Tag: Jayron Kearse

9 Cowboys who could follow Dan Quinn to Washington in next 2 years

It’s common practice for players to follow a coach to a new venue. Which defenders could trail Quinn to the east coast? | From @KDDrummondNFL

One would imagine that a ton of Cowboys defenders enjoyed their time under Dan Quinn’s leadership. His ability to motivate and lead is often cited as his best quality, and that’s for a defensive coordinator who has had three straight top-five defenses in Dallas on top of back-to-back No. 1 defenses in Seattle. In between was a stint as head coach of Atlanta that included a trip to the Super Bowl without having a top defense.

So it stands to reason, with a new franchise QB incoming and a ton of cap space, Washington is going to be an intriguing destination for Quinn’s disciples. Some will be able to join him this year, others will have to wait a year until their contracts expire. Here’s a look at two years worth of Cowboys free agents who could end up following Quinn to the nation’s capital.

 

Cowboys safeties underachieved, but should rebound in 2024

The Cowboys safety group appeared to regress in 2023 but there’s reason to believe the volatile position will bounce back in 2024. | From @ReidDHanson

The Cowboys went into the 2023 season with what appeared to be their best safety group in over a decade. Donovan Wilson, Malik Hooker and Jayron Kease formed a versatile and proven trio in Dallas the season prior. It seemed after years of neglect the Cowboys finally had assets on the backend and not liabilities.

But like what has happened many times before in Dallas, performance at the position proved unstable, and the Cowboys trio fell short of their expectations. It’s something the franchise has seen before and likely a big reason why they’ve made such a half-hearted effort in filling it over the years.

In the past they saw players like Ken Hamlin and Gerald Sensabaugh follow up good years with bad years. Both played well enough to earn new contracts in Dallas (Hamlin even went to the Pro Bowl in 2007) and both, soon after, fell flat. It cultivated a distrust in the position and as a result cursed it to a revolving door of personnel.

Kearse, a free agent in March, is not expected to be back with the club in 2024. 2023 was his worst season in Dallas as he struggled in both phases of the game, frequently committing back-breaking penalties along the way. It was the polar opposite of his 2021 season when he established himself as one of Dan Quinn’s most versatile weapons on the defense.

Wilson was already known as a high variance player. He takes big swings and often gets big-swing results. He has good games and bad games but last season there appeared to be a little more bad than good.

Hooker was the toughest evaluation. As the Cowboys’ primary free safety, Hooker plays on the backend most of the day. His evaluation requires All-22 copy since he’s not even on the screen in a typical broadcast.

Hooker’s value was as a deterrent. The All-22 showed he was often in good position to make passers look elsewhere and the numbers back it up. In 16 games, he was only targeted 23 times. That’s the lowest number of targets since he joined the Cowboys. The completion percentage against was just 56.5% which is also his lowest since joining Dallas.

Yet Hooker’s yards/target and passer rating allowed, both went up and became his worst since joining the Cowboys.  Hooker was the only Dallas safety to grade in PFF’s top-50, but he wasn’t as impactful as he’d been the season before.

This high variance play isn’t unique to the Cowboys. Since defensive coordinators change, coverage schemes change. And since coverages change, players change. It’s not uncommon to see a one-time Pro Bowl safety bounce around the league year after year. The position itself is volatile and the demands are ever-changing.

3 Cowboys defenders likely to follow Dan Quinn if he leaves Dallas

If Dan Quinn leaves the Cowboys in the offseason here are three defenders who are likely to follow him out of Dallas. | From @ReidDHanson

Over the past three seasons Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn has enjoyed celebrity status in Dallas. The former Super Bowl head coach transformed a fledging defense under Mike Nolan into a one of the NFL’s best, almost overnight.

Leading the NFL in turnovers for two consecutive seasons was said to be impossible, yet Quinn achieved it in 2021 and 2022. He was able to lure veteran players into rotational roles. Dallas retained up-and-comers on affordable deals. Quinn moved players to new roles and positions with shocking success. His proficiency in Dallas has earned him top status around the NFL. He’s been an annual name on head coaching interview lists each offseason and each season the Cowboys have felt generally blessed to somehow retain him.

