Cowboys preseason goals: Reviving a horrific defense

It was a long season for the team in “Big D,” mainly because there was no “D” when it came to the Dallas Cowboys. Dan Quinn has his work cut out for him.

Much like the Pittsburgh Steelers won’t be trotting out veteran Ben Roethlisberger for the 2021 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, you won’t be seeing Dallas Cowboys’ five-year pro Dak Prescott and numerous others (via K.D. Drummond of CowboysWire.com) playing in front of the fans in Canton, Ohio.

As long as the team’s young signal-caller is healthy, putting points on the board wasn’t the issue for Mike McCarthy’s club in 2020. But when you play defense the way that the Cowboys did this past season, there’s not much hope for team success.

Only four clubs in the NFL gave up more points (473) this past season. Dallas gave up the second-most rushing yards in the league and a grand total of 54 offensive touchdowns. That’s 20 scores on the ground and 34 through the air. The Cowboys managed only 31 sacks and 23 takeaways.

Looking to rebound from a defensive disaster.

But there’s a new defensive sheriff in town in Dan Quinn. The franchise used eight of its 11 draft choices this year on this side of the football (via Ourlads). That includes Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons, regarded by many as the best defensive player this year. How many of these rookies will be seen on Thursday night vs. the Steelers?

Via free agency, the Cowboys signed safeties Keanu Neal, Damontae Kazee and Malik Hooker. The former pair played for Quinn in Atlanta and Neal is transitioning to weakside linebacker.

Preseason football is what it is. But Quinn’s unit needs to establish some sort of attitude that was obviously missing a season ago. The Cowboys used four different starting quarterbacks in 2020 and still averaged nearly 25 points per game. Let the defensive healing begin as the team looks to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2018.