Dallas Cowboys: For Better or For Worse in the Secondary

With the Dallas Cowboys losing Brandon Carr, Morris Claiborne, Barry Church and J.J. Wilcox and the addition of Nolan Carroll, have the Cowboys gotten better, worse, stayed the same, or does it matter?

For the past few weeks, fans have taken two distinct sides when it comes to the offseason for the Dallas Cowboys. Yet, nothing has been more polarizing than the state of the secondary. As of right now, the Dallas Cowboys have Byron Jones, Jeff Heath, Orlando Scandrick, Nolan Carroll, and Anthony Brown as the starters in the secondary. This could and most likely will change with the draft coming up and with plenty of time before the season starts. However, the questions regarding the secondary will continue for a while.

On one side, fans feel that the losses of Morris Claiborne, J.J. Wilcox, Brandon Carr, and Barry Church are a good thing. While the secondary has been fairly average, many feel that the Cowboys are better off without these players, or at the very least that they have broken even. Sure, the salary cap comes into consideration in this whole discussion, but fans wanted change and they most certainly got it.

On the other side, fans feel that while the Dallas Cowboys did need upgrades in the secondary, the thought is they have actually gotten worse and haven’t upgraded in the least. The only player everyone seems to be settled on is Byron Jones. Most like Orlando Scandrick as well, however, his injury history is somewhat of a concern.

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The rest of the secondary is hotly contested. Starting with Anthony Brown, just about everyone feels he was a pleasant surprise last season in the sixth round. He played well as a part-time player and even in the half of the season he started.

While it seems many feel he can contribute, there is some trepidation about not having a lot of experience. He has only started about half of a season and had a lot of help over the top from safeties. Not to mention, that help came from safeties who have mostly all left at this point.

Brown had a little bit of a luxury playing across from one of the most underrated corners in the NFL: Brandon Carr. Carr gets a bad rap from fans, but they seem to overlook or understate how well he played. Pro Football Focus rated Carr the eighteenth-best corner in the NFL (out of 112 corners). Many fans think that the lack of interceptions indicate that he wasn’t very good. But, the fact that quarterbacks only had a 61.0 rating against him shows that either passes weren’t catchable, were dropped, or weren’t even thrown to his side. The loss of his experience is another huge loss for the Dallas Cowboys.

Carr was much better than his interception numbers. His ability to force quarterbacks to throw to other players allowed the Dallas Cowboys to roll coverage to Anthony Brown‘s side of the field, allowing Carr to stay one on one with the opponent’s best receiver. The Cowboys also allowed some help to Brown by staying in zone more than man to man, which actually helps the situation this year (more on that shortly).

Morris Claiborne probably has the biggest consensus, both positive and negative. When Claiborne was healthy, it appeared he was one of the best corners in the league. The issue is that Claiborne had become injury-prone. As the saying goes, the best ability is availability. It’s understandable why the Dallas Cowboys would allow him to walk if they weren’t sure whether he could stay on the field.

Wilcox gave the Dallas Cowboys a hard hitting safety. While many feel that Jeff Heath is an upgrade, the fact is that Wilcox had a lot of starting experience at the position. Heath has earned a reputation for playing terribly in man-to-man coverage, missing tackles, and taking bad angles. While many fans will point to his interceptions as a sign of productivity, it really only shows he has better hands than both Wilcox and Church.

Heath’s interceptions were due to Rod Marinelli calling zone coverage and allowing him to play over the top. Watching his interceptions again, he was in position when quarterbacks tried to overthrow the corners on the outside leading the receiver. Church and Wilcox dropped a lot of their opportunities when they were in position, themselves. Heath never really made plays when asked to play man. Again, this gives us another strong indication about this season’s defensive play-calling.

The addition of Nolan Carroll seems to be a highly fought argument with fans and experts alike. Some think Carroll is no better or worse than Carr and just came cheaper. People will point to his interception numbers as why he is an upgrade. This is misleading. Looking at quarterback ratings against him, while Carr had his 61.0 rating, Carroll has an 83.0 rating against him. He ranked as the 92nd best corner in the league out of 112. Much of this was due to the Eagles asking him to play man-to-man, which is not his strong suit, nor has he really ever been that type of corner. Again, he is better in zone, but in man he struggles. Being on the wrong side of 30, will most likely mean this won’t get better, but far worse.

So what does this mean? All signs point to the Dallas Cowboys most likely taking help in the secondary this draft. They could pick up multiple players in any round from the first to the seventh, and this doesn’t even include un-drafted free agents. However, it could also mean they will scour available players until the start of the season and probably after that as well.

This means the Dallas Cowboys will play a lot more zone coverage this upcoming season. The players they currently have starting are all better in zone than man-to-man. Unless the Cowboys are able to find a man coverage corner in free agency and/or the draft, I would expect to see a lot of off-man, soft cushions, and zone coverage.

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The pass rush will help the coverage if it can be better than the last few seasons. It’s why many people believe the Cowboys will focus on the defensive side of the ball in the draft. Which ever side of the argument you fall on, take a moment to consider both sides. There are points to both sides. Yet until the games start, none of us really know what it will really look like.