dpf1123
DCC 4Life
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2013
- Messages
- 2,994
Morning After: Film from Seattle and Von Miller!
The Cowboys upgrade the pass rush and plenty of roster evaluation from over the weekend.
Bob SturmAug 17, 2026
Today, I planned on breaking down some of the finer points of the Seattle game here for you to enjoy. There are some good talking points and I will get to several of them in this issue, but I actually think we would all agree that as much love as Camden Brown, Justin Barron and Sam Howell deserve, Von Miller probably clears all of them in terms of potential impact of 2026 and therefore, expect the first half of this to be about the Sunday night transaction which definitely got our attention as we put our list together of what to write today.
It seemed to be on the radar of potential ideas for this team for months, but also one in which the Cowboys could see through their options and decide what makes the most sense.
So, let’s dig in here.
The Cowboys add Von Miller - For real this time!
Well, after offering clue after clue in his offseason, there is no further need to dance around it. Von finally got his wish and he can play in Dallas for the Cowboys. There is no question that he was ready to play and be close to family and the details finally have been worked out.After years of flirting, there is now a relationship.
So, what should we surmise from all of this?
Well, first off, I think we all know that Von Miller is an absolute NFL superstar who walks right into the Hall of Fame.
We also know he is 37 years old and that is getting up there.
Yet, we saw last season that he can lead a team in sacks by just rolling out of bed and he did just that for Dan Quinn in Washington. He did not have a season like he used to have when he was running the league and an annual fixture on the All-Pro teams, but he was still affecting plays and games.
Can he help here? Of course he can. In a very big way.
Let’s talk this through as we envision the Christian Parker defense:
Quinnen Williams and friends have all been stocked heavily to stop the run. It seems every objective has been to shut things down and get to passing downs where teams are looking at 3rd and long.
But, then who would close 3rd and long? Who can get you a QB sack when you need one? Micah is gone. The kids are still figuring it out. Do you have enough on the money down to get teams off the field and on to punting? We call it the money down because that is everything to a game. With this offense, maybe you only need a few stops a game. Can you get them? And who will be the guy to do it? They could use a DPR (designated pass rusher) who can close deals and who has closed more deals than Von?
Allow me to show you some 2025 tape of Von Miller and the 10 sacks he was part of with most all of them being in passing down situations:
Every one of those sacks above came at the age of 36. If you consider that body of work, I don’t think we have to wonder if he is the guy he was in Denver in 2018. He isn’t. But, this guy is possibly the best pass rusher on this current roster the moment he steps on the field. That is how good he is in these situations.
Now, you have to ration his snaps. As you can see below, PFF shows us in the first numerical column on the left under TOT, he was playing roughly 25 snaps a game. Most of those will be 3rd downs and 2-minute offenses. Then on the far right, that TOT column is total QB Pressures and then sacks are the very far right. 10 of them were on his ledger.
So, two of those ten were credited as half-sacks, so his total was nine. We can see it has been a while since those double-digit seasons, but I would contend that in 2021, he had 9.5 in the regular season and then 4 more in the playoffs on his way to another Super Bowl win.
Last year he had nine sacks for a team that was constantly behind. So, let’s not be disingenuous on claiming he can’t go get you some impactful plays. He isn’t the MLB home run leader, but who would you rather have on the field in a key spot than Von Miller?
I am willing to concede that this blocks some of the kids, so let’s talk about that a bit. Donovan Ezeiruaku and Malachi Lawrence are two very young pass rushers who have a chance to be very good in this league. Von Miller will probably take some of their pass rush snaps in 2026. Is that bad?
No. It is not. For one thing, we are trying to build a deep team that can handle an injury or two. Stocking pass rushers for attrition is what contenders should do. If I have good players in reserve, I should celebrate the idea that I will need them at some point.
Also, what can they learn from Von Miller? Well, he is the active sack leader and one of the better teachers in the game. He helped create the Sack Summit in 2017 and to this day it still goes strong as the pass rushers of the league congregate to discuss their art-form. But, those two young studs on the Cowboys roster should be getting a version of that every week and if they are smart, they will treat him as if Yoda is now on their roster. Von Miller is a technician of the highest order and his ways should be followed closely.
