âA basketball teamâ: Cowboys' NFL draft haul foreshadows defensive remake under Dan Quinn
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FRISCO, Texas â When the Cowboys made their final and whopping 11th selection of the 2021 NFL draft, a few takeaways crystallized in clarity.
Returning defenders will face competition.
Ballhawks are welcome in North Texas.
And the defenders coming for veteransâ jobs, in classic Dan Quinn form, will be long.
âA basketball team,â Cowboys owner Jerry Jones joked of his draft class that averages 6-foot-3 and 7/8 inches. âItâs that long.â
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Quinn looks the other way when identified as the culprit.
The first-year Cowboys coordinator joined Dallas after he was fired as Falcons head coach partway through the 2020 season. He spent the interim monthsâhe was fired Oct. 11 after Atlanta dropped to 0-5âcombing through film and asking former players and coaches: What didnât work? What did? Systems and schemes, Quinn said Saturday, were remolded rather than just ârinse and repeat.â But the traits that carry through his history coaching in the league appeared consistently in the Cowboysâ draft selections this weekend.
âThe bigger, the faster, the longer that we can play, the more aggressive we will be,â Quinn said Saturday from the Star, in his first public comments since hired. âBecause we like to play certainly in a bold style. So, having guys with length and speed and run-and-hit factorâthat's a big part of it."
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The Cowboys launched their draft with Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons at pick 12 after their coveted corners, Jaycee Horn and Patrick Surtain, flew off the board immediately before Dallas was on the clock. And yet, by draftâs end, the Cowboys had selected three new college cornerbacks in Kentuckyâs Kelvin Joseph (Round 2, pick 44), Oregon Stateâs Nahshon Wright (3, 99) and South Carolinaâs Israel Mukuamu (6, 227). At least oneâMukuamu is the early favoriteâwill likely see work at the Cowboysâ perennially underinvested safety position, but a bevy of new options have now arrived.
Legion of Boom remake?
Several rookies said they understood what to expect from a Quinn defense.
âWeâre both physical against tall receivers, and weâre smart,â Joseph said Friday night. âWeâre playmakers, so weâre just going to put our techniques together and learn from each other.
âWeâre fixing to do a lot of damage.â
Quinn fielded the questions: Can he recapture the Legion of Boom-caliber defense from his days coordinating Seattle? What about Cowboys fans who remember the Falconsâ dreaded Super Bowl loss after a 28-3 lead? Does Quinn envision Parsonsâ role, likely pressuring in blitz packages while still being expected to cover, as the next iteration of Seattleâs Bruce Irvin and Atlantaâs Vic Beasley?
âI donât want to say heâs like a Bobby (Wagner) or a Vic (Beasley) or this,â Quinn said. âHe'll see plenty of tape of players that I've coached at different spots, but I think it's important for a player to develop their own identity and their own unique stuff.
âI want Micahâs identity to be Micah.â
The Cowboysâ drafted cornerbacks may come to learn that lesson. But at least the 6-4, 185-pound Wright hasnât caught on yet. After rounding out Dallasâ five top-100 picks, Wright told reporters he considers himself a âmore athletic and agile Richard Sherman.â
âJust his ability to slow the game down and kind of see all the pieces come together before the play even starts,â Wright said of the corner who stacked two of his three straight All-Pro seasons under Quinnâs tutelage. âWeâre going to bring some life. More turnovers. And weâll definitely get us to a championship.â
The turnovers will continue to be an emphasis under McCarthy, who emphasized the ratio repeatedly in 2020 even as the Cowboys ranked among the worst in the league until the final two months of the season. Their 2020 draft class brings secondary ballhawks in Joseph (team-high four INTs in 2020), Wright (five INTs last two seasons) and Mukuamu (team-high four in 2019, his last full season). Parsons and Cox disrupted from the linebacker positions, including Parsonsâ four forced fumbles during his final college season in 2019 (he opted out of 2020).
Each of these experiences, of course, must be replicated and ideally augmented in the club. Quinnâs ready to get to work developing a new crop of Cowboys, eager to leave the bad taste of the franchiseâs 2020 defense in the past. The task is tall for a team that ranked second-worst against the run (158.8 rushing yards allowed) and allowed the fourth-most points (29.6) in the league. The Cowboys targeted defensive linemen this weekend as well in UCLA defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa (Round 3, pick 75); Iowa defensive end Chauncey Golston (3, 84); and Kentucky defensive tackle Quinton Bohanna (6, 192). Bohanna included in his stated goals a desire to âjust be a part of trying to correct things in the run game.â
The search for superpowers
The busted gaps and blown coverages of 2020 are no secret.
âUnfortunately, we didnât need to send any messages,â Jerry Jones said of the blatant skew toward an eight-defender draft class. âIt was pretty well known where we might need to do some addressing.â
Defensive coordinator was among those spots when scheme, development and teaching broke down at times in 2020. Quinn knew the variables when signing on with the Cowboys but insists he likes âto do hard [expletive] with a group of people more than anything.â System development, he says, has featured collaboration from his players, defensive staff and McCarthyâs offensive-minded guidance. âYou can feel their intensity,â Quinn said of defensive meetings with Cowboys veterans. âNow, how much can they relentlessly compete over the next six or seven weeks to put this package together?â
The competition got a little more crowded this weekend. Quinn says he, too, must now prove himself.
âHaving players with the skill sets, now it's up to us,â Quinn said. âAll the unique things that a player has, now you want to put him a position where he can utilize those things.
âI'm looking forward to finding out what some of those superpowers are.â
Follow USA TODAY Sportsâ Jori Epstein on Twitter @JoriEpstein