Tag: Linval Joseph

Hazardous Conditions: Workload questions key for these Cowboys

The Cowboys timeshare at DT will likely come down to conditioning as much as performance, says @ReidDHanson

The Cowboys are a veteran-led team coming off back-to-back-to-back, 12-win seasons. At this point, starting positions are locked up and rotations and expected workloads are generally set. Dallas’ 1-tech position isn’t so clearcut.

The defensive tackle spot that lines up in A-gaps goes into the 2024 season as a rather fluid situation. The hierarchy is in place, but the workload and defined roles are yet to be determined. Overall ability and job performance will be an important factor in how the Cowboys divvy up opportunities, but conditioning may ultimately dictate workloads and snap share.

Mazi Smith, the Cowboys top draft pick from 2023, has been handed the starting job based largely on his draft pedigree. He massively underachieved as a rookie but since he has the tangible traits of a good 1-tech, the team is committed to give him every opportunity to succeed as a starter.

Training camp went as expected for the young Michigan DT. Smith came to camp bulked up and motivated, which led to far better results on the field than what happened a year ago. An allergy reaction cost him a preseason game, but overall Smith had a positive summer.

After testing some young and inexpensive depth options in camp, the Cowboys decided to invest in the veteran stability of Linval Joseph. The 6-foot-4, 329-pound 1-tech has familiarity with Mike Zimmer and his defense and provides a fairly clean fit behind Smith. Signed late in August, Joseph will take some time getting into game shape. At nearly 36-year-old, it’s unknown how many defensive snaps the 14-year veteran can give Dallas, but his, and Smith’s, conditioning will likely play a big part.

Smith, roughly 13 years his younger, has legitimate conditioning questions surrounding his workload. He only averaged 18 snaps per game as a rookie and looked noticeably less effective as games progressed. With added weight on his frame in 2024, Smith still has stamina issues to overcome and shouldn’t be expected to carry a traditional workload for a starting DT.

Joseph is new to the fold in Dallas but if he can pick up where he left off the past two seasons, the Cowboys should be able to adequately fill the snaps at 1-tech with a 50-50 split between the two. Joseph played in 15 games over the last two seasons, averaging 23 defensive snaps per game. A combined 40 snaps between the two should be enough to cover the Cowboys since in obvious passing situations there won’t be a 1-tech DT on the field.

The Cowboys want Smith to succeed, and they plan to give him as many snaps as he can effectively handle in 2024. How many that proves to be will likely come down to his conditioning and ability to hold up late into a game.

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Geriatric Cowboys continue calling on veteran FA, hoping they’re fine wine

With two more veterans visiting the team, the Dallas Cowboys continue to add older players to the 2024 roster. | From @BenGrimaldi

The Dallas Cowboys like the players they’ve got, unless they don’t. When that happens, they turn to older players who’ve had past success. Stephen Jones’ philosophy over the past decade-plus is the team doesn’t spend money in free agency because they like the core players they have. Improvement will come from drafting and the Cowboys’ ability to develop their own players.

That was what the Joneses tried to sell the fan base on this offseason while sitting on their hands for months on end. Yet now, the organization seems to be in a bit of a panic. They are lacking depth – which could’ve been avoided by being proactive in free agency – and now Dallas is the place to be for any veteran player looking to stay employed in the NFL.

After signing a few older players recently, the trend has continued. The latest invites are more experienced options in running back Dalvin Cook and pass rusher Tyus Bowser.

Cook played for the Minnesota Vikings for six years, which included four straight 1,000-yard seasons and four Pro Bowl appearances. He’s just two years removed from his last 1,000-yard campaign, but Cook fizzled out last year with the New York Jets before they released him and he wound up signing with the Baltimore Ravens for the playoffs. Between the two teams, Cook rushed for just 214 yards and a career worst 3.2 yards a carry.

At 29-years old, the best days are behind Cook. Yet the Cowboys are interested in him to pair with another older, plodding RB in Ezekiel Elliott, who is ironically the same age.

Bowser is another 29-year-old the team is bringing in for a workout. After having a few good years with the Ravens and topping out at seven sacks in 2021, Bowser tore his Achilles in the same season, which limited his output in 2022. The defensive end was hurt last summer and never played in the 2023 season.

However, the Cowboys need pass rushing help and don’t seem swayed by the injury history from Bowser, who has played a full season just three times. Bowser could replace another older pass rusher the Cowboys had signed recently, Carl Lawson, who happens to be the magical age of 29 but was released on Tuesday. Another veteran the Cowboys signed this summer is defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad, who wears number 92, which is the inverse of his age, 29-years old.

The Cook and Bowser workouts come after the Cowboys traded for defensive tackle Jordan Phillips, who is currently 31, but will turn 32-years old in September, and signed another DT, Linval Joseph, off the streets at 35-years old. There’s not a lot of youth there for the recently added group.

Then again, adding veterans has been the tenor for the entirety of the slow offseason. The only two players who were considered quality acquisitions for the Cowboys were both around the age of 30. Elliott is 29, which is ancient for a RB, and linebacker Eric Kendricks, is 32-years old.

