The Dallas Cowboys, much like other teams around the NFL have players that are more important to the organization than others. That is simply the sad truth of the National Football League.
I like to think of these players as being irreplaceable. These are the types of players that can pretty much ruin a season if they have to miss any length of time due to an injury.
Unfortunately, this is something that we as Cowboys fans have recently had to deal with and something that can hopefully be avoided in the upcoming 2016 season.
I recently compiled a list and wrote about 5 Cowboys players that are irreplaceable, but as hard as I tried I couldn’t think of one defensive player that is irreplaceable.
I’m not saying that the Cowboys don’t have players on the defensive side of the ball that wouldn’t be missed if they were injured. I’m just saying that I couldn’t think of one player that would dramatically hurt the defense if they were to miss time because of an injury.
There were several considerations, but ultimately no one that I thought qualified enough to be considered irreplaceable. I personally think it has a lot to do with defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli and how he is able to compensate when some of his players are injured.
In fact, Marinelli is perhaps the sole reason why Jerry Jones and Company haven’t invested highly on the defensive side of the ball with high draft picks or money. They believe he is able to bring out the best in players and that is probably true to a certain extent, but also one of the reasons why I probably couldn’t think of any one individual defensive player that is irreplaceable.
Here are a few of the Dallas Cowboys defensive players that I considered.
Sean Lee
There is no denying that Sean Lee is arguably the best defensive player on the entire team, but during his time in the NFL and even dating back to college he has had a hard time staying healthy.
Unfortunately, this is why I couldn’t justify putting him on the list as being irreplaceable.
We have already seen the Cowboys find ways to compensate for Lee’s absence and that is one of the main reasons why linebacker Rolando McClain is on the team.
Lee is a difference maker when on the field and raises the playing level of the entire defense, but I couldn’t in good conscience say that he’s irreplaceable.
Rolando McClain
Rolando McClain is a frustrating player because when he’s on his game he could be one the better middle linebackers in the entire NFL, but it’s those other times where he seems to just disappear that makes them so unpredictable.
McClain was mainly considered because he does have to be game planned by opposing offensive coordinators and with perhaps the exception of Sean Lee, he is really the only true MLB on the Cowboys roster.
The majority the Cowboys linebackers seem to fit better as candidates to play on the weak side, but not #55.
The drop off from not having McClain in the lineup would be immense, of course this is considering Sean Lee remains on the weak side. Anthony’s Hitchens has shown promise, but he’s not the same caliber of player as Rolando McClain.
Tyrone Crawford
Tyrone Crawford plays the super important 3-technique in defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli’s 4-3 defense. He is relied upon to make plays in the backfield in both the running and passing game.
The reason I considered Crawford as irreplaceable was because I don’t think there is another player on the Cowboys roster that can step in and play the 3-tech as well as #98.
Crawford wasn’t quite as productive in 2015 because he was battling through a shoulder injury, but I’m expecting big things from him in 2016 playing next to Cedric Thorton.
Do you think any Dallas Cowboys defensive players are irreplaceable?
Please feel free to use the comment section below to provide your thoughts and opinions so that we can discuss this topic further.
Taking all things into account, I'm thinking Byron Jones and Orlando Scandrick both qualify.
I considered both of them, but Byron Jones still has a lot to prove. He had a promising rookie season and a full-time switch to free safety should help him by being able to focus on one position instead of several. Orlando Scandrick was another consideration, but the Cowboys secondary was solid with him on IR last season. His return should help immensely, but the fact that the secondary played well without him constitutes to me that he is replaceable.
I look at it more like Jones is a CB/S with the kind of promise and upside that we never get anymore. It's been more than a decade since a guy came in at that position and actually lived up to the hype, even just for a beginning; Claiborne flopped quickly behind his hype. The loss of Scandrick wasn't the death of the secondary, like I thought it would be, but there is no denying that the secondary would have been better with him playing. Both of those guys get the irreplaceable nod for those reasons. BUT, I don't mean that like Romo, Bryant and Witten are irreplaceable; I mean that this team has had a long history of struggling to replace their level of play at those positions, making them more valuable to the team. So I'm not knocking your list at all because I see it differently in the secondary.
I completely agree with you as well. I would just like to see more from Byron Jones before I label them as irreplaceable. I guess I just have really high expectations for Jones entering the second season, but I think he's on the verge of being in that irreplaceable category.Also, there is no denying that Orlando Scandrick should help improve the secondary in 2016. I was just surprised at how well they were able to play in the secondary without his services in 2015.