DLine: Ryan has a lot of work in front of him.

From the moment in which I finished writing The Schematic Advantage of Having a Ryan, I started thinking that having him in charge of the defense wasn't going to be a matter of giving him the current players and that his schemes would work. Some moves would need to be done, but what kind of moves was a nice question, which I started mulling this post.

An analysis of the Cowboys defensive linemen, what happened to the Phillips-Pasqualoni led DLine and what Ryan has which he can work with.

Let's start with the DLine:

Main scheme:

The 2010 version of the Cowboys was a 2 version defense, the main scheme and the 4-man fronts of the Nickel and Dime and they used them in close to 50% of the snaps.

The main scheme was mostly used when teams deployed a FB and TE, or 2-TE sets, heavy packages. Included 4 LBs and 4 DBs

Its purpose is stopping the run and they do it well.

Nickel and Dime:

This scheme was mostly used when opposing teams deployed 3 and 4 receiver sets. 2 or 3 DBs would run in.

This one is designed to rush 4 or 5 guys, most of Scandrick's rushes come from this scheme.

Analysis:

What do you see? In 2010 I saw 2 schemes and each one couldn't do what the other could.

The Cowboys were in deep do-do.

What happened to the Phillips-Pasqualoni led DLine?

I'm of the opinion that they had better years, not attacking DLines like the ones of the Packer, Jets or Ravens, but consistent and strong in fundamentals lines, but that was off last year.

Last year they had fundamentals problems in pretty much every area of the game and that has everything to do with the coaches and players that allowed themselves to wander off the track. Which is why I don't think that Ryan will ask for Shaun Rogers to be brought in.

They went from a main package that could perform a solid job in passing situations to offenses forcing the main scheme to the field with a heavy package with the idea of throwing the ball. They went from a Nickel that could make plays against the run to Offenses deploying 3 and 4 wideouts with the idea of running the ball.

That didn't happen once or twice, there are many examples of such an occurance in every game.

The Phillips defense is a straight forward simple one if the players can't execute their roles with efficiency. When he was with the Chargers, Igor Olshansky was the same current self, a player that can't rush the passer, but he had 2 guys that could in Jamal Williams and Luis Castillo. In 2006 Williams, Castillo and Jacques Cesaire formed a unit that got to the QB for 14.5 sacks.

And they did it from the main scheme. Wade Phillips would only make small changes to his main scheme, which would always include a 3-man front, and would give his starters some breathers on a per series basis.

The Cowboys haven't been able to do that, the change ups of schemes were good for a while but teams caught up with the tendencies, and when 2010 came up and the fundamentals were down, teams were up and ready to exploit them.

Ryan needs an improved unit.

One of the things that I kept seeing when I watched the Browns games in 2010, was how he would make small changes to the base package that he would deploy at the start of a series and an example would be:

Starts with the 3-4.

Pulls a DE, plugs an additional DB (2-4).

Pulls the NT, adds Shaun Rogers (2-4).

Pulls a LB, adds another DLineman (3-3).

Among many others.

Ryan's defense may be more complicated and less predictable, but if your unit can't play the run or pass with consistency, it's going to be exploited all the same. It requres proper execution, to a lesser degree, but it's still a requirement.

A step forward is going to be one of Ryan's and Baker's strong points of emphasis: their belief and enforcement of fundamentals in their charges. That by itself means an improvement over the Cowboys DLine in 2010, but how much better can they get?

Marcus Spears won't become a better pass rusher, the same applies to Olshansky. Improved fundamentals may bring them back to previous levels in which they helped players around them to make plays, but on an island you can only expect that they will push their assignments.

Bowen and Hatcher are the best bets, but how much higher is their ceiling?

And there's a lot of hope when we talk about the Cowboys defense in 2011, hope that Bowen and Hatcher will improve, hope that Brent is going to improve, hope that Lee is going to become a player in the middle, hope that Spencer will come back to 2009 form, hope that James and Brooking can last another year and hope that every DB will improve from an awful 2010.

How many of them can you really expect to become reality?

I'll go with what I know, the Cowboys DLine would benefit greatly by adding another DLineman that can play the run and pass, if that means taking a new DLineman with the first pick you know that I'm all in favor of taking one.

And it's crystal clear.