 version has not splashed with a headline addition, but rather about 20 legitimate “solid roster-level” foot soldiers to supplement the middle- and lower-tier talent on the depth chart.
Strength in numbers is on display at camp and I think this is a story that won’t get a ton of marquee space, but it might end up shining nicely in November and December. They have made significant strides.
