The biggest and most important piece may be in place, with Dak Prescott’s signature now dry on a contract that keeps him in Dallas for at least the next four years. But some other areas of the puzzle need a lot of work in order to put together the championship picture that Cowboys fans have been envisioning for so long.
With the stroke of Prescott’s pen on Wednesday, fixing the defense took over the top-priority spot on the team’s to-do list. But Cowboys executive vice president and chief operating officer Stephen Jones took a moment during his quarterback’s press conference to note that the club is further along on that particular project than it may seem.
“We’ve already taken a major step with Dan Quinn,” Jones said of the defensive coordinator hired in January. “I think he’s going to be very special. When we did our diligence, figuring it out with Coach [Mike] McCarthy and Jerry [Jones] and myself, what he would be like as a defensive coordinator, it was nothing but rave reviews. His players want to lay it on the line for him. They want to play hard for him.”
Quinn replaces Mike Nolan, who lasted just one season in Dallas. Under Nolan’s watch, the Cowboys defense attempted to install an entirely new scheme during an offseason program held virtually. They ended up surrendering the most points in franchise history, and the second-most rushing yards and total yards ever by a Dallas defense.
With a total of ten picks in next month’s draft, the Cowboys are expected to look to the college ranks to dramatically beef up the unit for 2021, but Jones believes that Quinn’s cupboard isn’t nearly as bare as the 2020 rankings suggest.
“I think we’ve got a lot of great players on defense,” Jones went on, “whether it’s DeMarcus Lawrence, whether it’s Leighton Vander Esch or Jaylon Smith, whether it’s a Randy Gregory, who is up-and-coming. Young guys like [Neville] Gallimore and Trysten Hill. There’s a lot to work with there, and I think he’s going to get it out of them. I think he’s going to put a system in where they can play hard and fast and confident in what they’re doing. And then if we go do our work in the offseason in terms of improving it, I think we’re going to check that box.”
Quinn has yet to speak directly with the media since taking the Cowboys job. But team owner Jerry Jones says that Quinn’s past performances speak volumes about what he brings to Dallas.
“Quinn, in my view, has some great skins on the wall,” the elder Jones pointed out.
The 50-year-old Quinn was the architect of a Seattle Seahawks defense that finished best in the NFL in points and yards in their back-to-back Super Bowl seasons of 2013 and 2014. Quinn’s defenses in Atlanta from 2015 to 2020 were less impressive, ranking in the top ten just once, but by then he was the team’s head coach. The Falcons employed four different defensive coordinators during Quinn’s five-plus seasons as coach, including Quinn himself in a dual role in 2019.
“He’s got great experience. He is people-skilled. When you’re around him, you’ll see that,” Jones went on. “He’s certainly a dedicated football coach, and he’s covered a lot of ground. We have a lot of tape, so to speak, if you were talking about a player. We’ve got, really, a lot of information to look at to decide how he fits us. He was absolutely perfect for us in this situation to come in here. He’ll be extraordinarily influential in how we put together our personnel on defense. I think he’s got that kind of credibility.”
Jones isn’t the only one. Even the Cowboys’ new $164 million dollar man offered a positive scouting report.
“Coach Quinn; I’ve met him throughout the building,” Prescott told reporters on Wednesday. “He’s a guy who jumps off at you with his demeanor and everything that he carries. But what was most prominent and fulfilling to me was hearing the guys he’s coached, and former teammates of mine, whether it be Keith Smith or other guys, saying, ‘Hey, you’re going to love this guy.'”
If his unit can hold opponents to something well below their awful 2020 average of 29.6 points per game, then it’s a good bet that Prescott, the Dallas offense, and Cowboys fans everywhere will, in fact, love Quinn, too.
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