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2020-2021 Offseason: Cowboys Seek To Solve Their
Defensive Sin With The Signing Of Dan Quinn
January 15,
2021 At 11:39 PM CST
By Eric M. Scharf-
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Fresh off their firing of defensive line coach Jim Tomsula and
defensive coordinator Mike Nolan, “America’s Team” has – on
consecutive days – hired two former fightin’ birds in their latest
attempt to get their defense schematically rollin’.
GM Jerry’s understandable desire for 11th hour postseason
possibilities to peter, err, play out ensured the welcome coaching
change could not arrive any sooner, with the selection of none other
than former Falcons head coach Dan Quinn and his former secondary
coach and passing game coordinator Joe Whitt, Jr.
Just as Monte Kiffin and Rod Marinelli could not bring key members
of the “Tampa (Cover) 2” with them, Dan Quinn brought neither the
Seattle Seahawks’ “Legion of Boom” nor the 2016 Falcons defense
(especially not the Super Bowl LI unit that gave up 31 consecutive
points to the New England Patriots) with him.
Quinn has brought to Dallas neither cornerback Richard Sherman, free
safety Earl Thomas, strong safety Kam Chancellor, cornerback Brandon
Browner, nor cornerback Byron Maxwell (who played like poop once he
flew the coop) in their prime. No linebackers like Bobby Wagner, K.
J. Wright, and Bruce Irvin or defensive ends like Michael Bennett
and Cliff Avril to impressively and instantaneously reverse so much
of the Cowboys’ forgettable 2020 defensive crime.
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“Yeah, but Quinn surely brought with him that same aggressive,
energetic, high-pursuit scheme that empowered all that blood-thirsty
talent on more than one former Seattle team!” you correctly claim
(perhaps forgetting one Kris Richard’s previously-coordinated effort
with Marinelli to do somewhat the same).
While Richard, of course, spent 2010-2014 with the Seahawks, Quinn
spent 2009-2010 and 2013-2014 in collaboration with him,
collectively converting Seattle’s defense into “The One Who Knocks.”
Fast forward to 2021, and Quinn is now relying on Whitt to help him
turn the Cowboys’ defense into a hard-charging hit.
Head coach Mike McCarthy – in his second official opportunity with
the Cowboys to hire coaches with the right approaches – appears to
have focused more exclusively on qualifications . . . rather than
past, comfortable and friendly relations. “More,” of course, does
not mean “ideally,” following the hire of another (frighteningly?)
familiar face with defensive eyes which may be less than steely.
The Cowboys’ new secondary coach / defensive pass game coordinator
spent most of his 11 years under McCarthy coaching cornerbacks when
both were with the Green Bay Packers. He went to the Cleveland
Browns (where he delivered the seventh-best-yet-turnover-challenged
passing defense) the following year under the same title. Whitt then
took up an equal opportunity with Quinn in Atlanta last season
(where the Falcons’ secondary were woeful attackers whenever their
success was absolutely vital).
While the addition of Quinn is supported by two consecutive Super
Bowl appearances (and nearly two straight victories) as defensive
coordinator with Seattle, Whitt’s body of work (though powered by
traumatized talent in Atlanta) may be less-convincing to “Cowboys
Nation” that he is the best person to lead Dallas’ secondary into
battle (unless he magically has a version of "Thurman's Thieves" up
his sleeves). Discerning fans may keep one hand comfortably numb in an
undersized foam finger and the other hand on a family-sized bottle
of Mylanta.
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Nonetheless, their “Mission Impossible” mandate is to ensure the
good ol’ 4-3 successfully returns (to replace an ill-fitting, hybrid
3-4 that left still-visible turf burns). While Quinn is known as a
compelling player’s coach, his own designs – as (eventually)
displayed in Atlanta to a legion of Falcon fans dismayed – are not
beyond reproach. His concepts admittedly have their own amalgamated
elements but – like any best-laid “THIS will fix it” schemes – they
can still fall short without enough critically-preferred player
components to deliver on specified performance themes.
Exotic Viewed (Once Again) As Toxic
Mike Nolan – before all the venom and hate – was granted the very
same (now-urgent) mandate.
