The Dallas Cowboys are bargain shoppers once again in free agency. It’s the only time of year owner Jerry Jones becomes gun shy, seemingly incapable of pulling his wallet from its safe space to infuse his team with talent. So if the Cowboys defense is going to be competitive in the 2021 season, the major changes are coming from the draft and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.
In fact, to date, ESPN’s Todd Archer is calling Quinn the “biggest defensive pickup so far.” From the piece: “The Cowboys do not believe their defensive talent is as bad as what it appeared to be in 2020, even though as a unit, the defense allowed a franchise-record 473 points last season.”
That would suggest that the problem is bigger than any one man. In fact, 2020 had fans wishing for a time machine to take them back to the golden days of Rod Marinelli that was often disappointing, nearly always boring, but far less porous than the unit put forth last year.
Cowboys defensive touchdowns allowed per game:
2015: 2.2
2016: 2.2
2017: 2.2
2018: 2.2
2019: 2.2
2020: 3.4— Mike Clay (@MikeClayNFL) March 24, 2021
That’s a terrifying plummet.
Quinn is certainly capable, but the last time he had a top-flight defense was with the Seattle Seahawks and a roster built around multiple Hall-of-Fame-caliber players.
He won’t have that in Dallas.
He didn’t have it with the Falcons either, resulting in a 45-42 record during his 5-plus seasons there and a defense that never ranked in the top half of the league by DVOA (a Football Outsiders metric that measures performance based on opponent strength and game situation).
The Jones family is banking on someone who hasn’t delivered the results they’re looking for in years, although he was in a head coach capacity rather than directly coordinating a defense, thinking a return to a scheme the defense is more familiar with can bring happier days. Unless they get an infusion of talent, they likely can expect more of the same.