Jerry Jones’ strategic roster moves redefine the Cowboys’ potential, focusing on a fortified interior to maximize Dak Prescott’s prime. Will these changes work?
DALLAS — There is a singular player whose name is repeatedly mentioned when discussing the Cowboys’ trade and team-building philosophies with owner and general manager Jerry Jones: Quarterback Dak Prescott.
“Everything we’re talking about – the high draft assets, the trades – everything we’re talking about,’’ Jones told me in a recent interview, “it started with – and starts with – having Dak and doing what we can to maximize having him as our quarterback over these next few years.’’
The Cowboys matched their franchise record Sunday in overcoming a 21-point deficit to defeat the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles. It was the fourth such occurrence in the 66-year history of the franchise and the first with Prescott as the starting quarterback.
In the same game, Prescott surpassed his immediate predecessor, Tony Romo, to become the franchise leader in passing yards. The Cowboys have had two uninterrupted decades of exceptional quarterback play without reaching an NFC Championship Game, much less a Super Bowl.
Since 1979, there have only been three quarterback tandems in the NFL that have started games for the same franchise over the course of 20 or more years with both players having at least 10 seasons making at least one start: Joe Montana and Steve Young for the San Francisco 49ers, Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers for the Green Bay Packers, and Romo and Prescott for the Cowboys.
The other four quarterbacks won Super Bowls. Not so Romo or Prescott. Jones is attempting to change that. That, ultimately, is what motivated trading pass rushing phenom Micah Parsons, acquiring defensive tackle Kenny Clark and two draft picks from the Packers, and then investing some of that collateral in trading at the NFL deadline for Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams.
It does seem remarkable that the Cowboys have been one of the most active teams in the league when it comes to trades. To the point we can actually debate which of the three high-profile trades that Jones and the front office have made in the past year is the best: George Pickens, Micah Parsons or Quinnen Williams?
Jones seemed to vote for Pickens when he said, “I don’t know of anyone who has helped his team any more to win this year.”
But since acquiring Williams and linebacker Logan Wilson, which coincided with the return of DeMarvion Overshown and other injured starters on defense, the Cowboys have appeared a completely different team on that side of the ball.
Just as the trade of Parsons a week before the season-opener sent a negative message to the locker room about the perceived lack of faith the front office had in the roster, the move for Williams had an equally positive effect in terms of elevating performances at every level and inspiring a confidence previously absent.
“It’s an obvious emphasis on our fronts, on the big guys, that was very much in our minds when we were talking about the trade and the draft picks we were going to get for Parsons,’’ Jones said. “The other thing you’ve done is you’ve witnessed a spreading out and having more players involved here than you would have if you had maybe gone the other way with Micah.’’
I asked Jones if this is what he meant when he spoke at the press conference announcing the Parsons trade of turning one premier player into four or five more, and he responded, “That’s it, simplistically. But that might be the biggest part.
So Clark and Williams are part of that equation? “That’s exactly right. And we’ve got more to go.’’
Whether Jones was merely correcting his own mistakes or is merely pursuing a different vision for his defense is subject to the individual opinion of the general manager’s performance in that role.
This much is certain: the Cowboys have invested in their interior defensive and offensive lines unlike any other team in building their roster and creating an identity under first-year head coach Brian Schottenheimer. He has stated his insistence on having a team capable of dominating both lines of scrimmage.
The A and B gaps. The void between the center and the guards. The Cowboys have invested in protecting it when they have the football — and exploiting when they don’t.
“It’s middle pressure that can be really effective when you have three guys in there who can really apply that pressure because it’s fast, it’s immediate, and the quarterback really feels that right away because it’s in his face right away,’’ defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus said.
The same night Jones traded Parsons and mentioned his ultimate value might be similar to that of Herschel Walker in that it wasn’t so much what he could do in a Cowboys uniform as it was what he could bring to Dallas in a trade, Jones explained a new emphasis — less on rushing the passer and more on containing the run.
The incessant criticism of Eberflus has paused. Since the trade for Williams and a reimagined scheme that emphasizes positioning him with Clark and defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa on a five-man defensive line, the Cowboys have allowed 90 yards rushing on 30 combined carries in victories over the Raiders and Eagles — the first winning streak under Schottenheimer. That’s the fourth-fewest rushing yards per carry allowed in the entire NFL the past two weeks.
“I don’t want to be trite,’’ Jones said. “This sounds trite, but I’m not trying to be trite. Micah Parsons is outstanding, and we’ve had, in my mind, some notable good outside pass rushers. It’s not that we’ve been without. But Micah included, and we’ve not gotten the job done in the playoffs. You look at what happens to us and more than likely we get attacked in the interior and that’s a simplification to say that.’’