He believed his system could add what –
in the absence of a greater number of defensive studs – was
desperately missing from Marinelli’s 4-3 in the form of disguises
and pre-snap confusion. Nolan’s single season unfortunately
concluded with a greater number of defensive duds, leaving both
“Cowboys Nation” and players with a mental contusion. Though his
squad did, in fact, display (albeit inconsistent) improvement, his
grades – by season’s end – still resembled a pungent movement that
steered too dangerously around the bend. While he also received a
woeful amount of offseason and training camp time with which to
properly install and prep, his (dismissive?) decision to push ahead
via Zoom meetings with his comparatively-complex strategy (when he
could have and should have avoided such an intricate tragedy) had a
horrible impact on his experienced-but-wildly-uneven rep. 31 other
defensive coordinators faced similar challenges during the nightmare
that was 2020, but Nolan’s schematic choices were far from on the
money.
If Nolan’s demise seemed eerily familiar, it should. Rob Ryan –
almost a decade earlier – attempted to bring 3-4 concepts that were
exotically similar (though with no pandemic to prevent them from
being more easily understood). The brother to Rex and son of Buddy
was a quick study, but little about his scheme seemed particularly
fuddy duddy. Ryan promised to bring with him from the
lowly-at-the-time Cleveland Browns the same designs so weighty that
once proved so unpredictable and game-winning against one Tom Brady.
Rob Ryan saw (and still sees?) himself as Robby Ridiculously, err,
Johnny Dangerously . . . with the goal of making all opponents on
the Cowboys’ schedule resemble Danny Vermin (initially threatening
but ultimately wandering harmlessly).
“You shouldn't hang me on a hook, Johnny. My father hung me on a
hook once. Once!”
“You shouldn't grab me, Johnny. My mother grabbed me once . . .
ONCE!”
“You shouldn't kick me in the balls, lady. My sister kicked me in
the balls once . . . once.”
“You shouldn't have shot me, Johnny. My grandmother shot me once . .
. once.”
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While Mike Nolan was handed (most but not all of) a defensive unit
ranked 9th out of 32 (minus the likes of cornerback Byron Jones,
defensive tackle Maliek Collins, free safety Jeff Heath, and
defensive end Robert Quinn), Ryan was tasked with correcting Wade
Phillips’ 31st-ranked sin.
Though Ryan did, in fact, help the Cowboys’ defense go from 31st to
14th in 2011, Dallas – without five defensive starters and two
critical backups (due to cruel injury hiccups) – slipped to 19th in
2012 (which was evidently enough for GM Jerry to decide that into
the world of exotic defenses the Cowboys would no longer delve).
Cornerback Brandon Carr (one of the most selfless people in human
history) was “expected” to be Terence Newman’s capable, younger,
healthier replacement to help stop further secondary defacement. The
reliably-sturdy Carr was never the hoped-for, high-impact offseason
addition, but the troublesome availability of defensive end DeMarcus
Ware, defensive tackle Jay Ratliff, and safety Gerald Sensabaugh –
among an assortment of defensive ammunition – brought massive,
untimely attrition. All remaining fillers (far from starting quality
pillars) were forced to indulge uncommon position changes and simply
could not reasonably, consistently deliver within minimum-necessary
ranges.
"I inherited a team that was 31st in the league in defense and made
them better. I [BLEEPING] made them a hell of a lot better. I'll be
out of work for like five minutes. I think I did a good job, and I
think our staff did a good job on defense trying to compete with
what we had at the end of the year. But the best job we did was when
we were able to coach our starters." – Former Cowboys defensive
coordinator Rob Ryan (upon learning he had been fired before his
scheme had officially become tired).
“We thought that it was best for us to go in the direction that we
are, and that doesn’t look good right now. Hopefully we can make it
look good, but I have all the feelings that you have anytime you
want to look back at a decision, and I realize when some of them
work, you have to have a few things go along with it, and, candidly,
we’re having some of the same things that Rob had last year. He had
a lot of people, frankly, to be fair to Rob, he lost a lot of guys
on defense.” – GM Jerry acknowledging that he might have been eating
preschool paste when he discharged Ryan in premature haste (in
November 2013, following a Ryan-powered defensive domination and
unquestionable Dallas humiliation at the hands of New Orleans).
Nolan – like Ryan before him – has experience in the NFL that is
laughably far from slim. He has held coaching roles ranging from
walk around to defensive coordinator to linebackers to special teams
and even wide receivers. If not for the 2020 reality of "jack of all
trades, master of none," Nolan might have a significant number of
fans among his true believers (instead of looking like his time with
an NFL headset is all but done).
