The defense of the Dallas Cowboys is struggling right now. Struggling to play well, but also struggling to stay healthy. The team is suffering from several injuries, but the defensive back group is being put through the wringer. Each week, a new player goes down, sometimes more than one, leaving the secondary gutted and the coaching staff reaching deep for answers. In a matter of three short weeks, this has turned into a crisis area for this football team. Let’s take a look at the casualties.
As you
can see, the secondary was down three players entering the Baltimore game and lost two more. That’s a total of five starters/key role players on the defense.
This wave of injuries is hurtful to a Christian Parker defense because of how he uses his defensive backs. He’s heavily reliant on safeties, having three on the field a great majority of the time. But it’s not just the quantity, it’s the quality. He requires his safeties to be versatile so they can be used to disguise looks and provide late-snap rotations to sneakily switch coverage responsibilities, making it hard on opposing offenses.
Having three stealthy safeties is out of the question now as Parker is just lucky if he has enough bodies to throw out on the field. Three of his top four safeties have gotten hurt, leaving rookie Caleb Downs as the team’s only quality safety left. And he plays a lot of time down in the box.
The cornerback position is almost as bad. They lost Cobie Durant in Week 2 and then turned around and lost Shavon Revel Jr. on Sunday, leaving DaRon Bland as the only healthy starter available.
With most of the top guys wiped out, the team is now in survival mode. Backup safeties Markquese Bell and Alijah Clark have taken on greater roles. Bell has some hybrid ability as a former linebacker, but he is not strong in coverage. He was flagged for that costly pass interference when the Ravens’ receiver had to come back for the underthrown deep ball. Clark is a core special teams player, but he played 20 snaps on defense on Sunday.
At cornerback, the team will turn to Caelen Carson (17 snaps on Sunday), Ameer Speed (4), and Reddy Steward (2). Carson is a boundary corner who can be a little grabby at times. Speed also plays on the outside, while Steward is exclusively a slot corner, a position occupied by the rookie Downs.
The recent injuries to Thompson and Revel Jr. bring a dark cloud over the secondary, especially with the uncertainty of their severity. Thompson is expected to miss at least a month. The knee hyperextension of Revel isn’t something you want to hear about, especially considering he is recovering from an ACL injury, but it’s not the same knee, so that’s good. We’ll have to keep our ears close to the ground as more updates become available.
There is some good news as both Hooker and Durant could be returning real soon. Neither was placed on injured reserve, so their time missed wasn’t expected to be that long. If they were able to return this weekend against the Houston Texans, that would be impeccable timing. Also, the team will likely be scouring the waiver wire, looking for more depth pieces to add.
The coaching staff will continue to make adjustments and look for the right guys to make this defense work. This is quite a challenge for a young defensive coordinator who already has his work cut out for him. Without the right guys to do the things he needs, it severely limits the dynamic of the defensive scheme. Things just go that much harder for the Cowboys defense.
