How the Dallas Cowboys are changing their philosophy when it comes to the NFL Draft
Mike McCarthy is known as a West Coast offense guy. Mike Nolan has run a lot of 3-4 defenses over his career.
But the Dallas Cowboys aren’t necessarily worried about finding players who fit those schemes. In fact, the organization doesn’t want to pigeonhole itself into that mindset.
Executive vice president Stephen Jones acknowledged there is a philosophical change “to some degree” with the new coaching regime, particularly on defense.
Former defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli knew what type of player he wanted for his Tampa 2 scheme. That’s not the approach this time around.
“Rod knew what he wanted in his defense and the type of players he wanted,” Jones said from the Senior Bowl. “So there is some degree of flexibility there. But Rod was also really successful. We had a lot of good defenses while Rod was here and they all played the way you want football played. They played hard. They hustled to the ball. At the same time, as Mike [McCarthy] said, we want to find good football players and then put them in the best places to make plays.
“I do think being a multiple defense and being able to do a lot of things as we’re starting to see around the league can be problematic for the opposing team’s coordinators and quarterbacks when they’re seeing different looks. I think to some degree we’ll evolve into that type of defense.”
With Marinelli, the defense didn’t evolve in that respect. He stayed true to his long-standing principles. Sometimes it worked out. Sometimes it didn’t.
Taco Charlton, the 2017 first-round pick, didn’t pan out. And there hasn’t been many promising signs for last year’s top pick, defensive tackle Trysten Hill, although the organization remains hopeful better days are ahead.
All of it has the Cowboys remaining in a situation this off-season where more draft and free agency resources must be used to address the defensive line.
They were pleased with the trade value and impact Robert Quinn made, but he’s headed to free agency. So are tackles Maliek Collins and Antwaun Woods.
The only proven impact player under contract along the line is defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence.
As Cowboys vice president of player personnel Will McClay said when asked about the line, “We need to continue to get playmakers. You’ve got to win on first and second down to get to third down. You’ve got to win on third down, so it’s the mix of those players.
“DeMarcus is the key to that because he’s ours. He’s our bell cow and we feel really good about that. But we want to keep adding guys to that position.”
As far as the big-picture view with the new coaching staff, McClay said the changes would be subtle in nature.
“Our job is to go and evaluate all the players,” McClay said. “They might want bigger interior players, so that’s fine. We’ll go and look for that. But I think we’re going to be looking for the same type of players.”
McClay is excited about the new coaching staff and the seeming flexibility they have to build around the players. McCarthy has a proven track record of making it all work, as does Nolan.
“They’re football coaches and they’ve had success in this league for a long time,” McClay said. “They’ve been through a number of different things. They have the things that they like, so it is exciting to say that we have systems we feel like that you can take players and both of them have said, ‘If you have a good player, we’ll find what we can do within him within our scheme.’”
Most of the off-season work must be done on the defensive side of the ball. That is where there is the highest turnover rate compared to the offense.
Among players the Cowboys are likely keeping a close eye on at this week’s Senior Bowl include defensive tackles such as South Carolina’s Javon Kinlaw, Alabama’s Raekwon Davis and Oklahoma’s Neville Gallimore, and safeties Ashtyn Davis of Cal and Kyle Dugger of Lenoir-Rhyne, a Division II school in North Carolina.
But the Cowboys are staying open-minded as far as positions and needs are concerned. Just because defensive tackle and safety appear to be top needs, they aren’t solely focused on that.
“If you put yourself in that corner, you make some big mistakes,” Jones said. “We don’t ever say never on anybody. We’ll see what great players are sitting there as we move through the draft and draft accordingly. I’m also a big believer if you need to move around to make some things happen that are better for you, then we’ll do that as well.”
Along with filling the defensive needs from a position perspective, Jones said an emphasis will be placed on finding players who create takeaways too.
The Cowboys had just 17 takeaways last season, including seven games in which they produced zero takeaways. They were 2-5 in those seven games without a takeaway.
“One of the things that we’ve certainly got to continue improve upon is the ball and turning the ball over,” Jones said. “I know that’s a goal for this staff, for Mike and Mike if you will, and that’s a big part of it for them. Certainly that resonated well with Jerry and myself.”
Outside a few misses in the draft, the Cowboys have had success more often than not of late. They’ll have the 17th overall pick in the first round of this year’s draft followed by the 51st overall in Round 2 and the 82nd overall in Round 3.
The thought process is simple under McCarthy — take the best players available and then it’s on the coaching staff to put them in the right scheme and position.
“He just wants to take players who can make plays,” Jones said. “Then we’ll scheme around those types of players. Get them the ball on the offensive side of the ball and put great players in position to make plays on the defensive side of the ball. We already had some great visits between Will, Mike, myself, Jerry.
“Obviously as we move forward, we’ll get everybody mixing and matching and having great conversations about what we want to be as a football team.”