Nolan – like Ryan before him – has been hired MANY times to upgrade
(one or more components of) a defensive squad that needed to be
fixed, even though (somewhat less like Ryan) his historic results
have (again) been no greater than mixed. YES, Yes, yes, rarely is
exceptionalism achieved through tired, uninspired nepotism . . . or
the good ol’ boys’ network “hard at work.”
Nolan – like Ryan before him – knows that a system more intricate
inevitably becomes a system more delicate (whenever the injury bug
takes a bite out of one or more of your best players just for the
hell of it).-
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Nolan’s stubbornly-delayed effort – pandemic or not – to reduce his
scheme’s mental clot ultimately came too late to avoid a
not-so-premature pink slip date.
Good Quote Or Garbage Bloat?
"I will say this. We've got – like anybody – you got a lot of do-overs.
I'd like to start again on how we approached our defense this year.
I'd like to start that over again. I'm sure everybody else would,
too." – GM Jerry on 12-11-2020 to 105.3 FM “The Fan” (providing
razor sharp insight – at the time – into his offseason plan to
aggressively [attempt to] reverse a COVID-19-impacted, poor
performance crime).
While he would go on to talk about how a team’s available personnel
should drive a team’s scheme, GM Jerry’s previous, equally-risky 3-4
exposure (through former, successive Cowboys head coaches Bill
Parcells and Wade Phillips) should have at least triggered Nolan’s
deficiently-taught, poorly-understood preference under (reasonable)
offseason review before it ever had the chance to pick up regular
season steam. Though GM Jerry did, indeed, grant McCarthy the
first-year power to procure his own peeps, GM Jerry was still
playing for keeps (by not starting completely anew after nearly 10
inconsistent years of Dallas being coached by you know who). GM
Jerry still had enough (memorable) skin in the (defensive decision)
game to at least insist that Nolan carefully outline his improvement
strategy within the controlled environment of team HQ. GM Jerry –
even at his advanced age – still knew full well there was not enough
matching personnel (before, during, or after the draft and free
agency) for such an end-to-end system overhaul (with a learning
window so small) to successfully persist. Arrogance – of course –
should not have been entirely affixed to one, now-dismissed
defensive coaching source.
“There are [MASSIVE?] holes in the defense, personnel-wise. Those
things have to be addressed. I’ve always believed that, on the
defensive side of the ball, it’s more of a mindset. If you can get
[intelligent, hustle] guys rallying to the football and playing at a
certain level, that you can do a lot of good things on the defensive
side of the ball, and you don’t necessarily have to have the best
[most physically superior] players. But you can have really good
players that don’t buy-in [or hustle], don’t execute, don’t run to
the football, don’t tackle well . . . shoot, hardly anybody tackles
well anymore. It’s kind of maddening to me, some of the
[disappearing] fundamentals of our game.” – former Dallas Cowboys
star quarterback and current FOX color analyst Troy Aikman sharing
his “get in line / join the crowd” thoughts on 01-13-2021 (with “The
Musers” on 96.7 FM / 1310 AM “The Ticket”) on whether Dallas has
enough on the roster to avoid being a 4-3 imposter. If even the very
best process is fitted with the wrong pieces, the results – as Mike
Nolan might attest – can look like total feces.
The Dallas Cowboys’ defense – now reversing course with a 3-4
divorce – is perhaps at least one year away from being “one or two
players away” from displaying more dynamic dollars than sorry cents.
Always possible Cinderella stories aside, a certain scene from
“Superman Returns” should help (some but not all) understandably
eager members of Cowboys Nation to slow their collective roll on how
soon Quinn may be able to assemble his ultimate defensive talent
compilation.
"I know it's just dangling off the tip of your tongue. Come on, let
me hear you say it just once. Come on." – Lex Luthor.
"Superman will NEVER . . . !" – Lois Lane.
"WRONG!" – Lex Luthor.
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Will They Or Won’t They?
“Speaking of holes in the defense, now that Dallas has Quinn in the
fold, on how many former Falcons and Seahawks players will GM Jerry
and McCarthy be persistently sold?” you ask (about a half-buried
task so tired and old).
