The Dallas Cowboys need help on defense and they know it. After the debacle that saw rookie UDFA QB Jalon Daniels do whatever he wanted in Week 5 and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers rushing for over 200 yards, things reached emergency status. Dallas has brought in a senior advisor for Christian Parker in Mike Pettine, Parker's former mentor whom he tried to hire this offseason.
There's also word that Parker will move from the sideline to the booth, reducing the amount of noise he has to deal with while trying to figure out the opposition's attack. Week 6 will be a huge test as the Green Bay Packers seem to have found their deep passing game, as they religiously spammed the Chicago Bears secondary in Week 5. Dallas' porous defense will need some big
changes in order to try and limit the damage on Sunday night. It won't be easy, and it likely won't be pretty, but here are some things we'd like to see them do to start to change the narrative for the 2026 season.
1 - Start Joey Porter Jr. and Shavon Revel as the outside corners
The Cowboys saw the weakness and made the move prior to Week 4, trading for star corner Joey Porter. He came in on two days of practice, played limited snaps and wasn't tested in the team's win over the Houston Texans. A game-day illness canceled his home debut and Dallas — which had prepped all week to feature him — was left flat footed and had to change their tenuous plan at the last minute.
Now he's back, and Dallas will put him on the boundary, and that should ease the tension as the rest of the secondary has less field to worry about. To help this, Dallas should be benching Daron Bland, who has lost all confidence, and let Shavon Revel play opposite Porter, with help.
Revel has actually been able to stay in phase with receivers, but he's been unable to make plays on the ball.
2 - Play Otito Ogbonnia as your nose tackle moving forward, Quinnen at 3 and Kenny Clark/LT Overton rotate 4i
Hopefully this is one of the things that Pettine sees when evaluating the film. Parker's vision for the defensive tackle rotation isn't working, and things need to be addressed. No one likes playing nose tackle, but Ogbonnia is the better sacrificial lamb in this scenario. He's the biggest of the three defensive tackles, checking in at over 330 pounds.
Quinnen Williams needs to be allowed to be great and Kenny Clark's role needs to be reduced and kicked out further away from the double teams. It doesn't matter that Clark was great in this role back in his days in Green Bay, he isn't now. Adjust.
3 - Reduce Rashan Gary to base end on 4-man front alignments
Gary's playing time needs to be reduced. He hasn't been good at setting the edge or rushing the passer. Dallas needs to make him the situational guy. When the team needs a base end, let him play that, but he doesn't need to be part of any definite pass rush package.
4 - Start Malachi Lawrence and James Houston, Donovan Ezeiruaku and Von Miller are your 3rd down specialists
Perhaps Ezeiruaku is thinking too much, but his play on the Emeka Egbuka end around score was about as unaware as anyone can be on a professional football field. He hasn't lived up to the hope of 2025 and it's time to allow that to impact his opportunities. Meanwhile, James Houston was second on the club in sacks last year, but he hasn't seen any run in 2026.
Let he and Lawrence, who is a budding star, get the majority of the edge rusher snaps and see if the pass rush improves. It can't go anywhere but up at this point.
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: 4 changes Cowboys defense should make to beat the Packers