That might change in 2024.

Upheaval is expected following the Cowboys’ 48-32 loss to the Packers in the wild card round of the playoffs. Dallas was humiliated at home and Quinn’s defense played a significant role in that loss. He’s already been linked to vacancies around the NFL and given his tenuous status in Dallas, may see 2024 as the perfect time to jump ship.

But Quinn is a player’s coach. His guys love him and based on the players who’ve come to Dallas to work with him over the years, his players also follow him. So, if/when Quinn leaves the Cowboys, who can be expected to follow him out of town?

Jayron Kearse Calls Out NFL Officiating

A former Tiger called out NFL officials for an unnecessary roughness call against him.

Former Clemson safety and current Dallas Cowboys starter Jayron Kearse was hit with an unnecessary roughness call in the Cowboys’ brutal 31-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night.

From my perspective, the call was poor, and it seems Kearse feels very much the same. It was 2nd and 19 for the Bills, and they tested Kearse down the left side of the field. Kearse made a play, and the ball flew over the Bills wide receiver’s head, but the NFL officials quickly pulled out their flags and made an unnecessary roughness call.

Following this clearly poor call, Kearse took to social media to call out NFL officials. Let us know what you think. Playing football is getting a lot more difficult for defenders.

Cowboys’ McCarthy: Jayron Kearse has ‘good chance’ to return to lineup vs Seattle

From @ToddBrock24f7: Jayron Kearse sat out last Thursday’s game with back tightness, but was expected to be up to “a majority” of reps by Monday’s practice.

Despite rolling to a dominant 45-10 final, the Cowboys gave up an uncharacteristically high amount of passing yards in their Week 12 win. The team’s pass defense is currently ranked second in the NFL, allowing an average of 167.2 yards through the air per game. But on Thursday, the Commanders’ Sam Howell became the first opposing quarterback to log a 300-yard performance against Dallas this season.

The Cowboys will look to get back on track in that department this week when the Seahawks pay a visit to AT&T Stadium. And they look forward to a key piece of their secondary being back in action.

Safety Jayron Kearse, who sat out the Thanksgiving Day contest with back tightness, is trending toward a return to the lineup this week, according to head coach Mike McCarthy.

“I think JK looks good,” McCarthy told reporters before a jogthrough on Sunday, expecting him to take “probably half the reps.”

“I anticipate him having a good chance of playing this week,” the coach added.

By Monday’s practice, Kearse’s expected workload had been upped to “the majority” of reps.

Prior to missing the annual Thanksgiving outing, Kearse had played at least 57% of the defensive snaps in each of the team’s first 10 games. Even with the one-game absence, he ranks fourth on the team in total tackles. He’s also recorded 1.5 sacks and has one of the team’s 12 interceptions.

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Cowboys second-year safety Junayeh Thomas saw an increase in snaps on Thursday with Kearse out and played well, earning a team-best 81.8 grade from PFF.

Seattle quarterback Geno Smith comes in averaging 234.9 passing yards per game this season.

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Why Leighton Vander Esch’s injury is extra difficult for Cowboys to overcome

When Leighton Vander Esch went down to injury, the Cowboys lost more than a star player, they lost a key leader of the defense says @ReidDHanson.

Injuries are a painful inevitability of the NFL. The game is physical and unrelenting, and no team escapes unscathed. How teams deal with said injuries often decides which teams find postseason fortune and which teams do not.

The Cowboys have already had their fair share of injuries. Their offensive line has been a game of musical chairs, and their secondary suffered the worst loss imaginable when Trevon Diggs tore his ACL three weeks into the season.

In Sunday’s “Debacle at the Bay,” the Cowboys suffered another enormous loss to their defense when Leighton Vander Esch fell to a neck injury. The injury will land the 26-year-old on IR and stole from an already shallow Dallas LB corps.

