The Dallas Cowboys have known their fate as a team that will miss out on the playoffs for the second year in a row for some time now, and all that’s left to put a bow on the 2025 regular season is their Week 18 game at the New York Giants. The Cowboys winning on Christmas Day brought the focus back to the on-field play of the team with something to feel good about momentarily, but the fact that yet another early arrival to an offseason full of further changes is inescapable now.
One of the things that feels the most inescapable in this regard is the team moving on from defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus sometime following the Giants game, and looking for their fourth coach in this role in four seasons. If the book is closed on Eberflus’ time as a coordinator after just one season, it will also coincide with the first chapter of the blockbuster Micah Parsons trade being closed. The Green Bay Packers may be going to the playoffs, but not with Parsons on the field after he tore his ACL at the Denver Broncos in Week 15. The Packers lost that game at the Broncos, and also their next two following it.
The Packers struggling so much defensively without Parsons, and obviously the Cowboys struggling so much for mostly the entire season without him, provides some unexpected context to where these teams stand on defense after the trade with the previously durable Parsons being sidelined now. Beyond the obvious that Parsons is an all-world player that single-handedly makes a huge impact on the game, his absence being felt by two teams now is insight into where modern defenses should stand in the great pass rush versus coverage debate.
With Parsons this season, the Packers rattled off wins against Jared Goff (twice), Jayden Daniels, Aaron Rodgers, and Caleb Williams. They gave up only 200 yards of passing in one of these games. Without him, they’ve lost to Bo Nix, Caleb Williams the second time around, and Ravens backup QB Tyler Huntley. Nix and Williams both threw for over 250 yards, and while Huntley only had 107 passing yards, the Ravens ran for 307 yards and four Derrick Henry touchdowns. The Packers only sack over their active three-game losing streak was against Huntley as well. Not having Parsons on the field for a play like Caleb Williams’ overtime winning deep ball touchdown to D.J. Moore two weeks ago was a backbreaker for the Packers to lose control of the NFC North.
To say the Cowboys have missed the juice of Parsons off the edge is an understatement, but elsewhere around the defensive line there at least have been a few things to feel optimistic about otherwise. Rookie Donovan Ezeiruaku looks like a solid piece for the future. Kenny Clark hasn’t been asked to do it all at defensive tackle, as the other trade chip of Quinnen Williams has made an impact along with Osa Odighizuwa and Solomon Thomas. Jadeveon Clowney has been a veteran addition that’s helped the depth of the group and played with great motor and pursuit. All of this may lead to the conclusion that the Cowboys best use of resources moving forward to fix a fundamentally broken defense would be directed towards the backend, but pass rush is still where the biggest difference can be made the quickest.
One of the things that will be very important to sort through at the end of this season for Dallas is how much actually falls at the feet of Eberflus when it comes to how bad the defense has been. Although his struggles to coordinate a sound group go beyond just the surprise of losing Parsons at the 11th hour before the season, it still can’t be forgotten how much of Eberflus’ plans for the entire defense focused solely on Parsons being a consistent play maker. The timing of the Cowboys making this trade did Eberflus no favors, although the best-case scenario moving forward may be that the Cowboys are in position to get out from under his zone-heavy approach quickly. We’ll never know if playing zone constantly would have been more effective more often without opposing quarterbacks having all day to throw, but the Cowboys also lack the personnel in the secondary to be truly comfortable in zone.
With the amount of games being decided by penalty flags in the secondary in today’s game, and misdirection and motions in the backfield at an all-time high (and on the rise in the Cowboys own offense), getting penetration to disrupt plays at the point of attack is the most effective way to consistently stop offenses. Much like the Cowboys immediately went back to the first-round draft pick well to replace a former first-round pick in Zack Martin with rookie right guard Tyler Booker this season, the Cowboys need to take a similar approach with similar results going into their first offseason without Parsons and a void to fill at EDGE. The Cowboys will have a harder time selling their “by committee” approach at any position group lacking star power this offseason after working hard to address multiple such positions last offseason, and at this year’s trade deadline, but still sitting outside the playoffs. They have the defensive tackle depth to allow a speed rusher off the edge to thrive, but lack the number one guy to fill that role in the worst way right now. The loss of Micah Parsons sinking two defenses in one season should be all the evidence Dallas needs to see where their weakness is.
The Cowboys taking the field with the current defense they have one more time is going to come and go in the early window without any fanfare at all in Week 18. By the time the long wait until they return to the field is over, so many things stand to look a whole lot different, but if the defensive end group is not one such thing, it may all be for waste yet again.
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