FRISCO, Texas — Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Wednesday that the Dallas Cowboys want to shift some pass-rush snaps from Rashan Gary to rookie Malachi Lawrence and veteran Von Miller after lowering the snap counts of defensive tackles Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark.
Dallas used first-round picks this year on Lawrence and safety Caleb Downs and traded for Williams, Gary, and Clark over the past 13 months. Schottenheimer said early-season football is about learning how hard each rusher can go.
“Yeah, I think part of early-season football is figuring out the RPMs that these guys play at. You saw us do that a little bit with Quinnen and Kenny. We lowered their snap count. I think that helped,” Schottenheimer said. “So we’d like to balance that out a little bit. Malachi is a young player. He needs to play. He’s going to make mistakes. Von’s a guy that’s always going to be on a pitch count. But if we can take a little bit off of RG and give it to those two guys, I think that will certainly help us.”
“That’s a pretty common theme during the early stages of the season, because you’re trying to figure it out,” Schottenheimer continued. “These guys don’t want to come out, and it’s our job to make sure we manage it so they feel great going into the fourth quarter, when you’re really going to need them.”
Brian Schottenheimer Wants Sacks From The Cowboys Pass Rush
Dallas has to finish its rushes, Schottenheimer said. The Cowboys have been around the quarterback without turning it into enough sacks.
“Yeah, I think it starts with the two guys inside right away. I can’t say enough about Quinnen and Kenny and what they create inside that helps the edge rushers. Again, I think we’ve shown that we can get around the quarterback, but the biggest thing is that we need the production,” Schottenheimer said. “We need the sack that puts them in second down and 16, third down and 12, third down and long, because that helps us in a lot of situations to adjust our coverage and do some different things.”
Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud moves the launch point often. Schottenheimer said the Texans are a big quarterback-movement team that boots him and changes the spot, and that Dallas has matchups it likes in longer passing downs.
Brian Schottenheimer Says Cowboys Season ‘Is Going To Turn’
Several offseason additions have missed time, including safety Jalen Thompson and defensive tackle Jonathan Bullard, who both went on injured reserve Wednesday. Schottenheimer said the depth is being tested and that nobody outside the building cares.
“Yeah, I mean, you can look at it that way. We don’t. We look at it as an opportunity for somebody else. I think we’ve built a deep roster. Is that being tested a little bit now? Of course. When you get multiple guys hurt at one position, that makes it difficult,” Schottenheimer said. “But I say this all the time, and I say it respectfully: no one cares. It is what it is. You’ve got to go out there and play and coach. I want to keep pointing out the things that we’re doing well. We feel like this is going to turn, and it’s going to turn.”
The injuries in the secondary will probably make the defensive plan simpler against the Houston Texans, Schottenheimer said. He pointed to a third-down call in Rio in which Dallas walked rookie linebacker Jaishawn Barham to the edge and blitzed him.
“So it’s not going to be about us fooling anybody. It’s going to be about us executing and playing well. I think you saw some of those things that we did last week that we did well on third down. Those were just core concepts for us, using the players’ strengths,” Schottenheimer said. “We walk Jaishawn to the edge and blitz him off the edge, and he knocks the back for a three-yard loss while we let Quinnen Williams go. So it’s more about using our pieces the right way. I think that’s what you’ll see, but it will probably be simpler, and I think that’s happenstance because of the injuries.”
The run game also turned in Rio. Schottenheimer said the staff had been too cute early and went back to the runs Dallas does best, and he pointed to Javonte Williams and the explosive runs.
“Sometimes early in the season, you get a little cute. I think we might have been guilty of that in the run game. Sometimes you just got to come downhill and hit people and be physical,” Schottenheimer said. “But I thought Javonte played really, really well. What I was pleased with was more of the explosives. We were able to get some explosives, which is something that we didn’t have enough of.”
Wednesday was a lighter session with 15 minutes of individual work and 10 full-speed plays on each side. Thursday was the last padded practice of the stretch because of the short week before the Thursday game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Oct. 8.
Dallas plays at Houston on Sunday at noon CT on Fox.
