turnovers, turnovers, turnovers
New Cowboys defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus wants to return to familiar yet different grounds. Dallas, who hasn’t been in the top 10 in forced turnovers since 2022, wants to get back to their record-setting pace. “It’s pretty simple, we take the ball away. That’s what we do. We stop the run. We want to make exciting plays for our football team. That’s really what we do,” Eberflus mentioned. Dallas, who led the league in forced turnovers in 2021 and 2022, struggled to do just that in the first half of this past season.
Some of that was due to injury, however. In the past two seasons, Trevon Diggs played in eleven and two games due to multiple leg and knee injuries. Pick six king Daron Bland missed the first ten games due to a stress fracture in his foot. Micah Parsons and Demarcus Lawrence, two Dallas pass rushers, also missed significant time due to injury. The lack of depth from last year’s free agency disaster ended up costing Dallas any chance at a run, especially with Dak Prescott out.
Eberflus doesn’t send pressure, as Chicago, and his Indianapolis defenses all ranked in the bottom half of the league in blitz percentage when he was there, so Dallas will not only have to stay healthy, but make dramatic improvements to this roster if they want to not only create turnovers, but stop the run. Dallas hasn’t been able to stop the run since 2018, but even that year, they gave up 200 rushing yards to CJ Anderson and Todd Gurley. So, how does Dallas do both? First, the defensive tackle position needs to be addressed in a huge way. Mazi Smith has been nothing short of a complete disappointment in Dallas. Osa Odighizuwa is a good pass-rushing defensive tackle but might command near 20M, something that I doubt Dallas would be willing to pay. If Dallas wants a successful defense, then they’ll have to attack this offseason in a completely different way. At linebacker, Dallas is thin, too. Marist Liafau had a promising rookie year, but Dallas is thin, with Demarvian Overshown’s ACL, LCL, and MCL all torn. Kendricks was a good linebacker and would be a really good keep.
Dallas may seem far away from having a great defense, but they aren’t. They have a consensus top-two edge rusher in the sport and a top-five cornerback duo when healthy. Dallas needs to beef up that defensive line and draft well on the defensive side of the ball. If that happens, The Dallas “Doomsday” could make a nice return.
