The Dallas Cowboys have lost Jason Hatcher and DeMarcus Ware already this offseason, but owner Jerry Jones believes the team may actually have a better front four than they did before free agency started.
To make up for production lost with the departure of Ware and Hatcher, the Cowboys added defensive end Jeremy Mincey, and defensive tackles Terrell McClain and Henry Melton.
“I think we’ve addressed some long-term cap management that we needed to address,” Jones told the team’s official website. “And I don’t think we’ve precluded ourselves from not having a better defensive line than we had last year or a better defense. I think we have assured ourselves that we will have a better defense and a better defensive line than we had last year.”
Jones expressed some major frustration at the defense’s inability to stay healthy as a whole a year ago, and acknowledged that that frustration helped inspire the team’s decision to go in a younger direction.
“It’s unacceptable to get in the situation we got in last year, a combination of injuries and the practice of having to evaluate players throughout the year continually,” said Jones. “We can remedy that. That, plus more familiarity with our defensive players that we have on our roster now, we’ll most assuredly be much better defensively than we were last year.”
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