Jerry: 4-3 Defense Here to Stay

Jerry Jones said this week that the Cowboys anticipate using the 4-3 system for the foreseeable future

Over the past couple weeks, many NFL Draft experts have changed their tune where the Cowboys’ first round pick, No. 18 overall, is concerned. Where at first they had Dallas targeting the offensive line (or maybe safety) in the first round, lately a good deal of them have the team looking to address an aging defensive front on Thursday.

The idea that the Cowboys will target the defensive line early in the draft is only supported by Jerry Jones’ remarks at this week’s pre-draft press conference, where he told reporters that the team will likely be in the 4-3 system brought to town by defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin for the foreseeable future.

“Certainly we anticipate being in this scheme for quite some time,” Jones said Monday, per the Dallas Morning News. “It’s not dissimilar [to] back before Bill Parcells was here. Bill came in and I think we were the No. 1 defensive team in the NFL the year he got here under the scheme that we were operating under, which was a 4-3 at that time. So we do know what these guys that don’t have to change light bulbs look like, as Larry Lacewell used to say, as far as linebackers and their height that can run.

“So we’ve got a pretty good feel and a good base of our scouts with Tom [Ciskowski] leading the way and Stephen [Jones] having been here for years and years that know what 4-3 defensive players look like, absent the fact they’re a lot bigger and a lot faster than they were maybe as far back as 10 years ago.”

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