What’s even worse is Vander Esch isn’t just the Cowboys’ top LB, but he’s also the leader of the defense and Dan Quinn’s signal caller. Marked with the green dot, Vander Esch makes the calls on the field, putting defenders in position and adjusting as necessary.

Who’s the backup defensive play-caller?

In the preseason we saw the rookie DeMarvion Overshown wear the green dot. It was a testament to his individual football intelligence and a sign there may not be an obvious replacement in the veteran ranks. But like Vander Esch, Overshown found himself on IR.

Next man up says the green dot will go to veteran safety, Jayron Kearse. Kearse is a leader on the team and one of Quinn’s smartest players. He’s in the midst of an off-year, getting called for some unforced critical penalties and falling short in making up for it with highlight plays. Maybe a bigger leadership role is what he needs to right the course.

“It’ll be tough to replace Leighton,” Kearse said. “He’s been coaching those young guys up. They look up to Leighton and Leighton has been a tremendous leader for us, helping us on the back end, helping the guys on the front.”

Vander Esch and Kearse play nearly the same number of snaps each week so it shouldn’t upset the rotations or personnel groups to push the job onto Kearse’s plate. The only question is whether he’s up to the task.

Vander Esch was Quinn’s mouthpiece on the field. Will Kearse be able to pick up right where Vander Esch left off?

There are plenty of reasons to think he will. Entering the final year of his contract, it’s important for Kearse to have a good showing this season. The Cowboys already recommitted to Donovan Wilson and Malik Hooker at safety.

As discussed prior to the season, Kearse will likely be playing elsewhere in 2023. He could do a lot of good for his market value by turning his season around and being a leader on a defense that desperately needs some direction.

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3 key matchups for Cowboys at Giants in Week 1

The Sunday Night Football affair between the Cowboys and Giants will likely come down to three key matchups in Week 1, says @ReidDHanson.

The 2023 season is upon us and the Cowboys start the year facing off against the NFL East rival Giants on Sunday night in East Rutherford, New Jersey.  Free agency and the draft appear to have improved both rosters, offering optimism for heading into the new season.

The Cowboys, coming off a 12-win season, and New York, coming off a nine-win season where both advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs, have their sights on playoff berths in 2023.

With Dak Prescott under center, Dallas has gone 10-0 against the Giants over the last six seasons. But over the last three seasons, the Cowboys are also 0-3 in Week 1 games. Mike McCarthy’s strategy of sidelining his starters in the preseason has led to some pretty clunky starts over the years. This offers a wide range of reasonable outcomes on Sunday. Matchups will make the difference so today we look at three key matchups between the Cowboys and New York.

 

Jayron Kearse is critical to Cowboys, but faces uncertain future

Kearse is an important player for the Cowboys but based on how the roster forecasts, he may not have a future beyond 2023. | From @ReidDHanson

Before the Cowboys added Jayron Kearse into the fold in 2021, the safety position had become a black hole of sorts for Dallas. Regarded as an afterthought in most of their roster-building endeavors, the Cowboys’ safety room was often comprised of long shots and retreads. Kearse came to Dallas as a little bit of both.

The same offseason Kearse arrived, defensive coordinator Dan Quinn also brought in free agents Damontae Kazee and Keanu Neal, safeties from Quinn’s time in Atlanta. To make things even harder for Kearse, former first-round pick, Malik Hooker, was signed as a high-end reclamation project for Dallas.

And as if that wasn’t enough talent at the safety position in 2021, expectations were high for Donovan Wilson to breakout in his third NFL season.

Kearse, at the time, was a career role player who was just getting his chance to contribute. In his previous five seasons he barely logged a combined 1,000 defensive snaps. In fact, in three of his seasons prior to Dallas, he posted more snaps on special teams than he did on defense. It wasn’t until midway through 2020, when he began getting a regular dose of starter snaps for a floundering Detroit team with an interim coach and the league’s worst defense.

There was no guarantee he’d even make the Cowboys the following year, let alone seize a starting spot. But that’s exactly what he did, starting 15 games that first season with the Cowboys and establishing himself as the definitive leader of the secondary.