Jones then shared that the Cowboys had pursued during training camp a trade with the Jets for Williams.
“We tried at training camp with the Jets to basically make an exchange that was ready to go, heads up, with Quinnen and Micah and a 1, and we didn’t get it done,’’ Jones said. “But when we had the opportunity to make the trade on Quinnen, the hard part had already been done, and that was how important could he be and how could we build off it? Osa is a great fit. He’s a magnificent fit, if you put him in there with the skills of a Quinnen and put him in there with the type of player we have in Kenny Clark.’’
So it seems. Williams and Odighizuwa have a combined 28 pressures in the two games since Dallas acquired Williams, according to Pro Football Focus.
It is quite remarkable and unique in the NFL that the resources the Cowboys have committed to having elite interior defensive line play. Odighizuwa was signed to a contract extension at the beginning of the offseason, then came the trades for Clark and Williams. The Cowboys are the only team in the NFL with three defensive tackles making $20M per season. The Patriots are the only team with even two such players.
“Frankly, all three of them, if they’re singled up, any one of those three can give us what we need in the interior, and that is the trick,’’ Jones explained. “The other thing is you have the rotation aspect of it to have them at their premium, you don’t take 60 snaps a game from those guys.’’
The configuration, not coincidentally, reminds Jones of the defensive lines the Cowboys assumed when winning three Super Bowl championships in four years in the 1990s. Those rosters included Tony Casillas, Jimmie Johnson, Leon Lett, Russell Maryland, among others.
“One of the most successful we’ve ever been was when we had a big rotation back in the early days in the 90s,’’ Jones said. “A lot of people have always pointed out to me that rotation we had there in that defensive line, don’t undersell what that meant to you, keeping them fresh. If we can keep them fresh with those kinds of players, that can give us a strength. And I can say, without exception, this is the strongest we’ve ever been in the middle relative to defending passing situations or run situations.
“Charles Haley was the benefactor of that kind of firepower on the interior.’’
Cowboys Vice President of Personnel Will McClay described the team’s philosophy simply: “Shortest path to QB. Needs to be effective on offense and defense.”
Unsurprisingly, the Dallas offensive line mirrors the defensive line. The Cowboys invested their most recent first-round draft choice in rookie starting right guard Tyler Booker. Dallas has spent six first-round draft choices since 2011 on offensive linemen. They’re the only team to allocate three first-rounders to guards in that timeframe.
The goal is to ensure Prescott is healthy and executing at a high level from a clean pocket.
“We always talk about protecting the A and B gaps and right?’’ Prescott said. “That’s what you’re going to feel a lot more, a lot quicker than you are those edge pieces, not only that, right? Those edge pieces, you feel like you can get up and you can get out, or you can escape over the top when the pressure is coming right there in your lap.
“It’s very, very tough to figure out how to get out of that, and, you know, to see downfield. And so I think when you have that effect, it works. It’s probably the hardest, easy or best way to affect the quarterback is through the middle.”
Jones told me that the current approach to building the roster is the result of the general manager reflecting on the effectiveness of his approach and introducing change where he believed it would be potentially beneficial to create better results on the field.
“These last several years, I’ve continued to evaluate on a personal basis, what can we do differently?” Jones said. “What can we do, if you will, against the grain? We obviously thought we were making the kind of decisions that would win more ballgames, so I have continually looked to see what we could do to change it up.
“Now there’s a lot of different ways to approach it, but what you’re addressing is a change. We basically addressed our offensive line with our free agents and our drafts. We had done that five or six years ago with a different group and were very successful with it in my mind. Very successful. So we wanted some more of that, and we wanted to add to that to actually change philosophically as well as size as we moved ahead, especially at this time when we have the excellence at quarterback that we do.’’
Unfortunately, the improvements on defense might have occurred too late for the Cowboys to overcome the potentially damaging impact of their early-season losses to the Panthers and Jaguars.
While the potential for reaching the playoffs exists, it will require the Cowboys to win a lot of games — something they’ve not proven capable of the past two seasons.
Regardless, the defensive acquisitions should enable the team to be more competitive and, at the very least, create a foundation for continuing to rebuild the defense in the offseason.
“If we do make it to the playoffs or if we don’t make it to the playoffs, we should have been doing with this team considering where we are with Dak as we look forward, we should be making these kinds of decisions for both now and in the future,’’ Jones said. “That’s different than just making them for the future. So the decisions need to be now and in the future, especially in the areas I’m talking about with Williams and Parsons. That was a now and future decision.’’