Cowboys owner and General Manager Jerry Jones says his defense is a whole lot better than it was last year — and a whole lot better than it was 48 hours ago.
On Day One of the draft, the Cowboys spent first-round picks on safety Caleb Downs and pass rusher Malachi Lawrence. On Day Two, the Cowboys drafted edge rusher Jaishawn Barham and traded for linebacker Dee Winters from the 49ers. Jones said that with those additions and other moves the Cowboys have made this offseason, the defense is very different than it has been in recent years.
“We have been able to, as of right now, rebuild this defense,” Jones said. “We’ve changed this defense. . . . This is a product of three, four, five years or maybe more of not getting where we’re trying to go and being a contender. It’s going to be different, it’s going to be fresh, we’ve got a lot of great energy here, we’ve got guys coming in like we introduced today. . . . When I lay my head down tonight I’m going to say, We’re doing something about the defense on this team.”
Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer said the work they’ve done in the first two days of the draft is part of an effort that began with the trade for Quinnen Williams in November and has continued through free agency this year.
“We felt like this was going to be a continuation of getting the defense where we want it to be,” Schottenheimer said.
Schottenheimer said his late father, longtime NFL head coach Marty Schottenheimer, would have loved the tough, physical players they’re adding. He pointed to Barham as the kind of player Marty Schottenheimer would have wanted on his teams.
“If you were doing the old Oklahoma drill, which my old man would love to see, I’d probably put Jaishawn out there for the first reps,” Schottenheimer said.
The Cowboys traded away one of the best defensive players in football when they sent Micah Parsons to the Packers. Now they think they’ve used the picks they got for Parsons, and made more moves beyond that, to build a better defense.