Entering his 11th NFL season, Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence is now one of the team’s elder statesmen. But that doesn’t mean the 32-year-old father of four has turned into the de facto team dad when it comes to motivating his younger defensive coworkers.
“Early in my career, I had a lot of rah-rah with me,” Lawrence said this week at Cowboys training camp in Oxnard. “I do that at home with the kids, so I’m not trying to come up here and holler at grown men. It’s really more a calming role: try to lead by teaching, going through the steps with the guys instead of trying to push them.”
A calming role? From someone with 58.5 sacks and over 400 career tackles?!?
The four-time Pro Bowler knows he has a responsibility to mentor those behind him on the depth chart to the same kind of on-the-field impact. That facet of his job will take on even more importance now that third-year breakout candidate Sam Williams has been lost to a season-ending injury.
Second-round draft pick Marshawn Kneeland will be expected to step up in a big way. And Lawrence already likes what he sees from the just-turned 23-year-old.
“He has a lot of ambition, grit with his game,” Lawrence admired. “His fundamentals are pretty clean, especially for a rookie. It’s a high ceiling for him. I’m going to keep working with him as much as I can. I definitely think he’s going to evolve into something even better than me.”
That’s a very high bar for Kneeland to aim for. The similarities between Lawrence and Kneeland are obvious, though. Both are listed at 6-foot 3. Both came from schools that aren’t exactly blue-blood powerhouse programs. Both were drafted by Dallas in the second round, almost 10 years apart to the day.
But the “DeMarcus Lawrence 2.0” moniker that some have already adopted for Kneeland? The beta version isn’t buying it.
“Not as much as y’all say,” Lawrence laughed. “Me is me. God didn’t make too many DeMarcus Lawrences, you know? At least that I know of. But Marshawn definitely has some instinctive play to his style. He’s down, dirty, gritty. He’s 275; I never played at 275, so it’s definitely a little difference, but I like the grit about him.”
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That grit should endear Kneeland to both Cowboys fans and his new defensive coordinator. Early reviews on what Mike Zimmer has brought to the unit already hint at what should be a noticeable change from Dan Quinn’s Dallas defenses of the past three years.
Lawrence confirmed it.
“With DQ, it was more about speed, using our speed to set up linemen. This year with Coach Z, it’s really details, working on our details, our fundamentals, staying in our gap, controlling our space, and we work our speed through that.”
And while Quinn was fiercely loved by his Cowboys players, Zimmer brings an uncompromising demand for excellence that made Lawrence practically light up when talking about him.
“He really cares about ball. It’s actually dope to have a coach that is not going to settle for nothing else but the best out of you.”
Sounds like a father figure, something about which Lawrence knows plenty.
Kneeland may be speaking about his own defensive mentor- Lawrence- in the same kind of revered tone very soon.
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