INSIDE SLANT
The Cowboys defense is a unit that is the most under the gun this offseason.
And with good reason: the defense is what has held the Cowboys back the past two years.
In 2010, the Cowboys had the worst pass defense in team history. Last year’s unit was the third worst in team history as the coaching change from Wade Phillips as head coach and defensive coordinator to Rob Ryan as coordinator did not make much of a difference.
The Cowboys blame the lockout and the shortened offseason for some of the struggles on defense as they did not get to learn Ryan’s system. There was confusion on defense during games in the final months of the season.
The Cowboys believe they will be helped greatly by a full offseason program and full slate of minicamps. But they also know this was not just an issue of schematic breakdowns.
The Cowboys have problems in personnel and serious upgrades need to be made in the front seven as well as the defensive backfield. Two of three biggest priorities of the offseason are finding a pass rusher and cornerback.
The latter is an issue because three of the five corners from last season, Terence Newman, Alan Ball and Frank Walker are not expected back. Ball and Walker are free agents.
Newman is expected to be a salary-cap casualty. The question is whether the move will be made on or before June 1 or after June 1 to lessen the impact on the salary cap.
The Cowboys will look for a replacements in free agency and the draft.
There is a good chance they could target Dre Kirkpatrick or Janoris Jenkins for the 14th overall pick.
The issue for the Cowboys is at linebacker where veterans Bradie James and Keith Brooking are not expected back. The Cowboys hope Bruce Carter is ready to fill the void at inside linebacker opposite Sean Lee. Either way this is a position that needs to be addressed in the first four rounds of the draft.
The big question is what to do at outside linebacker where Anthony Spencer is an unrestricted free agent. Spencer has been a huge disappointment since being a first-round pick in 2007. He is solid against the run as he was fourth on the Cowboys with 74 tackles in 2011. He also led in forced fumbles with four and tied for the team lead in tackles for losses with eight.
But he has not had more than six sacks in a season and has not been able to give the Cowboys a consistent pass rushing presence opposite DeMarcus Ware.
The problem is that there are no easy answers or upgrades on the free-agent market. The Cowboys could address the position in the draft where it’s also a crap shoot but that would mean they couldn’t target a cornerback with the first-round pick.
So as of now the Cowboys are playing the waiting game and weighing the options that include putting the franchise tag on Spencer and bringing him back with a one-year deal for $8.8 million.
That’s a lot of jack for six sacks but the Cowboys may not have a choice in 2012.
NOTES, QUOTES
• The Cowboys have made official the hiring of Joe Baker as the assistant secondary coach. He will work with Jerome Henderson who was hired last month to be the secondary coach. The duo replaces Dave Campo and Brett Maxie in running the Cowboys secondary.
Baker spent the past three seasons as an assistant with the Buccaneers. He has 16 years of NFL coaching experience and three years at the collegiate level.
He and Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett go back to their playing days at Princeton. Baker was a receiver at Princeton from 1987-1990, catching passes from Garrett in 1987-88.
• Punter Mat McBriar is expected to make a full recovery from surgery at the Mayo Clinic last week to remove a cyst in his left knee, which apparently led to the “drop foot” that caused him to end the season on injured reserve.
“He’s lucky, and I’m lucky because this is what I’ve been interested in,” Dr. Robert Spinner, who called it a rare condition. “There are lots of reasons why people have drop foot. Most are not related to tumors or this type of cyst.”
It’s all good news to McBriar, who is a free agent and hopes to return to the Cowboys. He will rest for a month but hopes to start kicking again by April.
“I don’t know how it’s going to end up,” McBriar said. “I really do hope that I stay in Dallas, but I guess for the time being, just getting healthy is my main focus. I’ve been given no reason not to believe that it would come back to where it was.”
• Special teams coach Joe DeCamillis will be back with the Cowboys next season. He had hoped to get in the mix for the head coaching job with the Jacksonville Jaquars where he coached before he came to Dallas. But he didn’t get an interview.
The Cowboys were also approached this offseason by the Raiders who wanted permission to speak with DeCamillis about a position on their staff. The Cowboys declined to give the Raiders permission.
Raiders coach Dennis Allen had hoped to interview and possibly add DeCamillis to his staff with the title of assistant head coach. Allen and DeCamillis are close friends and had been on the same staff together in Atlanta.
But it would have been considered a lateral move and per NFL rules, teams only have to let coaches interview with other clubs for a head coaching position.
• QB Jon Kitna has retired and will coach high school football next season in his hometown of Tacoma, Wash. The Cowboys will be on the market for a backup quarterback to replace him.
But he says the team and its fans have the right guy as the starter in the maligned Tony Romo.
“Tony had a phenomenal year,” Kitna said. “He had the best year since I have been here. Everybody who knows the game would say it was the best of his career and he has had a lot of good ones. He’s continued to get better every year. He is the right guy for the job.”
Quote To Note: “We’ve got a young head coach who’s got a staff that we’ve made a couple of changes on. And what you’re supposed to do if you’re young, smart and ambitious, you’re supposed to get in and make adjustments. And I expect that in the offseason. And I expect it to be positive for our team. I think we’ll coordinate that with what I do, we do, in personnel, and that way we’ve got a chance to get better. But it’ll be a multi-pronged approach.”—Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on why he feels his team is making the right moves in the offseason and why they will be better next season.
STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
• The Cowboys are in better shape heading into free agency than they thought they would be before the 2011 season when they made roster decisions to put $24 million in dead money into the 2012 cap.
But thanks to a salary surplus of $17 million under the 2011 cap that the Cowboys will carry over into 2012 and the shrewd decisions the team made before the season, they will have $12.6 million to spend in free agency.
They also can get a little more by releasing cornerback Terence Newman and making adjustments to the contracts of DeMarcus Ware and Orlando Scandrick among others.
Owner Jerry Jones credits his son and vice president Stephen Jones for their increased flexibility.
“I give Stephen a lot of credit for taking a year we thought would be Armageddon for us, and we were able to do some things last year with the cap that puts us and gives us some viability,” Jones said. “Stephen and a lot of the crew he works with regarding the caps, regarding the contracts, all of that has given us a chance to have some room to improve this team this year.
“And we will use it.”
Medical Watch: No updates.
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