Walker: Cowboys' Mike McCarthy has intriguing plan for defense going into 2020 season

Cotton

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by Patrik Walker

The myriad of questions surrounding the Dallas Cowboys regime change from Jason Garrett to Mike McCarthy has now met a variety of answers, with McCarthy having nearly finalized a hand-picked coaching staff that currently includes only offensive coordinator Kellen Moore and position coach Doug Nussmeier as remaining members.

The jury was still out on if McCarthy, a talented and proven play-caller in his own right, would orchestrate plays for the Cowboys in 2020, though, but he's opted to defer to Moore -- whom he was impressed with even before he knew he'd be interviewed by Dallas this offseason. The creativity of Moore that flipped the Cowboys offense from one of the worst to first in a single season will combine with the experience of McCarthy as they tailor the playbook to a West Coast format, but without overhauling it.

Instead they'll keep the same language quarterback Dak Prescott is familiar with, and that helped lift him to a career-best season in 2019.

With that now put to bed, what of the defense?

I projected the Cowboys would stick with their incumbent 4-3 scheme under new defensive coordinator Mike Nolan, but with the caveat the unit would see variations based on Nolan's ability to coach both a 4-3 and a 3-4 on-demand.

"Really, 3-4 and 4-3 defense is how you're identifying the player profiles," McCarthy said. "I feel like player acquisition and coaching instruction is a two-way street."

Doubling down on his previous proclamation that "scheme is overrated", McCarthy wants to adapt his scheme with the Cowboys to the talent present and incoming, as opposed to boxing out potentially elite talent for the sake of finding what fits. For those still scratching their head about the decision to select Taco Charlton over T.J. Watt, and then Trysten Hill over Juan Thornhill, this is a welcome point of view that is also an about-face when compared to how the now-gone Rod Marinelli and Kris Richard ran the unit -- where physical prototype often trumped talent.

"I think if you have a system of defense where you need a certain player to fit your scheme, you're limiting your personnel department," McCarthy said. "We know what a Dallas Cowboys football player looks like -- the length [and] the athletic ability. Let's get as many good football players as we possibly can. Its our job as coaches to make sure our scheme boundaries are plenty wide enough to fit any excellent football player into our program.

"That's always been a philosophy of mine on offense and that'll continue to be so on defense."

In Dallas, that's a novel idea.
 

Stasheroo

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I'll never forgive Marinelli for the draft bungles on the defensive line. For as great as we have been in putting together offensive line talent, Marinelli and his input on the defensive line has been a detriment. I will never forgive nor forget Taco over TJ Watt. And then the follow-up of Trysten "Mr Inactive" Hill. Good riddance Marinelli!
 

Cowboysrock55

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I'll never forgive Marinelli for the draft bungles on the defensive line. For as great as we have been in putting together offensive line talent, Marinelli and his input on the defensive line has been a detriment. I will never forgive nor forget Taco over TJ Watt. And then the follow-up of Trysten "Mr Inactive" Hill. Good riddance Marinelli!
Yep enough with the Thornhill isn't enough of a box safety. Watt isn't a true 4-3 End. Taco and Hill are big bodies that fit our protype. Lewis doesn't have the length. Yadda yadda yadda
 

Stasheroo

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Yep enough with the Thornhill isn't enough of a box safety. Watt isn't a true 4-3 End. Taco and Hill are big bodies that fit our protype. Lewis doesn't have the length. Yadda yadda yadda
The results bear it out. They supposedly got the "prototypes" they wanted and their defense still sucked! Get out! All of ya!
 

UncleMilti

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Marinelli single handily has wrecked the DL for years.
 

jsmith6919

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The results bear it out. They supposedly got the "prototypes" they wanted and their defense still sucked! Get out! All of ya!
Hey now, Hill signed a contract with Marinelli that said he would work hard and stuff
 

jsmith6919

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Funny thing is I don't think he is bad at coaching the Dline. But he has no business picking the guys he coaches.
I agree with this, his problem is he loyal to a fault for his pet cats which leads to us reaching for them when he gets a voice in the draft room. I'm just hoping he talks Gruden into trading for Hill
 

UncleMilti

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I agree with this, his problem is he loyal to a fault for his pet cats which leads to us reaching for them when he gets a voice in the draft room. I'm just hoping he talks Gruden into trading for Hill
Funny thing is I don't think he is bad at coaching the Dline. But he has no business picking the guys he coaches.
Yeah, thats really the crux of it all...he obviously had enough influence in the draft room to pull the turds up and no one ever stepped in to stop it.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Yeah, thats really the crux of it all...he obviously had enough influence in the draft room to pull the turds up and no one ever stepped in to stop it.
He is a great cook who buys the cheap shit at the grocery store thinking he is getting a good deal but is buying rotten meat. Guys like Lawrence and Quinn have done great under him.

Plus I don't like his influence on the rest of the defense. Basically it was time to move on but I wouldn't be surprised if he does a good job for the Raiders.
 

boozeman

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Plus I don't like his influence on the rest of the defense. Basically it was time to move on but I wouldn't be surprised if he does a good job for the Raiders.
Some coaches have a very short shelf life.

They can coach forever, but eventually their methods become stale when they become part of how the team evaluates talent.

Marinelli is one of those guys.

The more the franchise expects that they can coach, the worse they do over time.

Marinelli got production out of the likes of George Selvie, etc.

But that just created a syndrome where the coach was expected to make miracles.

The idea of "coaching up" is a fleeting affair.

And that is pretty much what Marinelli does. And I think he likes it that way. Case in point, Trysten Hill.

He wanted that lump of shit. If I were a coach, I would not let my ego decide who I would champion.
 

UncleMilti

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I don't agree with that. It was definitely time to move on, so it's easy to forget what utter dogshit the defensive line was when he got here. We are much more talented there now than when he started.

Marinelli was at his best in Tampa and Chicago, yet none of his defensive lines in Dallas featured studs at the positions needed to excel in his defense.

He got 21.5 sacks alone from the true DT position in Chicago from 2010-2012. I don't think he had anything close to that in Dallas, because guys like Crawford were listed at DE/NT and we all know Crawford is not a true NT.

His DL in Dallas routinely gave up huge chunks of rush yards and 3rd downs at the most inopportune times, something that rarely happened in Tampa or Chicago.

Now whether it was his fault, or Jones and company...we'll never know. But there were some real turds brought in under his watch.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Marinelli was at his best in Tampa and Chicago, yet none of his defensive lines in Dallas featured studs at the positions needed to excel in his defense.

He got 21.5 sacks alone from the true DT position in Chicago from 2010-2012. I don't think he had anything close to that in Dallas, because guys like Crawford were listed at DE/NT and we all know Crawford is not a true NT.

His DL in Dallas routinely gave up huge chunks of rush yards and 3rd downs at the most inopportune times, something that rarely happened in Tampa or Chicago.

Now whether it was his fault, or Jones and company...we'll never know. But there were some real turds brought in under his watch.
Irving and Hatcher were the best 3 techniques I can think of in Dallas since we went to this defense. God Irving was so good.
 

mcnuttz

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Irving and Hatcher were the best 3 techniques I can think of in Dallas since we went to this defense. God Irving was so good.
He left so much promise , fuck David Irving's dumb ass.
 

UncleMilti

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Irving and Hatcher were the best 3 techniques I can think of in Dallas since we went to this defense. God Irving was so good.
What did we get...6-7 full games out of Irving?

:lol
 
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