INDIANAPOLIS – Predicting a team’s starting defensive lineup used to be an easy task. Just ask John Madden, the Hall of Fame coach and former television analyst who retired in 2009. But at some point in the recent past, towards the end of his distinguished broadcasting career, that changed.
It was no longer a certainty a base formation would be featured on the first play. Maybe a third cornerback would open the game in place of a linebacker.
All of a sudden, Madden began asking himself, “Who do you start?”
It’s a question that has become more pertinent in today’s NFL, where pass-heavy offenses predominate and organizations have had to adjust their priorities because of how the sport has evolved.
The Cowboys, of course, are one of those franchises in the process of determining how best to allocate their resources on defense. They have three linebackers – Rolando McClain, Bruce Carter and Justin Durant – who are set to become free agents and will possibly to have to replenish a secondary that includes the high-priced Brandon Carr and the underperforming, oft-injured Morris Claiborne. Carr is set to count $12.7 million against the salary cap and a pay cut could be proposed in the coming months that leaves some doubt about his longevity with club. Claiborne, meanwhile, is recovering from a torn patellar tendon in his left knee and the Cowboys are merely “hopeful” he will be ready to participate in training camp.
The uncertain status of both players hangs over a team that lined up with five defensive backs 66 percent of the time last season, according to ProFootballFocus.com
“It’s a nickel game,” said Pat Kirwan, a former NFL assistant coach, scout and personnel executive who is now a SiriusXM radio host.
“Coach [Bill] Walsh told me, ‘When you have a good team…you have to assume you are defending the lead. Then you have to be a nickel defense. So pass rushers and nickelbacks are more important to a good football team, and Dallas is becoming a good team. You’re going to have leads more often than not and you’re going to have to play that way.”
As the Cowboys hope to take the next step following a season when they went 12-4 and advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs, they are looking to upgrade a defense that finished 19 in yards allowed and 28 in sacks. That’s the focus of their strategy in the coming months.
“It goes without saying,” Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said. “In our defense, we have situations there that we have to take care of one way or the other, whether it’s internally, whether it’s externally, whether it’s free agency, whether it’s the draft. We got to do something there.”
What that is remains unclear. Jones said they’re interested in bringing back Carter, McClain and Durant – three players who performed exceedingly well at times but have been afflicted by injuries and inconsistency. Because of various factors – most notably financial ones -- it’s hard to imagine a scenario where all three return. And would the Cowboys even be wise to bring each of them back?
Maybe not, Kirwan said.
“You need two linebackers,” Kirwan asserted. “When you stack up the value of the third linebacker, the Sam linebacker versus the nickel, the nickel wins most of the time….The third corner is a starter.”
He may as well be for the Cowboys. During the 2014 regular season, the most common lineup combination was used during 42 plays. It included Carr, Orlando Scandrick and Sterling Moore – all cornerbacks. Moore, the least-experienced of the three, is currently a restricted free agent. And his value has increased, in part, because the Cowboys use a scheme that leans heavily on its secondary personnel. This past season, Moore actually played 98 more snaps than any linebacker on the team.
That’s not a surprise to Kirwan, who noted that NFC champion Seattle frequently used two slot cornerbacks – Jeremy Lane and Tharold Simon.
It was just another example of the premium that has been placed on that position in today’s NFL. So as the Cowboys determine the makeup of the roster, they’ll likely be asking themselves the same question Madden did at end of his run as a broadcaster: Who do you start?
The answer they come up with could clarify the process as they figure out just how they’ll go about improving their defense.
Cowboys got money's worth out of nickel
The Cowboys ran nickel 66 percent of the time during the regular season and playoffs. Here is a breakdown of the defensive formations they used.
Formation: Plays
4-2-5: 751
4-3-4: 312
4-1-6: 84
3-3-5: 33
5-4-2: 7
3-2-6: 6
3-1-7: 1
10 men on defense: 1
12 men on defense: 1
Source: ProFootballFocus.com
On Twitter:
@RainerSabinDMN
It was no longer a certainty a base formation would be featured on the first play. Maybe a third cornerback would open the game in place of a linebacker.
All of a sudden, Madden began asking himself, “Who do you start?”
It’s a question that has become more pertinent in today’s NFL, where pass-heavy offenses predominate and organizations have had to adjust their priorities because of how the sport has evolved.
The Cowboys, of course, are one of those franchises in the process of determining how best to allocate their resources on defense. They have three linebackers – Rolando McClain, Bruce Carter and Justin Durant – who are set to become free agents and will possibly to have to replenish a secondary that includes the high-priced Brandon Carr and the underperforming, oft-injured Morris Claiborne. Carr is set to count $12.7 million against the salary cap and a pay cut could be proposed in the coming months that leaves some doubt about his longevity with club. Claiborne, meanwhile, is recovering from a torn patellar tendon in his left knee and the Cowboys are merely “hopeful” he will be ready to participate in training camp.
The uncertain status of both players hangs over a team that lined up with five defensive backs 66 percent of the time last season, according to ProFootballFocus.com
“It’s a nickel game,” said Pat Kirwan, a former NFL assistant coach, scout and personnel executive who is now a SiriusXM radio host.
“Coach [Bill] Walsh told me, ‘When you have a good team…you have to assume you are defending the lead. Then you have to be a nickel defense. So pass rushers and nickelbacks are more important to a good football team, and Dallas is becoming a good team. You’re going to have leads more often than not and you’re going to have to play that way.”
As the Cowboys hope to take the next step following a season when they went 12-4 and advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs, they are looking to upgrade a defense that finished 19 in yards allowed and 28 in sacks. That’s the focus of their strategy in the coming months.
“It goes without saying,” Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said. “In our defense, we have situations there that we have to take care of one way or the other, whether it’s internally, whether it’s externally, whether it’s free agency, whether it’s the draft. We got to do something there.”
What that is remains unclear. Jones said they’re interested in bringing back Carter, McClain and Durant – three players who performed exceedingly well at times but have been afflicted by injuries and inconsistency. Because of various factors – most notably financial ones -- it’s hard to imagine a scenario where all three return. And would the Cowboys even be wise to bring each of them back?
Maybe not, Kirwan said.
“You need two linebackers,” Kirwan asserted. “When you stack up the value of the third linebacker, the Sam linebacker versus the nickel, the nickel wins most of the time….The third corner is a starter.”
He may as well be for the Cowboys. During the 2014 regular season, the most common lineup combination was used during 42 plays. It included Carr, Orlando Scandrick and Sterling Moore – all cornerbacks. Moore, the least-experienced of the three, is currently a restricted free agent. And his value has increased, in part, because the Cowboys use a scheme that leans heavily on its secondary personnel. This past season, Moore actually played 98 more snaps than any linebacker on the team.
That’s not a surprise to Kirwan, who noted that NFC champion Seattle frequently used two slot cornerbacks – Jeremy Lane and Tharold Simon.
It was just another example of the premium that has been placed on that position in today’s NFL. So as the Cowboys determine the makeup of the roster, they’ll likely be asking themselves the same question Madden did at end of his run as a broadcaster: Who do you start?
The answer they come up with could clarify the process as they figure out just how they’ll go about improving their defense.
Cowboys got money's worth out of nickel
The Cowboys ran nickel 66 percent of the time during the regular season and playoffs. Here is a breakdown of the defensive formations they used.
Formation: Plays
4-2-5: 751
4-3-4: 312
4-1-6: 84
3-3-5: 33
5-4-2: 7
3-2-6: 6
3-1-7: 1
10 men on defense: 1
12 men on defense: 1
Source: ProFootballFocus.com
On Twitter:
@RainerSabinDMN
