Cowboys defense: Comparing front seven additions/subtractions from 2024 to now

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New defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus has already made his presence felt in retooling the Cowboys DL and LB groups.

For the third consecutive season, the Dallas Cowboys will have a new defensive coordinator. Matt Eberflus returning to Dallas after being fired mid-season as head coach of the Chicago Bears last year is actually one of the more familiar faces on the Cowboys staff, considering the Cowboys also have a new head coach, offensive coordinator, and new positions coaches at nearly every spot. This hasn’t slowed the Cowboys down one bit in responding to how last offseason’s inactivity caused so much regression, with trades and free agent acquisitions shaking things up significantly going into Schottenheimer’s first year.

Where Schottenheimer will call plays for an offense that is about to go into the draft still with major needs at wide receiver and running back, Eberflus’ past experience with the team has allowed them to dig in even more on the defensive side of the ball to build around cornerstones like Micah Parsons.

Osa Odighizuwa became one of the Cowboys most important internal free agents to retain as a centerpiece to Eberflus’ defensive line, one that will be expected to bring pressure without a dependency on blitzing/stunting the team has needed at times. Impressively, the Cowboys were able to get this deal done early with Odighizuwa and make him a mainstay of the defensive line for years to come. They have also added veteran DT Solomon Thomas and edge rushers Dante Fowler and Payton Turner.

The Cowboys defensive line will feature a blend of new and old faces thanks to these moves, but the linebacker position has a chance to look almost entirely different. A former Eberflus defender with the Bears, Jack Sanborn, was signed to a one-year deal around the same time the Cowboys traded for yet another former first-round pick in Kenneth Murray. Second-year player Marist Liufau is likely the most promising player with any past experience to continue seeing snaps alongside these new additions to start the year. DeMarvion Overshown is a question mark for 2025 at this point.

When looking at the Cowboys skill positions, offensive line, and secondary under this same lens of comparing last offseason to this current one, the results so far have been mostly humbling. Sure, there are more moves to talk about, but through all of the noise the same questions at a lot of the same positions that held this team back a year ago persist. This is still a team that is looking to find players that can help them win the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball more, which did bode well when looking at some of the promising players still on the rise expected to start on the offensive line. Will the Cowboys defensive line under Eberflus, and front seven as a whole, be able to have a similar expectation in year one? Let’s take a closer look to find out.

Defensive Line

2024 Additions: Marshawn Kneeland, Justin Rogers

2024 Losses: Dorance Armstrong, Dante Fowler, Neville Gallimore, Johnathan Hankins

2025 Additions: Solomon Thomas, Dante Fowler, Payton Turner

2025 Losses: Chauncey Golston, DeMarcus Lawrence

Despite this being yet another position group the Cowboys lost a lot from last offseason without doing much to replace, the way they’ve rebounded to still maintain some depth up front is noteworthy. Both Dorance Armstrong and Dante Fowler followed former DC Dan Quinn within the division to the Washington Commanders in 2024, but Fowler is now back with the Cowboys. He is joined by two other former first-round picks in Payton Turner and Solomon Thomas as additions for 2025.

Whether or not the Cowboys have harder players to replace between 2024 or this offseason with the departures of Chauncey Golston and DeMarcus Lawrence is a toss up. Lawrence was obviously a great and consistent player throughout his career in Dallas, and Golston turned his career year in 2024 into a FA contract with the Giants, but also losing Hankins and Gallimore last offseason created a real depth issue. The Cowboys losing depth at defensive tackle last year was not expected to be met with corresponding moves at a position group they’ve devalued for a very long time.

As a result, Zimmer’s defense was certainly pushed around up front more than desired and failed to patch up the struggles against the run that marked the final year of Quinn’s tenure. Re-signing Odighizuwa was just the first sign the Cowboys finally want to get better on the defensive interior, and adding Thomas was a great complementary move. Dallas also saw promising growth from Mazi Smith as their starting 1-technique moving forward, but will go into the draft needing at least one more player capable of joining the rotation at this spot early. Justin Rogers is still here, but only after the 2024 seventh-round pick was cut and spent the year on the Bengals practice squad. Rogers re-signed with the Cowboys last December. He is a player that showed some promise in preseason action in his first stint with Dallas, but also one that can easily be replaced should the team prioritize the position group enough to target it on day one or two of the draft.

