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Biggest roster weaknesses for Cowboys, Giants, Eagles, Redskins - NFL
By Vince Verhei
Dallas Cowboys
Biggest post-draft weakness: Safety
It would be nice if Dallas could add a runner to replace DeMarco Murray, but it's clear that you don't need a dominant running back to win a championship in today's NFL. You do, however, need great play from your defense -- or at least better play than what the Cowboys got last year when their defense finished 22nd against the run, the pass, and overall by Football Outsiders' DVOA metric.
The additions of free agent Greg Hardy (pending his suspension, which is currently slated for 10 games) and second-round draftee Randy Gregory should boost the pass rush, while first-round cornerback Byron Jones will help Brandon Carr and Orlando Scandrick handle spread formations. At safety, though, the Cowboys are stuck with the eminently mediocre duo of J.J. Wilcox and Barry Church.
Safeties are hard to analyze statistically because their assignments can vary wildly from team to team. By and large, though, we can say they are asked to prevent opposing offenses from making big plays, and the Cowboys' pair didn't offer much help there, especially in the running game. Church was 25th among safeties in run stops (tackles that stopped an offense from gaining 45 percent of yards to go on first down, 60 percent on second, and 100 percent on third or fourth); Wilcox was 61st. That would be fine if their conservative play was taking away home runs, but Dallas gave up 1.03 open-field yards per carry last year, third-worst in the league. (Open-field yards are rushing yards gained at least 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.) The Cowboys also struggled to stop deep passes, ranking 20th in pass coverage on throws that traveled at least 16 yards past the line of scrimmage.
New York Giants
Biggest post-draft weakness: Linebacker
The Giants were trampled on the ground last season, finishing 27th in Football Outsiders' DVOA metric for run defense. A look at our front-seven statistics shows that aside from a mediocre ability to prevent short-yardage conversions, they struggled in virtually all areas of run defense. They didn't tackle opponents for a loss very often (27th in stuff rate), gave up too many medium-length runs (31st in second-level yards), and were burned by long runs, too (29th in open-field yards).
Giants linebackers also failed in pass coverage, ranking 20th in coverage against running backs, 25th against tight ends, and last by a wide margin in passes thrown to the short middle area of the field.
Jacquian Williams, perhaps the team's best linebacker when healthy last year (he missed seven games with a concussion), was not re-signed after the season. That leaves the middle linebacker spot to either Jon Beason, who missed most of 2014 with a toe injury, or Jameel McClain, whose average run tackle last year came 4.2 yards downfield. That ranked 72nd among qualifying linebackers. Both Beason and McClain will be 30 years old by the time the season starts.
The top option outside will be J.T. Thomas, who was effective at times for Jacksonville last season, but there's a reason the Giants will be his third team in four years. On the opposite side, possible starters include 2014 fifth-rounder Devon Kennard, longtime backup Mark Herzlich, or new arrival Jonathan Casillas, who played primarily on special teams for Tampa Bay and New England the last couple of seasons.
Philadelphia Eagles
Biggest post-draft weakness: Safety
Malcolm Jenkins will return to start at one safety position, but Nate Allen signed with Oakland in free agency. To replace him, the Eagles did, uh -- nothing. They did not add a safety in free agency. They did not make a trade. They did not take one in the draft. They didn't even add a pure safety as an undrafted free agent. At the time of this writing, here is a full list of pure safeties on Philadelphia's roster, besides Jenkins:
• Earl Wolff: A fifth-round pick in 2013, he started six games as a rookie and one last year, but at times was a healthy scratch in 2014, and ended the season on injured reserve with a knee injury.
• Chris Prosinski: Jacksonville drafted him in the fourth round in 2011. He started nine games in his first three seasons, then was waived last September and picked up by the Eagles, playing eight games for Philadelphia.
• Chris Maragos: Veteran special-teamer for San Francisco, Seattle, and Philadelphia, he has never started a game in five NFL seasons.
• Jerome Couplin III: An undrafted rookie last season, when he played one game for Buffalo, eight for Detroit, and one for Philadelphia.