Cowboys corner market with not 1, not 2, but 3 of NFL’s top slot defenders

With 2 of the Top 11 and a third from last year, Dallas’ slot coverage ability may match that out on the boundary, where they have two All-Pros. | From @KDDrummondNFL

There’s no question the Dallas Cowboys boast one of the NFL’s best and most complete defenses. There are playmakers galore both at the line of scrimmage and in coverage. Back in the day, the phrase turn would have been “at all three levels”, but the transition of defensive personnel into hybrid modalities blurs the lines. Dan Quinn is one of the scheme leaders in that respect, favoring linebackers who primarily have edge responsibilities and three-safety groupings that take on roles formerly manned by a third linebacker.

But scheme isn’t enough on its own; having stand outs play their roles well is imperative in getting a defense that ranked No. 3 in DVOA pass defense in 2022 after ranking second in 2021.

The uniqueness of how Quinn places his chess pieces has resulted in them having not one, but two different players identified among the league’s best in defending the slot entering 2023, per Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar.

But it’s deeper than that, because one of the two on the 2023 list was an injury replacement for someone who made Farrar’s list in 2022.

The NFL’s 11 best slot defenders

Doug Farrar continues his positional lists of the NFL’s best players with the 11 best slot defenders heading into the 2023 NFL season.

In the 2022 NFL season, defenses played nickel (five defensive backs) on 12,630 opponent passing attempts. Defenses played dime (six defensive backs) on 2,715 opponent dropbacks. With just 3,206 opponent dropbacks against four defensive backs last season, base defense is no longer base defense — nickel is the new base, and has been for some time.

Moreover, the influx of three-safety looks in the NFL has increased, as has the specific “big nickel” looks with three safeties and two cornerbacks.

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The point of this preamble? That slot defenders are more important than they’ve ever been. Whether it’s in a more traditional nickel or dime look with just one slot defender, or defenses aligning two slot defenders to the strong side of the 3×1 formation, slot defenders aren’t just pre-emptive starters anymore — they’re integral parts of modern defenses, and good luck having a great defense without at least one.

Slot defenders have their own skill sets. It’s not like it was 20 years ago, when the smallest, slowest defensive back on a roster was relegated to the slot. Now, those guys need to have the coverage skills of cornerbacks, the run-stopping abilities of strong safeties, and the blitz instincts of linebackers.

It’s a fascinating gig.

As Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup said in this week’s edition of the “Xs and Os” podcast/video, the requirements for top-tier slot defenders make it a unique position.

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Building the perfect secondary

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“Slot defenders are an interesting breed. They can come in all shapes and sizes. They can be smaller, like Mike Hilton, who I think is one of the best slot defenders in the league. They can be bigger; it depends on what you want. But think of it this way — I know the numbers might be going down a bit, but teams line up in 11 personnel [one running back, one tight end, three receivers] a majority of the time. And teams are playing out of 11 personnel on first down — on second-and-3. What we consider normal down-and-distance situations where the run game is part of the offense. It’s not jst a third-down situation.

“Your slot defender is not just a pass defender. Your slot defender has to be able to defend the run, because there are a lot of teams that run toward the slot defender, because they know he’s not as good a run defender as you’d see running to the other side, where you might have bigger bodies. He also has to be part of pressure schemes. How often do we see slot defenders in today’s NFL as blitzers?

“So, not only do you have to play man coverage against receivers who have a two-way go, you also have to play underneath zone coverage, which is different than playing underneath zone coverage if you’re an outside cornerback. There are different rules, because zones all have their own rules.”

As has been the case with other defensive backs on this year’s list, the transfer of power from season to season is inconsistent, at best. Just two slot defenders from last year’s list — Derwin James and Kyle Dugger — made it in the 2023 group. Sometimes, that was about positional changes; other times, the performances from last year’s top slot defenders were simply eclipsed by the new guys.

No matter how you slice it, it’s tough to be a great slot defender in today’s NFL, and here are out 11 best heading into the 2023 season.

The NFL’s 11 best cornerbacks
The NFL’s 11 best safeties

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions unless otherwise indicated).