Not only that, but the fact that DeMarcus Ware helped Von Miller over in Denver and now Miller passes that on to the youth in Dallas is some symmetry – even if I have to stretch a bit. Without Ware, Denver doesn’t win that 2015 Super Bowl so maybe Von wants to repay the franchise in 2026 – if you don’t mind me really getting carried away.
So, why now? Well, I suppose that is where I would wildly speculate. In June, when Von Miller was vocalizing his wish to play with Dallas, it is possible Dallas wanted to see the kids and where they are. It is possible that Von’s asking price was much higher. And it is possible that they needed to finish the Quinnen Williams deal so that they could free up some more space in 2026 and now they can. That certainly agrees with the timing, but I will tell you that I am not certain why now and I don’t think anyone is certain about the money.
But, is adding Von Miller for free a great idea? Yes. I needed to feel better about closing down 3rd downs and let me tell you – he may not get a ton of sacks here, but I can promise you that the moment he steps on the field, protection schemes will be taking a very careful note of where he is. He is circled on the board and a clear and present danger.
This should be a real nice piece of business for a team that looks pretty fortified now in their defensive front with big and strong answers for most questions.
And with that, we are on to Seattle.
Ok, I will tell you at the outset that these preseason games are a reasonably fun way to ramp up to the season, but I will also say I try not to get too carried away with extremely small samples of what players are doing out there and I definitely don’t know that we should determine roster spots on two or three plays. So, I won’t be doing much on Caleb Downs or Malachi Lawrence today. Saturday was about breaking their seal on a NFL career, but the details of those tiny snap counts were not significant to affect their stock prices either way. We just need them to get comfortable and to start stacking up games and we will be closely monitoring as we go.However, there are some deep roster decisions being made and I want to get on those. The Cowboys need to find the right guys for these spots down the roster to make sure that they keep the right 53 and try not to sneak anyone through to the practice squad who will get claimed by someone else.
So, if you really like a kid, you better be careful if you want to get him to your PS. Trying to slide someone through has backfired and been sniped before. That brings us to this performance we saw from Camden Brown on Saturday. A guy who has made himself a sniping candidate based solely on Saturday Night in Seattle.
Who the heck is Camden Brown?
It’s a great question and I will tell you that he has been a buzzworthy player on the practice fields, but still, I thought the numbers at WR were such that he might not have a snowball’s chance to make the team. They brought in a few veterans and with Ryan Flournoy and Kavonte Turpin both guaranteed spots behind CeeDee and Pickens, it appeared that there might be just one or two spots left. And both of those guys might be picked as either a proven veteran piece to cover injuries to the top guys or a special teams demon.I would not say Brown is either, but what he is was on display on Saturday Night. This first touchdown grab late in the 2nd Quarter got us all paying close attention to his catalogue.
Sam Howell with a very aggressive throw on a play that might be as hopeful, but Brown makes him right. Howell gives him a chance and the physical receiver is able to make space and go get that ball. Beautiful play and a moment that makes us all see exactly what he is capable of doing.
Then, right out of the locker-room and with a new QB, Brown is showing the real upside you want to see as a big target across the middle on a dig route and then a little after the catch. They list him as 6’2, 205, but we can see that he has some serious physical traits that are quite appealing.
But, this last one is where people told him he is making this squad:
I mean the smooth execution of this one-on-one drill is probably all you need to see. It is a spectacular end zone fade from Joe Milton. If this was George or CeeDee, we would probably be impressed. But, Camden Brown has just caught two touchdown passes and both of them were not very ordinary? That one-handed catch with body control is some big boy receiving. And he is now 3 for 3 on targets and has made the impression everyone dreams of.
So, what is his deal?
Well, he appears to be a pretty normal college football case these days. He was a 3-star recruit who signed on at Auburn for one coach who then got fired (Bryan Harsin) and the next coach (Hugh Freeze) apparently did not seem to see him in the same way. So, Brown bounced to Georgia Southern for his final year and set the conference on fire with a 14 touchdown season where he was dominant for Clay Helton and got himself a chance to play in the league.