• Ed Reynolds: A fifth-round pick out of Stanford last year, he never made the active roster.
Eric Rowe played safety for three years at Utah, but he was a cornerback in his senior season. Both he and Chip Kelly have strongly suggested that corner will be his position this fall. Sixth-rounder Randall Evans played both corner and safety in college, as did undrafted free agent Denzel Rice, but it's hard to imagine a sixth-rounder or a UDFA stepping in and starting on opening day. The Eagles gave up a league-high 72 20-yard completions last year, and could be worse at defending the pass in 2015.
Washington Redskins
Biggest post-draft weakness: Secondary
Give the Redskins credit here. They recognized a weakness -- their pass defense was dead last in Football Outsiders' DVOA ratings a year ago -- and did all they could find new players to patch that weakness up. The only problem is there's no guarantee the new players will be an improvement over the guys they've been brought in to replace.
We'll start at safety, where Ryan Clark has retired and Brandon Meriweather was not re-signed after the season. Dashon Goldson arrives from Tampa Bay, where according to Football Outsiders game charting he gave up 10.5 yards per target last season, ranking among the bottom 10 safeties in the league. Washington also signed Jeron Johnson, formerly a backup in Seattle. As you're probably aware, backup safeties in Seattle don't get a lot of playing time, and Johnson has only one start in four NFL seasons. He's a complete mystery. All we know for sure is that he's worse than Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas, and while there's no shame in that, you'd like to see him accomplish something before anointing him a starter.
At cornerback, DeAngelo Hall returns from injury, but he turns 32 this season, he's coming off of two Achilles tendon tears, and even in his best years his pass-coverage numbers never lived up to his reputation. The other corner will be Chris Culliver, a free-agent signee from San Francisco. Culliver should be Washington's best defensive back if he can stay on the field, but he has had off-field behavioral issues in the past, and he missed all of 2013 with a torn ACL. There is also talk that Hall will be moved to free safety, opening a starting spot for either Bashaud Breeland (64th in adjusted success rate among cornerbacks last season) or David Amerson (75th). (Adjusted success rate, a stat from Football Outsiders game charting, is explained here.)
By Vince Verhei
Dallas Cowboys
Biggest post-draft weakness: Safety
It would be nice if Dallas could add a runner to replace DeMarco Murray, but it's clear that you don't need a dominant running back to win a championship in today's NFL. You do, however, need great play from your defense -- or at least better play than what the Cowboys got last year when their defense finished 22nd against the run, the pass, and overall by Football Outsiders' DVOA metric.
The additions of free agent Greg Hardy (pending his suspension, which is currently slated for 10 games) and second-round draftee Randy Gregory should boost the pass rush, while first-round cornerback Byron Jones will help Brandon Carr and Orlando Scandrick handle spread formations. At safety, though, the Cowboys are stuck with the eminently mediocre duo of J.J. Wilcox and Barry Church.
Safeties are hard to analyze statistically because their assignments can vary wildly from team to team. By and large, though, we can say they are asked to prevent opposing offenses from making big plays, and the Cowboys' pair didn't offer much help there, especially in the running game. Church was 25th among safeties in run stops (tackles that stopped an offense from gaining 45 percent of yards to go on first down, 60 percent on second, and 100 percent on third or fourth); Wilcox was 61st. That would be fine if their conservative play was taking away home runs, but Dallas gave up 1.03 open-field yards per carry last year, third-worst in the league. (Open-field yards are rushing yards gained at least 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.) The Cowboys also struggled to stop deep passes, ranking 20th in pass coverage on throws that traveled at least 16 yards past the line of scrimmage.
New York Giants
Biggest post-draft weakness: Linebacker
The Giants were trampled on the ground last season, finishing 27th in Football Outsiders' DVOA metric for run defense. A look at our front-seven statistics shows that aside from a mediocre ability to prevent short-yardage conversions, they struggled in virtually all areas of run defense. They didn't tackle opponents for a loss very often (27th in stuff rate), gave up too many medium-length runs (31st in second-level yards), and were burned by long runs, too (29th in open-field yards).
