Blogging The Boys
The Dallas Cowboys are changing things up on defense. Significantly. The changes come in many forms, from an entirely new coaching staff to a large haul of new players brought in to carry out the plans of the new administration. With a new blueprint comes new soldiers, and the team has quite a few. Only four defenders will retain their starting spots – Quinnen Williams, Kenny Clark, Donovan Ezeiruaku, and Malik Hooker, and of those four, only one of them (Hooker) had logged a snap for the Cowboys at this time last year. The makeover is real.
From more changes in the trenches to all the way back at safety, a lot has changed, and we thought we would give a quick rundown of what these new transitions should look like heading into the new season. In no particular order, here we go…
Position: middle linebacker
The Cowboys relied on Murray to anchor the middle of the field last year, but that came with costly results. The veteran linebacker repeatedly hesitated when trying to dissect offensive schemes. Slow processing and bad angles gave way to frequent fast-passes to the second level for opposing running backs. The hope is that a fully healthy Overshown can inject some better recognition and lethal sideline-to-sideline speed to hunt down outside runs. With good decisions and elite closing burst, Overshown should offer a nice upgrade in the middle of the defense.
Position: strong safety/split-safety
Wilson has historically struggled with coverage assignments, and last year he was just one of many who were frequently caught out of position. Thompson brings elite versatility to the position as he is proficient at diagnosing deep routes or dropping into the slot as a nickel corner. The Cowboys essentially get the physical play of Wilson with more technically refined tackling and added skills to help improve their leaky back-end coverage ability.
Position: defensive tackle
After the acquisitions added Kenny Clark and Quinnen Williams to the interior defensive line, Odighizuwa became expendable, especially for financial reasons. Odighizuwa did sometimes struggle anchoring against the run and got pushed off his spots, creating weak spots in the defense’s ability to stop the run. Free agent Ogbonnia brings 40 extra pounds and a lower center of gravity to take on double teams and clog up the middle. While Otito isn’t a direct replacement for Odighizuwa, his job is to beef up the interior defensive line agaisnt the run.
Position: weakside linebacker
The rookie from Florida had a decent first year racking up tackles; however, he showed a lot of issues managing his space. His aggressive nature led him to bite on fakes, leaving some big holes in the middle of the field. He flashed some nice skills to build from, but he wasn’t someone the team could rely on to consistently make stops, so the team...