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As for the Cowboys edge rushers, this group is always going to be defined by Micah Parsons. This isn’t at all to say the players around Parsons don’t matter, and that looking for the team to have a real plan to surround their franchise player on defense isn’t something to watch closely for, but Parsons is the definition of a star that gives you a chance to be successful every time he’s on the field. He is a one-man game-plan wrecker on the right day for an opposing offense. Parsons teaming back up with Dante Fowler is exciting, as Fowler had a total of ten sacks in two seasons from 2022-23 in Dallas. Fowler may never be the most consistent, technically sound, or physically overpowering rusher, but this is a savvy defender with a knack for getting off blocks and finishing at the quarterback whenever given the chance. He can go a long way in helping the Cowboys replace the production from DeMarcus Lawrence at defensive end. Fowler and Parsons are both players that can rush from stand up positions and attack gaps, which for now is a lesser talked about benefit to the team seemingly upgrading at defensive tackle. These DTs occupying space and blocks inside could directly lead to more pressures for speed rushers and blitzing linebackers.

Of course, the flow of any given game will determine how much the Cowboys can be in these specific pass rush situations, and getting to them by being better fundamentally as a front four should be a goal early for Eberflus. This is where players like Sam Williams returning from ACL and MCL surgery, Marshawn Kneeland, and Payton Turner will need to step up and find some consistency.

Like we prefaced before going into this exercise, simply calling any position group from last year until now for the Cowboys even a stalemate with the potential to be improved is a bit of a win. Eberflus more than has the pieces in place for this to be a reality on the defensive line, and being the latest defensive coordinator to get his hands on an all-world player like Micah Parsons certainly helps.

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Linebacker

2024 Additions: Eric Kendricks, Marist Liufau

2024 Losses: Leighton Vander Esch

2025 Additions: Jack Sanborn, Kenneth Murray

2025 Losses: None (Eric Kendricks TBD, still a free agent)

Looking at the Cowboys depth chart from 2024 to now at linebacker, right away there is another noticeable deviation from the pattern that’s been a constant at nearly every other spot. There is a significant acquisition from the 2024 offseason to talk about! Eric Kendricks represented one of just three outside players brought in via free agency a year ago, and was the only one to make it until the end of the season.

His reunion with another former DC in Zimmer went as well as the Cowboys could have asked for. Kendricks’ veteran presence really kept the defense together at times, giving this team at least something they could feel good about on gamedays and have a chance to compete with. At 32 years old, chasing down plays and making tackles in space still came relatively easily for Kendricks.

Having Kendricks as the lone bright spot of last offseason, but not on the roster as of now going into 2025, could have easily made this yet another position of great concern for the Cowboys. What they have done to mitigate this is recreate something very similar to the Kendricks signing under Eberflus. Just like Kendricks had experience playing for Zimmer prior to signing with America’s Team, Jack Sanborn comes over as a free agent having played for Eberflus his first two seasons in the league with the Bears. The undrafted free agent out of Wisconsin even shares some similarities to Kendricks in play style with his ability to read opposing offenses, line up in the right spots, and avoid blocks to make plays downhill.

The only thing holding back the Cowboys linebacking corps from being an obvious point of improvement from last offseason to now is that DeMarvion Overshown will miss significant time at the start of 2025 yet again. After missing his entire rookie season, Overshown was fantastic in 13 games for the Cowboys last year before being hurt again. His absence going into next season makes the trade for Kenneth Murray more of a necessity compared to a luxury for Dallas to add yet another skilled linebacker with first-round draft status.

The easiest way the Cowboys can make linebacker a spot of improvement is to continue seeing development from second-year prospect Marist Liufau. Despite the team being out of contention for most of the year, Liufau played with an intensity that jumped off the screen every single time he stepped on the field as a rookie. This is a player that should easily still find a role even with the additions of Murray and Sanborn carrying the expectations that both new faces will play plenty of snaps right away.

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The Cowboys are no strangers to asking their own promising young players to take the next step as a huge part of their team-building approach. Despite fans looking for any slight signs this will change entirely under Schottenheimer, this premise is not going away, and Liufau is a great example why. Not only is Liufau a player poised to help this defense significantly in year two, but he will have the benefit of a DC that worked with the likes of Sean Lee and Bruce Carter previously in Dallas, getting the absolute most out of nearly every linebacker that came through here. It is natural to get more excited about new players as opposed to established ones as fans, but coaches have every right to see things differently. Players already established that are eager to take to coaching and help set a standard quickly are worth their weight in gold to new coaches, and the pairing of Eberflus and Liufau together is an exciting one for these reasons.

The Cowboys have plenty of ways they are going to potentially surprise opponents with different looks, schemes, players, and coaches in 2025. The depth chart at linebacker has completely been turned on its head in just one offseason under Eberflus.

Just how much this group can ultimately be the reason the Cowboys win more than seven games won’t be determined until the games start to mean something, but the arrow is pointing up, for not only the Cowboys linebackers, but the front seven as a whole to really help Dallas establish a much-needed identity as a football team going forward. The work they have done this offseason at both position groups to make this a reality is worthy of a lot of praise, despite not having a long-term deal in place yet with Micah Parsons.