Giants linebackers also failed in pass coverage, ranking 20th in coverage against running backs, 25th against tight ends, and last by a wide margin in passes thrown to the short middle area of the field.
Jacquian Williams, perhaps the team's best linebacker when healthy last year (he missed seven games with a concussion), was not re-signed after the season. That leaves the middle linebacker spot to either Jon Beason, who missed most of 2014 with a toe injury, or Jameel McClain, whose average run tackle last year came 4.2 yards downfield. That ranked 72nd among qualifying linebackers. Both Beason and McClain will be 30 years old by the time the season starts.
The top option outside will be J.T. Thomas, who was effective at times for Jacksonville last season, but there's a reason the Giants will be his third team in four years. On the opposite side, possible starters include 2014 fifth-rounder Devon Kennard, longtime backup Mark Herzlich, or new arrival Jonathan Casillas, who played primarily on special teams for Tampa Bay and New England the last couple of seasons.
Philadelphia Eagles
Biggest post-draft weakness: Safety
Malcolm Jenkins will return to start at one safety position, but Nate Allen signed with Oakland in free agency. To replace him, the Eagles did, uh -- nothing. They did not add a safety in free agency. They did not make a trade. They did not take one in the draft. They didn't even add a pure safety as an undrafted free agent. At the time of this writing, here is a full list of pure safeties on Philadelphia's roster, besides Jenkins:
• Earl Wolff: A fifth-round pick in 2013, he started six games as a rookie and one last year, but at times was a healthy scratch in 2014, and ended the season on injured reserve with a knee injury.
• Chris Prosinski: Jacksonville drafted him in the fourth round in 2011. He started nine games in his first three seasons, then was waived last September and picked up by the Eagles, playing eight games for Philadelphia.
• Chris Maragos: Veteran special-teamer for San Francisco, Seattle, and Philadelphia, he has never started a game in five NFL seasons.
• Jerome Couplin III: An undrafted rookie last season, when he played one game for Buffalo, eight for Detroit, and one for Philadelphia.
• Ed Reynolds: A fifth-round pick out of Stanford last year, he never made the active roster.
Eric Rowe played safety for three years at Utah, but he was a cornerback in his senior season. Both he and Chip Kelly have strongly suggested that corner will be his position this fall. Sixth-rounder Randall Evans played both corner and safety in college, as did undrafted free agent Denzel Rice, but it's hard to imagine a sixth-rounder or a UDFA stepping in and starting on opening day. The Eagles gave up a league-high 72 20-yard completions last year, and could be worse at defending the pass in 2015.
Washington Redskins
Biggest post-draft weakness: Secondary
Give the Redskins credit here. They recognized a weakness -- their pass defense was dead last in Football Outsiders' DVOA ratings a year ago -- and did all they could find new players to patch that weakness up. The only problem is there's no guarantee the new players will be an improvement over the guys they've been brought in to replace.
We'll start at safety, where Ryan Clark has retired and Brandon Meriweather was not re-signed after the season. Dashon Goldson arrives from Tampa Bay, where according to Football Outsiders game charting he gave up 10.5 yards per target last season, ranking among the bottom 10 safeties in the league. Washington also signed Jeron Johnson, formerly a backup in Seattle. As you're probably aware, backup safeties in Seattle don't get a lot of playing time, and Johnson has only one start in four NFL seasons. He's a complete mystery. All we know for sure is that he's worse than Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas, and while there's no shame in that, you'd like to see him accomplish something before anointing him a starter.
At cornerback, DeAngelo Hall returns from injury, but he turns 32 this season, he's coming off of two Achilles tendon tears, and even in his best years his pass-coverage numbers never lived up to his reputation. The other corner will be Chris Culliver, a free-agent signee from San Francisco. Culliver should be Washington's best defensive back if he can stay on the field, but he has had off-field behavioral issues in the past, and he missed all of 2013 with a torn ACL. There is also talk that Hall will be moved to free safety, opening a starting spot for either Bashaud Breeland (64th in adjusted success rate among cornerbacks last season) or David Amerson (75th). (Adjusted success rate, a stat from Football Outsiders game charting, is explained here.)
