I disagreed with the list a little bit so I started tweaking it, and then I realized the Cowboys weren’t in my Top-10.
I was shocked, because a massive contract was just given to Demarcus Lawrence. Why? He’s supposed to be one of the best defensive pressure guys in the league.
Yeah, but no matter how good he is, the defensive line surrounding him didn’t offer enough pressure to avoid triple teams at times, and who is the guy on the other side of line?
I like to think Aldon Smith is going to be a contributor, but there is not guarantee there. Same goes for Randy Gregory. So I’m gonna play it safe and say Tyrone Crawford will be the guy considering he has been a flexible player but with Dontari Poe and Gerald McCoy in the middle, he might be better used winning on the outside.
No matter how much we all love Crawford’s leadership and how well we know him though, he isn’t as highly touted around the league.
Either way that’s my combo.
So without any further, let’s run through my rankings up to the Cowboys.
1. San Francisco - Joey Bosa and Dee Ford
2. Pittsburgh - TJ Watt and Bud Dupree
3. Chicago - Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn
4. Cleveland - Myles Garrett and Olivier Vernon
5. New Orleans - Cameron Jordan and Marcus Davenport
6. Los Angeles Chargers - Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram
7. Denver - Von Miller and Bradley Chubb
8. Tampa Bay - Shaq Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul
9. Jacksonville - Yannick Ngokoue and Josh Allen (if Ngokoue plays could move higher)
10. Baltimore - Callais Campbell and Matthew Judon
11. Green Bay - ZaDarius Smith and Preston smith
12. Minnesota - Danielle Hunter and Ifeadi Odenigbo
13. Washington - Montez Sweat and Chase Young (I know this is a young group but the talent is shocking)
This is where it gets a little weird because I consider a lot of these combos similar.
14. Indianapolis - Justin Houston and Darius Leonard
15. Arizona - Chandler Jones and Zach Allen
16. Houston - JJ Watt and Whitney Mercilus
17. Dallas - Demarcus Lawrence and Tyrone Crawford
I would follow that with Philadelphia and Buffalo and the rest will fill in. If you want to move the Cowboys up on this list maybe 5-6 spots you can add Everson Griffin. If you want to make a case for the Top 7 or Top 5, the Cowboys can add a motivated Jadeveon Clowney.
But after all of the offseason moves they’ve already made, what more will the Cowboys do?
I don’t think they’ll hurry to add a player that makes them better on paper, when they have a few unknown entities ready to compete in Smith and Gregory.