Now, late in the offseason, the Cowboys seem to continue to be heading down the same path. What makes adding these veterans this late so frustrating is the team could’ve just signed a much better, and younger, player or two when free agency began, instead of trying to find answers now. Dallas didn’t need to sign the best guys on the open market in March, but being a little aggressive in finding younger talent then could’ve avoided the search now, when their options are limited.

Perhaps we now know why Jerry Jones said the team would be “all-in,” because this is the last time many of these players will play in the league.

Just call them the geriatric Cowboys.

You can chat with or follow Ben on twitter @BenGrimaldi

NFL Preseason: This 1st-round pick has plenty to prove in Cowboys exhibition finale

Questions remain with Mazi Smith’s play heading into the final week of the Cowboys preseason

Mazi Smith has had a lot to prove this summer. Not only did the former Michigan defensive tackle struggle with weight, performance and reaction time last season, but he contributed less than any Dallas rookie first rounder since the Bill Parcells era.

Recovering from that course would require a strong offseason, a healthy training camp and a fruitful preseason. The first two categories earned checkmarks in the affirmative. The last one, the preseason games, remain in “pending” status.

Smith missed the Cowboys’ last preseason game with an allergic reaction. The fluke event appeared to have no lingering effects, but the opportunity was missed. Smith enters Dallas’ final preseason game with just 20 snaps of game action on film this summer. He’s improved but still has plenty to prove.

Smith’s conditioning is understandably in question. Playing on the defensive interior is no easy task. The 1-tech DT position demands effort every snap and requires its players to play every snap like it’s their last.

Against Los Angeles Smith looked improved but also certifiably gassed. The Cowboys partially addressed this situation by adding the veteran Linval Joseph to the rotation. At age 35, it’s unknown how much Joseph can spell Smith at the 1-tech spot. Joseph only contributed 161 defensive snaps for Buffalo last season and hasn’t logged more than 200 snaps since 2021. He’ll help but he can’t be expected to take on much more than a minority role.

It’s on Smith to prove he can play like a starting DT in 2024. It’s also on him to show he has the physical endurance to play the lion’s share of the snaps. If he can’t offer the endurance to stay on the field, his effectiveness as a player is significantly capped.

In the Cowboys final preseason game against the Chargers, it will be interesting to see how many consecutive snaps Smith can play and whether or not his effectiveness wanes as the snap count increases. It’s the last box to check before the Cowboys roll into the regular season and remains one of the biggest question marks on the Cowboys 2024 defense.

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Cowboys’ newest addition fits defensive puzzle in multiple ways

Adding Linval Joseph, even at 35, gives Dallas a unique interior rotation on paper. If it works, things could get intriguing for Dallas’ defense. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Cowboys must’ve really been impressed with the opposition when they got their lunch handed to them last December. On December 17, Dallas sent their representatives up north to Buffalo for a cool, rainy road trip riding a five-game winning streak, boasting a 10-3 record. In all honesty, the 31-10 shellacking they took at the hands of the Bills was the start of the unraveling of their promising season.

A close, 22-20 loss to Miami the following week made it a losing streak and they escaped by the skin of their teeth at home against Detroit in the now infamous, OL substitution foot shooting by Dan Campbell. Dallas’ lessened ceiling wasn’t masked in a blowout road finale against inept Washington, and the Green Bay Packers marched into AT&T Stadium and jigsawed the Cowboys hopes and dreams in front of the world.

That was the final shot, but the loss to Buffalo was the beginning of the end. And if the two of the three recent DL additions are any indication, that had a profound impact on the way the front office wanted to put the puzzle pieces together for 2024. On Wednesday, Dallas acquired a second Bills defensive lineman from that day, inking free agent Linval Joseph.

“Breaking: I’m told the #Cowboys are signing DT Linval Joseph, per source. – Josina Anderson

Dallas will have recently acquired two veteran interior defenders to rotate with 3T Osa Odighizuwa, and 1T Mazi Smith.

Last week, Dallas traded for Jordan Phillips, who had signed with the New York Giants this offseason after being with the Bills for the previous two campaigns.

Phillips, 6-foot-6, 349 pounds, is the bigger of the linemen, but he’s primarily been a 3T his entire career who also is a run stuffer. Joseph is a former second-round pick of the Giants… from 2010. He’s going to enter his 15th season in the league and will be the Cowboys’ second oldest player at 35, four days younger than punter Bryan Anger.

Joseph played for Mike Zimmer in Minnesota from 2014 through 2019, and has also spent time in LA with the Chargers (2 seasons) and Philadelphia (one season) before landing in Buffalo last season.

He played in seven games and had 12 tackles and one sack.

Zimmer must be reminiscing somewhat about the days of old when he had the No. 1 defense in yards and points with Joseph making the Pro Bowl.

Joseph will rotate with Smith, and possibly could see starter snaps as the first-round pick from 2023 continues to try to acclimate himself to the league and the rigors of the NFL. It hasn’t been a smooth beginning for Smith, who has made progress from last season and has likely changed targets for what would be considered short-term success in his second season.