So, what happened next? I asked our friend Dane Brugler what happened in the draft process because Dane had him in the “others receiving votes” part of his rankings as a UDFA, too. Here is what he told me:
Ok, so let’s look at those testing scores and get a feel for it.
You can see the 4.59 40-yard and the 7.42 3-cone as those big orange dots on his resume. But, you also see his dominant 10-yard and bench press/vertical leap scores along with great size.
What I am thinking is that they really want to lean to Jonathan Mingo for these exact reasons and now Camden Brown feels like a guy who can do many of the same things with a full rookie contract to enjoy – whereas Mingo is in his final year. I think WR5 might have been claimed by this kid.
The QB2 competition is better than we expected.
Now, we need to see it for a few more games here but I wasn’t expecting this to be a fun battle. I figured that when they brought in Sam Howell, they had already made up their mind on Joe Milton.From watching practices, Howell seems more of what you seek – a low variance backup who simply gets the ball out quickly and makes few ill-advised decisions in small samples (like a backup will usually be judged) and therefore a fine alternative to the roller coaster ride of Joe Milton who can leap tall buildings in a single bound but also airmail a perfectly simple pass at the sticks.
But, in this game, I thought Howell was excellent and then Milton matched it.
No sacks, no interceptions, no dumb decisions. No big time throws and no turnover worthy plays. They both did their jobs nicely.
First, Howell in the 1st half:
My view is that he sees the pressure well in pre-snap and he reads accordingly. Seattle was sending pressure and he sniffed it out. That run to the right is a very impressive improve when he saw the free rusher coming. I was pretty pleased with what I saw from Howell and assumed this guy is going to be a nice QB2.
But, then Joe Milton asked that we let him see if he can match it.
And, I think he did.
To hit those two deep crossers and then the fade right out of halftime were just so nice. I think he made us slow our roll and give this all three preseason games without making a big judgement. You are only keeping one of them, I am sure. But, from Saturday, I think this speaks to the level of coaching and coordination because both of them seemed to do a nice job.
Let’s see more.
How about the 2nd Running Back job?
The 2nd RB job is still sort of complicated because we have a couple young guys in Jaydon Blue (23) and Phil Mafah (Jersey #37) who are both part of what they want but lack the other part. Then we have the always overlooked Malik Davis (20) who is the best of the bunch but still just 5’10 and barely 200. So, they probably need to go get an all-purpose back so they are not completely screwed if Javonte Williams gets hurt.They are still working through it and I put a bunch of the better runs on here.
Mafah is just a bulldozer. Blue is for small doses. That still leaves Davis as their 2nd best back and the one with the best feel on these Cowboys runs.
I wouldn’t be shocked if they sign someone who is 215-220 that they feel can check all the boxes. I just don’t know about this race, to be honest. But, again, they are fine unless Javonte needs to miss a month. Then they are not fine.
Its getting late for Caelen Carson
This was not the performance that Caelen Carson needed on Saturday by any stretch. He seems to be one of those guys who is trying to hang on, but the evidence is gathering that he might be on his way out.When we did the roster rankings, our panel had him at 46th overall, but I did not even have him in my Top 60. It isn’t because I don’t like him as much as it is I just think the roster train has moved on with other plans. From that piece:
I think another important aspect of all of this is that the Cowboys are going lighter on corners in this new scheme and heavier on hybrids and safeties. They just won’t be playing three corners at a time much anymore as Caleb Downs is your nickel. So, that means fewer jobs.
Here are his cut-ups from Saturday. Four snaps. One great play and three penalties on Carson. He obviously cannot afford that type of performance, but all three penalties looked like pretty obvious calls.
He will need to bounce back and in a hurry to stay well within this mix.
Ok, I have more but at 3,000 words I need to put the laptop down. More to come this week, but I would love to hear your big impressions from that game and the Von Miller signing, too.
