Stephen Jones has high expectations for some of the Cowboys’ newest faces going into 2024.
Before the Cowboys take on the Browns in Week 1, Jones broke down how he feels about the team’s rookie starters and veteran additions along the defensive line. Here are some highlights from Jones’ appearance on the GBag Nation on 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM):
What goes into finding rookie offensive linemen and getting them ready to plug and play?
Jones: “Well, my hat’s off in general to Will McClay and his staff, and then certainly to Mike McCarthy and his staff and other coaching staffs that have been through here when we drafted linemen. I think communication is paramount in terms of what you’re looking for, what kind of scheme you’re running. Are you running a zone scheme? Are you running a man scheme? All of those are things that go into how you pick offensive linemen, what kind of football character do you want in these guys? I think Will McClay and his group have just done a great job of understanding what our coaching staff needs to execute their particular scheme. Certainly, we’ve been fortunate to have luck and it looks like we had some good picks again here with [Tyler] Guyton starting at left tackle and [Cooper] Beebe starting at center. We actually like Nate Thomas as well, as a future guy.
“As you see when you look across our line now, those guys are all homegrown guys. Got [Terence] Steele and Zack [Martin] to go along with those guys. It’s a great group.”
Last year, you guys had issues at linebacker. What went into fixing that?
Jones: “Obviously every scheme is different and there’s a lot of different ways to have success in this league, defensively. Dan [Quinn] went about it one way and getting [Mike Zimmer] back in the building, we know him well, he’s got a different way that he goes about playing defense. Both are successful, you know what we thought of Dan and you know what we thought of Mike Zimmer, both of them successful head coaches. I think Zim had an influence on that, too, in terms of really wanting to beef up a little more moving forward. Focusing on stopping the run even more so personnel-wise than Dan did, but at the same time we had a really successful defense that was turning the ball over and getting pressure on the passer with Dan. What you really want is all of the above and sometimes that can be a challenge to have the personnel to do all of the above. That’s the ultimate goal, to stop the run then go get pressure on the quarterback and get the ball.
“We knew we needed backers the last couple of years and unfortunately [DeMarvion] Overshown, who I think is going to be a great player, had the unfortunate knee injury right off the bat and that really put us behind the eight ball as well. It required us to bring [Markquese] Bell up, who at the end of the day is probably more safety than he is a linebacker. But he played some really good football for us last year, filled in admirably and did a nice job. Obviously, you can see we’re going to backers there that were a little heavier-handed, put Bell back and he can bring it there from the safety spot.”
On Caelen Carson taking on a bigger role in Week 1...
Jones: “From the day he walked in the door, he’s impressed around here. Zim is a tough guy to impress, especially at the corner position. He cut his teeth as a back-end coach and he knows what he wants in the secondary. He had his eyes on Carson from the day he walked in the door. In terms of what we saw in the draft, you see a big guy, a physical guy who can tackle but also run and cover. With his length, he’s what you’re looking for. You look out there and you see [Trevon] Diggs and you see a big, strong guy who can go get the ball. Training camp from Week 1, he kept showing up. He’s gonna be [No.] 21, but he was 41 in camp and he kept showing up. Making plays on the ball, getting picks, intercepting the ball. Just did a great job for us and our guys feel really comfortable with [DaRon] Bland being out for the first month of the season that Carson is going to step up and do a great job for us.”
How are you feeling about defensive tackle right now?
Jones: “Much, much better. As you mentioned, we brought two full-grown men that have played in this league, played with heavy hands and are big against the run. The one that’s really coming on is Mazi Smith. He’s back up to weighing 320-plus, kind of what we wanted him at when he came in here. He dropped some weight, I think, wanting to be quick and rush the passer, feeling like Dan wanted him to do more of that. Boy, he’s had a great camp and he’s really going to benefit from being around [Jordan] Phillips and Linval Joseph. It goes without saying, Osa [Odighizuwa] is a great football player, great 3-technique for us last year and is really playing great football here through training camp and as we enter the season. We really feel good about that group of defensive tackles. Chauncey [Golston] is really coming into his own and he’ll bring us a great element there rushing from the inside and playing that big end spot outside on run downs.”
Listen to the rest of Jones’ radio appearance here.
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