FanPost

Is Dallas Doomed Without Double-Digit Sack Leader?

The Dallas Cowboys are preparing for the 2016 season, while fans eagerly awaiting the start of training camp continue to discuss the likely hurdles the team will face this year. On the top of the debated worry list, Marinelli's Rushmen. With suspensions looming for Randy Gregory and Demarcus Lawrence, currently Dallas' most capable defensive ends, and with a poor showing in 2015, questioning the efficacy of the 2016 Cowboys pass-rush is understandable. One of the leading arguments for an expected poor, or doomed, showing is based on the lack of a proven double-digit sack leader. What I like to call the Elite Rusher Theory.

Since arriving in Dallas, Rod Marinelli has preached his principles of utilizing a rotation of defensive linemen. However, Cowboys fans recently had nearly a decade with DeMarcus Ware consistently providing double-digit sacks. Some fans may not even remember a good Cowboys defense without a rusher providing a dozen sacks each season. Ware was with the Cowboys for nine seasons and managed eleven or more sacks in seven of them. He was phenomenal, reaching fourteen or more sacks four times and twice threatening to break the single season sack record with 19.5 and 20 sacks!

Has this skewed Cowboys Nation's perspective on the need for double-digit sack leaders?

Let's take a look at the Top 10 teams in sack totals from 2015 to see how others are creating consistent pressure. I've listed the sack totals for individual players, but added a subtotal of sacks from players with 2 or less (1 or less when NA) instead of listing them individually.

DEN NE PIT KC HOU
11 12.5 7 7.5 17.5
7.5 8 6.5 6.5 12
5.5 6.5 5 5.5 5
5.5 5.5 5 5 4.5
5.5 3 4 4.5 2 or less - 6
4 3 4 4
2.5 3 4 4
2.5 2 or less - 7 3.5 3
2 or less - 8 2 or less - 8 3
1 or less - 4
TOTAL - 52 TOTAL - 49 TOTAL - 47 TOTAL - 47 TOTAL - 45

CAR DET GB MIN CIN
11 14.5 10.5 10.5 13.5
6 7 6.5 6 11
5.5 4.5 4 5.5 5
5 2.5 4 5 5
3 2 or less - 14.5 3.5 4 2 or less - 7.5
2.5 3 3.5
2 or less - 11 3 2.5
3 2.5
1 or less - 5.5 2 or less - 3.5
TOTAL - 44 TOTAL - 43 TOTAL - 43 TOTAL - 43 TOTAL - 42

It doesn't take long to realize that teams create pressure differently, especially since the Steelers and the Chiefs ranked 3rd and 4th in total sacks and didn't have a double-digit sack leader. Ware had seven seasons with eleven or more sacks, and yet four of the Top 10 teams didn't have a sack leader with eleven sacks. Some teams display their dependency on the Elite Rusher Theory, like in Detroit, Cincinnati, and Houston where each team had an elite rusher with over a dozen sacks, but only four players with more than two sacks. Houston had the best duo of double-digit pass-rushers, but also had the shortest list of rushers (aka defensive-front rotation).

Even the Top 2 teams had more of a rotation than the traditional Elite Rusher Theory, despite having sack leaders reaching 11 and 12.5 sacks. The Broncos and Patriots led the league in sacks and consistent pressure primarily due to the rotation of rushers, not just four guys with more than 2 sacks.

I don't think the 2016 Dallas Cowboys will rank in the Top 4 in total sacks. But that principle of relying on a rotation to accumulate sacks and create pressure, and the lists of these teams' leading rushers' sack totals, do not seem impossible for the Marinelli Rushmen. Not that Dallas can surpass 50 sacks like the Broncos defense, but they could certainly match the 24 total sacks from Denver's Top 3 rushers.

This may not sway some fans that still don't think the Cowboys could create consistent pressure without a double-digit sack leader, but they may also not remember the 90's Dallas Cowboys Dynasty, where the team defenses were solid during 3 Super Bowl victories, but not based on an elite rusher or huge sack totals.

DAL '92 DAL '93 DAL '95
10.5 7.5 10.5
8.5 6 5.5
6 5.5 5.5
4 4 3
3.5 2.5 3
3 2 or less - 8.5 2.5
3 2 or less - 5
2.5
1 or less - 3
TOTAL - 44 TOTAL - 34 TOTAL - 35

Plenty of fans disagree, but I think Marinelli's Rushmen are good enough to help the 2016 Cowboys compete in the playoffs and fight for a Super Bowl, even without a double-digit sack leader. Not like the 2015 Broncos with 50+ sacks, but perhaps like the 90's Dallas Dynasty, those bend-but-don't-break defenses, solid play without allowing big plays, never reaching 50+ sacks, but never allowing an opponent to catch up to the Dallas juggernaut offense.

Another user-created commentary provided by a BTB reader.