5 Dallas Cowboys who will improve under new regime

3. DeMarcus Lawrence, Defensive End

Last year, the Cowboys leader in sacks was Robert Quinn with 11.5. He made the front office look brilliant as they picked him up from the Miami Dolphins in exchange for a late-round draft pick. Quinn parlayed his great season into a five-year $70 million contract with the Chicago Bears, a contract Dallas didn’t want to match since they already have their premier edge rusher under contract.

DeMarcus Lawrence ended a long contract negotiation last year and landed a deal worth $105 million over five seasons. He then finished second on the team with five sacks, which ended a two-season streak with double-digit sacks.

Despite the low numbers, Lawrence was very effective for the Cowboys. He drew constant double teams and really helped Quinn get some favorable matchups as the attention was focused more on him. This isn’t to take away from anything Quinn did, but the fact is that teams game planned to stay away from No. 90.

As mentioned earlier, the coaches in Big D had no desire to disguise anything which meant teams could pick and choose mismatches and who to take out of the game. That won’t be the case in 2020 with Mike Nolan, one of the more respected coaches in the game.

Nolan will have no problem countering when teams try and take Lawrence out of the game. He will find ways to get him some favorable matchups and Lawrence should see those sack totals climb back up where we’re used to them being.