3 Dallas Cowboys who could be absolutely pivotal in 2020

We look at three players who could prove to be pivotal to the Dallas Cowboys season in 2020…

The Dallas Cowboys have high hopes in 2020. Between free agency and the NFL Draft, the Cowboys had a great offseason. The 40-burger offense is built to dominate and the defense has been revamped. It seems the only thing that can stop the Cowboys is the Cowboys themselves. And with the new coaching staff in place, hopefully they’ll finally be able to get out of their own way.

But the fortune of this team comes down to the success of a few pivotal players. Clearly Dak Prescott and DeMarcus Lawrence represent the most important player on their respective side of the ball, so for the sake of stating the obvious, we won’t discuss those two.

Today we’ll look at three players who could be absolutely pivotal to the Dallas Cowboys in 2020. We start with the top free agent addition.

Gerald McCoy, DT

This offseason the Dallas Cowboys signed two interior defensive linemen. Both are former first round picks and both are expected to be starters in 2020. But that’s where the similarities end.

Even with the coaching change from Rod Marinelli to Mike Nolan, we still expect the 1-tech DT to serve a similar role as before. Dontari Poe was brought in to be the stout presence at 1-tech. While he’ll have some attack responsibilities he’ll likely serve more of a 2-gap role where he can support and enable pass-rushers like McCoy and DeMarcus Lawrence.

Gerald McCoy is pivotal for two major reasons:

1. The position he plays.
2. The lack of depth behind him.

As the 3-technique defensive tackle, McCoy serves a pretty important purpose. He’s responsible for applying interior pressure and creating havoc at and behind the line of scrimmage. Interior pressure is traditionally the most disruptive pressure. And with the revamped and unproven secondary this season, pressure will be critical to the defenses success.

I shouldn’t have to sell Cowboys fans on the importance of the 3-tech, though. By now we know how important the position is. What I do want to point out is the shallow depth chart behind McCoy. While we hope rookie third rounder Neville Gallimore is up to the task, he’s completely unproven. DTs take time to develop and we’ve seen the Dallas Cowboys top draft pick in 2019 fall on his face in his first pro season.

Gerald McCoy needs to be effective and he needs to stay healthy because after McCoy is a complete mystery.