NFL
By: Greg Rector
The Dallas Cowboys have arrived in Oxnard California to begin training camp, bringing an end to the “silly season,” where so many stories, rankings, and rumors finally get replaced with reality. As the 2021 season gets underway the question marks that always surround the Cowboys will start to be answered. Always scrutinized by fans and haters alike the Cowboys will also be the focus of “Hard Knocks,” this season. Love us or hate us Dallas will be front and center for attention, in addition to playing in the Hall of Fame Game against the Steelers on August 5th, the Cowboys will also be in the regular-season opener against the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. With training camp finally, here let’s look at the questions surrounding “America’s Team,” and what I believe the answers likely will be.
The Offense:
Coming off last season’s injury festival, health will go a long way to determining the Cowboys’ fortunes as it is with every team. Most importantly the health of Tyron Smith and La’el Collins the bookend offensive tackles is paramount. Smith played just two games and Collins didn’t play any games last year. The impact was obvious and was furthered along when the Cowboys ended up going to 3rd and 4th options at such important positions. Now in terms of Smith who hasn’t played a full season for over 5 years, if he starts 14 or 15 games that will be a win as far as I am concerned. Pro Bowl level left tackles are not commonplace and the precipitous drop-off in talent impacts an offense greatly when that body is not there. For me, though it’s Collins who needs to be the impactful one. The reason being is the running game which is the right side of the line dominant. If Collins and Zach Martin return to being their normal selves, Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard can make a much better running game a reality. In pass blocking, both tackles have been very good for years and that of course, means that Dak Prescott will have time to find his vaunted and possibly the league’s best trio of receivers. The battles for the backup positions on the line will be key, without adequate depth we all saw what happened the last year to the entire group. The names to watch here are late-round draft pick Josh Ball the 6’8″ and veteran Ty Nsheke along with Terrence Steel and Brandon Knight. I believe Ball will be a practice squad player while they have Nsheke as the swing tackle.
The other battles will be for the 4th and 5th wide receiver slots and how they use TE’s Blake Jarwin (ACL injury) and Dalton Schultz in this offense. I believe Cedric Wilson is still the front-runner for the 4th wide receiver role, but Noah Brown may be the odd man out as draft pick Simi Fehoko from Stanford also brings special teams’ work to the table along with his added size at 6’3″ and 220 lbs, Fehoko likely makes the 53 man roster.
Note how I am not worried about Dak Prescott? He’s shown he is ready to roll and sorry haters, he will be very good in 2021. The same goes for Elliott, if you haven’t seen the off-season videos of Elliott’s workouts be ready to see quite the transformation.
The Defense:
As we all know the 2020 Dallas Cowboys defense was simply put putrid. 158.8 rushing yards against average was horrifying to witness. Preventing a repeat of this was priority number one in free agency and with the draft picks made as well. The defensive line was made to look like swiss cheese on a routine basis, this would lead to the linebackers being tied up by opposing linemen and unable to shed the blockers opposing running backs had a field day often going untouched for 5 or more yards at a time. To address this the Cowboys signed Brent Urban, who prides himself on taking on two offensive linemen at a time when needed, They drafted Osa Odighizuwa who might be under-sized but showed used his quickness to be a more than capable run stopper, along with something not seen in Dallas in a long time at true big body 1 technique in Quinton Bohanna, who at last check weighed in at 360 lbs. This means that the incumbent DT’s Neville Gallimore and Trysten Hill will be pushed hard at this camp. Hill is the most likely to find himself out of luck. Carlos Watson late of the Texans will need to impress early or he won’t be around very long.
The same focus for the defensive ends applies as well. Demarcus Lawrence may not have had the sack numbers that many desire to see at his contract number, however, he is still a premier weapon off the edge. Many are excited about Randy Gregory and a possible “breakout,” season. I believe the predictions are somewhat over-hyped. The battles here will be interesting at the backup positions as there is a rotation of players in this era. Free-agent Tarrell Basham, along with draft pick Chauncey Golston will battle the likes of Dorance Armstrong and Bradlee Anae. I believe Armstrong is the guy who loses out although he appears to be liked by the Jones family.
The linebacker corps was definitely a concern and that was obvious by the selection of Micah Parsons in the first round, steal of the draft in my opinion Jabril Cox, in the 4th round, along with signing former Falcons SS/LB Keanu Neal. This means both the oft-injured Leighton Vander Esche and another Jones family pet player Jaylon Smith, will find themselves challenged like never before for playing time. The competition will be stiff and interesting to see unfold.
The Cowboys secondary was reviled by the fanbase with a good reason mostly, however, the reason I focused on the putrid run defense first was the fact if you don’t stop the running game you need to move a player from the secondary upfield to help stop the run when you can’t prevent that from happening you leave your secondary vulnerable to giving up big plays in the passing game. A lack of pressure on opposing quarterbacks also makes life much harder for corners and safeties against receivers. The domino effect was clearly witnessed all through the 2020 season. That’s why the Cowboys drafted Kelvin Joseph in the 2nd round, Nahshon Wright in the 3rd round, and lastly Israel Mukuamu in the 7th round although he is being projected to be used at safety rather than his college position. Let’s look at the corners first. Anthony Brown seems most likely to be the outside corner opposite sophomore Trevon Diggs, while Jourdan Lewis figures to be the slot corner in the Cover-three nickel defense. Can either Joseph or Wright push for a role? I doubt it would be for week one, but one or both need to be doing just that. I consider Brown and Lewis as “adequate,” and that isn’t what Cowboys fans nor the team can be satisfied with. Diggs was tasked far too often as a rookie with the opponent’s best receiver, not something that doesn’t go well for the rookies, just ask Jeffrey Okudah in Detroit. Safety has been once again overlooked by the Cowboys, so even if Damonte Kazee returns to decent form after his injury and Donovan Wilson remains decent at SS, seeing if Mukuamu can contribute at some point is another battle worth watching.
[pickup_prop id=”7166″]Coaching:
The focus here is squarely on new defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, along with secondary coach Joe Whitt. Will Quinn’s schemes and the new bodies mesh well enough for the Cowboys to go from horrific to at least a middle-of-the-pack overall defense? The other coaching question for me is how are Kellen Moore and Mike McCarthy going to share the wealth for all the weapons this offense has? I am just glad we can talk about real things that are happening on the field instead of who to sign, who to trade etc… The Cowboys’ 2021 season is here!!!
As always you can find me on Twitter @GregCowboys