The chance to potentially acquire the last (?) surviving and
still-capable members of the ORIGINAL Legion of Boom – specifically
31-year-old safety Earl Thomas and 32-year-old cornerback Richard
Sherman – is as much about successfully running through a brick wall
for the still-compelling Quinn . . . as it is about trusting a
not-so-reinvented Mike McCarthy and a toe-the-line GM Jerry being
guides (rather than, respectively, a game day obstacle or sideshow
distraction) to achieving win after win.
“But, BUT” reality most-likely makes them both a low-to-no-chance
casualty, particularly Earl . . . who has gone to great lengths to
no longer be viewed as a still-promising pearl.
Free agent Thomas has not played (or practiced?) since at least
August 23, 2020. Earl "Come Get Me" Thomas went to great public
efforts (through a postgame hallway hug with former Cowboys head
coach Jason Garrett and during the 2018 offseason) to get the Dallas
Cowboys - and, really, the highest bidder - to proactively pry him
away from Seattle by trade. After breaking his leg and flipping off
Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, he gained his release, and the
Baltimore Ravens ensured he got paid. After a questionably-Pro Bowl
2019, Thomas' 2020 was particularly unclean. While Thomas seemingly
gave his wife good reason to hold him at gunpoint for the "usual"
pro sports star transgression, he followed that up by punching
then-Ravens’ teammate and fellow safety Chuck Clark during a
practice session. Baltimore made him persona non grata, and the
players of the momentarily-interested Houston Texans wanted nothing
to do with him. Not one iota. Even among the most morally-challenged
of NFL franchises (from those willing to give the still-talented
Thomas "a second chance" to those continuing to “collude” against
that kneeling Kaepernick dude), Earl Thomas returning to the NFL as
a player may, May, MAY (holding back hyena-like hilarity) no longer have a prayer.
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"The owner of the Dallas Cowboys, with the old plantation mentality.
What did you expect?" – San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard
Sherman on GM Jerry to USA Today on 07-30-2018 (when asked about the
NFL’s national anthem policy which, naturally, turned into a
low-hanging-fruit judgement on the right-leaning, egomaniacal face
of America’s Team, for his business first, “players will toe the
line or else” theme).
While (the now-injury-prone) Sherman surely feels blessed for the
rare ability and opportunity to play a game for a handsome living,
he has zero misgivings (about the Samuel L. Jackson-level stink eye
he has given GM Jerry for willfully perpetuating an orange lie).
“And, AND” Sherman will not necessarily, even hysterically change
his tune, because a desperate GM Jerry “allowed” since-retired
defensive end (and former Seattle teammate) Michael “Say It Like It
Is” Bennett to be toe-the-line immune. Quinn could make his
most-impassioned pitch but – from at least one of his former pupils
– he might more-than-likely hear “Sorry, Dan, but I simply cannot
stand GM Jerry, my man. Ain’t life a bitch?”
“W-What about Atlanta safety Keanu Neal?! Surely the Falcons 2016
first-round pick has potential appeal?” – you reasonably blurt
(already moving onto the next possible veteran band aid to help
soothe the Cowboys’ secondary hurt). While the 25-year-old Neal DOES
have immediate, valuable experience with Quinn and Whitt, and though
he may, indeed, be hitting free agency . . . his production (more
than his potentially-discounted price) has been and may continue to
be impacted by his 2018 ACL tear and his 2019 Achilles’ injury.
Concern over talented-yet-damaged goods (or the eventuality of more
damage) overrides bottom line frugality. “Your best ability is [and
remains] your availability.”
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Which players – currently under Cowboys contract, soon to be
available in free agency, and selectable through the upcoming draft
– will be (system-ready or molded into being) key pieces to the
defensive puzzle Quinn plans to craft? Will an expected lowering of
the salary cap for 2021 prevent Quinn and the Cowboys from exploring
maximum ways in which to get an aggressive defensive renovation
done?
Will the acquisition of any of those players be momentarily stalled
or completely mauled by the ongoing contract negotiations between
the Cowboys’ star quarterback Dak Prescott and a certain father-son
team seemingly determined (for consecutive years) to not change
gears and simply “Pay The Man” on the spot?
Will the meddling middle finger of fate do all it can to upset the
very best-laid plan (of balancing available talent, untimely injury,
and creative scheme flexibility)?-
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Will Cowboys Nation eventually cave from wave after wave of non-stop
intrigue and social media fatigue?
We shall see. We always do.
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