Dallas Cowboys Can’t Afford Patience in Search of Pass-Rusher

The Dallas Cowboys are once again exhibiting patience and restraint in most areas of free agency but in areas concerning the pass-rush, patience, they can’t afford.

The Dallas Cowboys are wisely playing the waiting game in free agency. Instead of overpaying for someone else’s castoffs, they are sitting back and letting the market come to them. Over the past few years they have built up quite the reputation for being frugal shoppers on the free agent market — Preferring instead to plug roster holes with “value” players while using the draft to add cornerstone talent.

That fiscal restraint, coupled with some solid drafting and savvy salary cap management, has given the Dallas Cowboys a fair amount of success as of late. But it’s also largely responsible for furthering the Dallas Cowboys most obvious deficiency – the pass-rush.

You have to “overpay” to get a pass-rusher these days. They’re just too rare and too important not to (which means it’s not overpaying but rather the current market).

The Dallas Cowboys can’t afford to pin all of their hopes of fixing their pass-rush on that 28th pick. They need options. Lots of options.

Besides franchise quarterback play, there is no more important element of a team than that of the pass-rush. Every team wants a “war daddy” but most fail to find one. Finding a double-digit pass-rusher is harder than many think.

In fact, there were only 16 double-digit sack men in the entire NFL last year. Half of the NFL was without one and that wasn’t for lack of trying.

Every year teams pour in money and resources (draft picks) in search of their own personal “war daddy” and nearly all of them walk away disappointed.

I broke the futility down in, The Cowboys Face a Harsh Truth

For some reason, 10-sack seasons are regarded by many as the pass-rushers’ Mendoza line. Knowing what we know now, that’s horribly unfair and utterly unrealistic as a minimum benchmark. That’s why we need to adjust expectations.

Elite players consistently produce double-digit sack seasons and since elite players don’t grow on trees, having an all-or-nothing attitude toward finding a “war daddy” is foolish. The Dallas Cowboys can’t afford to pin all of their hopes of fixing their pass-rush on that 28^th pick. They need options. Lots of options.

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Each day that goes by free agent pass-rushing options dry up. All three of my previously listed targets for affordable pass-rushers are now unavailable. The last one, Alex Okafor, signed to a very modest 1yr/$3M deal last week according to nola.com. Despite being a career 3-4 OLB, Okafor was rated as one of the NFL’s best edge rushers by Pro Football Focus.

Some may say an OLB has no place in a 4-3 but I’d counter that Rod Marinelli could easily make an OLB fit in his 1-gap 4-3 scheme, especially as a pass-rushing specialist. The real difference lies in 1-gap vs 2-gap assignments, making the 3-4/4-3 argument almost inconsequential. But I digress…

There’s no doubt Will McClay has targets identified. Nearly every off season he pulls a rabbit out of a hat and finds a viable threat. Once it was George Selvie. Then it was Jeremy Mincey. Last year it was Benson Mayowa and that relatively unknown commodity led the team in sacks.

The Cowboys will need that and more if they hope to get over the playoff hump in 2017. Perhaps Demontre Moore is the answer. But perhaps not. The point is, the issue is too big and the odds are too slim to handle this issue like every year in the past. That strategy just isn’t getting it done.

The Dallas Cowboys need players capable of rushing the passer off the right edge (RDE). 3-4 OLBs or 4-3 DEs, it really doesn’t matter for the purposes of a pass-rush. Who cares if the pass-rusher is in 3-point or 2-point stance? It’s 1-gap defensive attack. What really matters is if he can turn the corner.

Currently, the Cowboys are dangerously thin at RDE. Maybe DeMarcus Lawrence can do it but he’s coming off a pathetic 1-sack season and another back surgery to boot. The only natural fit on the roster is a guy named Randy Gregory, but since he’s effectively banished from the NFL, he won’t be rushing the passer anytime soon.

In most cases, the Dallas Cowboys are wise to wait in free agency but this is not one of those cases. Quarterbacks and pass-rushers are so important to winning in the NFL that teams dramatically overpay in order to get them. If the Cowboys insist on exhibiting patience towards the pass-rush, they’ll never get a pass-rusher. The market has become just that demanding.

It may even be too late. Affordable players are disappearing by the day and the Cowboys have far too many needs to fill by draft alone.

Next: Dallas Cowboys Mock Draft (March Edition) Dan 2.0

Forget “war daddy”. That just ain’t happening. What the Dallas Cowboys need are fresh options capable of playing right defensive end in passing situations. Someone the offense needs to worry about when trying to convert critical 3^rd downs.

They don’t need to be 3-down players or even multidimensional. A pass-rushing specialist will work just fine. But the Dallas Cowboys can’t afford to treat pass-rusher like they have every other off season or their likely to get the same inadequate result.