Marinelli Banking on D-Line Depth

The Cowboys lost their two best pass rushers this offseason

When it comes to his front four, defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli is hoping depth can make up for the losses of DeMarcus Ware and Jason Hatcher.

Calvin Watkins of ESPN Dallas wrote an interesting post on Friday pointing out that, when the Cowboys have been successful in past years, they’ve had a star pass rusher in the fold. This year, there is no such star on the line.

Second round pick DeMarcus Lawrence is a promising young defensive end, but he has yet to play a down of pro football. Henry Melton has been to a Pro Bowl, but to call him a star pass rusher would be a pretty big stretch--he’s never had more than seven sacks in a season, and he’s coming off surgery to repair a torn ACL.

Marinelli’s confident his defense can be just fine without Ware and Hatcher, it’s just going to take some teamwork.

“I think you can do it different ways, four guys just going,” Marinelli said. “You need a couple of guys with some juice, somebody has to get doubled. Or you’re trying to get a good guy with a matchup, things like that. We go into camp and I like some of these guys and we've just got to put the pads on and see it.”

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