Offense always grabs the headlines during NFL preseason hype, and that holds true in Dallas. However, year after year, it’s the other side of the ball that often determines a team’s fate, and the 2025 Cowboys defense is no exception.
Despite all the quarterback trouble and overall offensive struggles, Dallas’s D gave up the fifth-most yards in the entire league, and no team allowed more rushing touchdowns.
Defensive struggles, especially in the running game, feel like a yearly occurrence for the Cowboys; no matter how big the names are on that side of the ball, they always fall short of creating an elite unit.
Incoming defensive coordinator and former Bears head coach, Matt Eberflus, is trying to change that narrative.
The only problem with that is the depth chart. Despite all the changes, signings, departures, and draft selections, the Cowboys’ defense as a whole is unbalanced and flat-out weak in certain areas.
Here, we’ll talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of this unit and what their outlook is for the 2025 season.
The Good: Top-Notch Front Seven
Many fans worried about what the defensive front would look like after long-time veteran DeMarcus Lawrence left in free agency. Fortunately, it seems like the front office created a pretty good group to supplement that.
With Micah Parsons headlining the front seven, Dallas has been able to surround him with veteran talent and high-potential young guys who can get to the quarterback.
Whether it be Dante Fowler Jr or Donovan Ezeiruaku off the edge, or Jack Sanborn, Marist Liufau, and the recovering DeMarvion Overshown in the linebacker room, there is a lot of production and potential that could combine for an explosion in 2025.
On the interior, guys like Osa Odighizuwa, Mazi Smith, Soloman Thomas, and rookie Jay Toia carry a good mixture of talents that should blend well enough at defensive tackle.
Overall, it’s hard to look at the starters in the front seven and complain, especially if they end up healthy at the same time this season. This is clearly the best group on the 2025 Cowboys defense.
The Bad: Overall Lack Of Quality Depth
Like I said, the starters across the defense, but especially in the front seven, don’t make you worry much. What could, however, is the depth behind those guys.
If you look around the depth chart, you’ll find a lot of unproven or underperforming names that will be asked to fill huge shoes if the injury bug bites. Guys like Sam Williams, Payton Turner, Damone Clark, and Kaiir Elam are not starters on a playoff team.
If one or two guys go down, though, they will be out there with the first-team for the Cowboys defense.
This is where Dallas could run into major trouble. It is impossible to remain healthy for an entire season, and in 2024, we saw how severe that can be with some bad luck. If they have a similar year to last, we’d be looking at a pretty rough defensive unit.
There are guys in this group that could prove us wrong and burst onto the scene, but on paper, the depth on defense does not give you a calming feeling right now.
The Ugly: Secondary Is Living Risky
If there is one aspect of the 2025 Cowboys defense that should keep the organization up at night, it is, by far, the secondary.
Considering names alone, it doesn’t look that bad: Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland are All-Pros, Malik Hooker and Donovan Wilson have carried the load at safety for years, and there are promising young guys that back them all up.
When you dig a little deeper, however, you start to see where this thing could really fall apart.
Diggs is coming off major knee surgery, his second in a few years; Bland had an injury-riddled 2024; the safeties are not getting any younger.
Even the younger talents in Shavon Revel and Caelen Carson carry their injury concerns, as the rookie from East Carolina recovers from a torn ACL and the second-year man from Wake Forest tries to bounce back from a banged-up first season.
Simply put, it wouldn’t take much for this unit to get ugly. Even if they don’t, it’s hard to argue that they aren’t the weakest link on the Dallas defense this year.
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