With DeMarcus Ware and Jason Hatcher gone, and Sean Lee done for the year, the Dallas Cowboys defense will enter 2014 with an even greater lack of “names” than they had a year ago--when they posted the worst defensive season in franchise history, from a statistical standpoint. But that doesn’t matter to newcomer defensive tackle Henry Melton, who sees a lot of defensive talent when he looks around the Cowboys locker room.
“There’s a lot of athletic guys, we got,” Melton said, per the Dallas Morning News. “There aren’t a lot of big names on it, but it’s like I told them before, it’s about making a name for yourself. No one knew who I was when I first started, so it’s all about making a name for yourself. Looking around this room, there’s a lot of guys that are going to."
“We got a lot of talent on the defense, a lot of names that people don’t know that are going to make names, so I’m excited to play with them. I think we got a lot of key components to really get it done.”
The young, generally undecorated defense will also be helped by the presence of defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli, who is widely regarded as one of the best defensive minds in the game. Melton went to his only Pro Bowl to date, in 2012 as a member of the Bears, under Marinelli’s watchful eye.
“He demands you to be disruptive,” Melton said of Marinelli. “Not everybody can do it. The guys that can are very special. He allows you to thrive and kind of free-range out there.”
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