Smith played behind another elder statesman, Johnathan Hankins, last season. Hankins was allowed to leave the club and signed with the Seattle Seahawks in free agency.

Zimmer will now be able to deploy a rotation of three functional 320-to-340 pound interior defenders, along with Odighizuwa at 285 pounds as the pass-rush specialist. It gives him numerous intriguing possibilities along with defensive ends DeMarcus Lawrence, Marshawn Kneeland and Chauncey Golston who can rotate inside as well.

Combined with the chess piece of Micah Parsons and what might be the league’s deepest secondary, things could quickly come together.

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Report: Cowboys to sign DT Linval Joseph

Dallas continues to beef up the interior with their latest expected signing. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys continue to address their defensive line on Wednesday. According to Josina Anderson, the club has agreed to terms with free agent DT Linval Joseph.

Joseph, 35, is a 6-foot-4, 329-pound nose tackle who is signing on for his 15th NFL season. An original second-round pick of the New York Giants in 2010, Joseph has played for five different clubs before this and spend last season playing seven games for the Buffalo Bills.

He has 676 career tackles and 26.5 career sacks as a run-stuffing one-technique. Joseph spent six seasons with Mike Zimmer in Minnesota, where he made two Pro Bowls (2016, 2017). He will rotate with second-year player Mazi Smith as the Cowboys continue to look to transform their run defense to improve a weakness from last season.

Joseph will look to quickly ramp up with the club now that training camp is over and preparation for the regular season opener will begin in earnest following the final preseason game of the season.

The Cowboys will travel back from Oxnard, CA and host the Los Angeles Chargers – a team Joseph played two seasons for – on Saturday to close out the exhibition schedule.

Dallas is 1-1 so far in the preseason, losing to the Los Angeles Rams on a last-second touchdown drive, 13-12, and taking down the Las Vegas Raiders, 27-12 this past Saturday.

The club has been on the west coast since the end of July and had a fire break out on the next-to-last day, requiring multiple players to be relocated and putting.a weird bow on the team’s summer.

Full list of Bills players who will be free agents this offseason

Who will stay and who will go?

As another season of Buffalo Bills football has come to an end, so have another series of contracts that have been signed.

Whether it be grizzled veterans or players seeing the end of their rookie contracts, there are plenty of faces who will not long be under contract in Buffalo in March when free agency opens.

The Bills have plenty of time until then to sign players to extensions, but it’s never so cut-and-dry. According to Over The Cap, Buffalo is estimated to be $49 million over the 2024 NFL salary cap.

Moves must be made and general manager Brandon Beane will earn his own salary with the decisions ahead.

But what you’re here for: The full list of Bills free agents following the 2023 season is below:

PFF: 5 highest-graded Bills players on defense in Wild Card

#Bills defenders leading the way:

The Buffalo Bills won their Wild Card matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 31-17 final.

The Bills (11-6) had a few players that stood out above the rest. On defense, the Bills were led by an attacking defensive front the Steelers could not handle.

In terms of the players who helped them pull out the win, Buffalo will hope such efforts continue from some players throughout the rest of the 2023 playoffs as they aim for the Super Bowl.

According to Pro Football Focus, they’ll need these players to keep it up.

Here are the five highest-graded Bills players on defense Steelers in the Wild Card round:

Report card: Bills top Steelers, 31-17

Report card: #Bills top #Steelers, 31-17:

The Buffalo Bills have worked their way through the Pittsburgh Steelers and are now onto the Divisional round of the AFC postseason.

Buffalo put together an effort that was strong throughout the contest. But not all three phases. While not a team that has covered the spread often this season, Pittsburgh was behind it throughout most of the game because of a strong effort up-and-down the Bills roster.

With that, here’s Bills Wire’s report card following the team’s 31-17 Wild Card win:

Bills snap counts: Depth chart breakdown vs. Patriots

Defense had the interesting notes:

The Buffalo Bills got after it against the New England Patriots and ended up taking a close win, 27-21, on Sunday afternoon in Week 17.

But who exactly were the ones on the field for the Bills (10-6) doing all the dirty work against the Patriots (4-12)?

More often than not, taking a look in between the lines at snap count totals for Buffalo’s players can give us some insight as to what went down in between the lines on the gridiron.

There is always plenty to discover when looking at these finer details.

With that, here’s how the Bills depth chart broke down via snap counts in their latest win against the Patriots:

PFF: 5 highest-graded Bills players on defense in Week 16

PFF: 5 highest-graded #Bills players on defense in Week 16 vs. the #Chargers:

The Buffalo Bills won a tight 24-22 final in their Week 16 matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers.

The Bills (9-6) had a few players that stood out above the rest in this one. On defense, the Bills were led by defensive tackle Ed Oliver’s pair of sacks.

In terms of the players who helped Oliver pull out the win, Buffalo will hope such efforts remain throughout the rest of the 2023 season as they aim to secure a postseason spot.

According to Pro Football Focus, they’ll need these players to continue to play at a high level.

Here are the five highest-graded Bills players on defense against the Chargers in Week 16: