Ever since the arrival of Rod Marinelli, the Dallas Cowboys defense has been somewhat predictable in terms of play-calling and scheme. When the Cowboys would line up on defense they lacked any significant pre-snap disguises to confuse the opposing quarterbacks. In some ways it became a mirror image of the offense in staleness.
With Marinelli now gone, the Cowboys defenders will be tasked with learning a more complex defensive scheme under Mike Nolan. We’ve heard from Leighton Vander Esch on the new defense during his conversation with Bobby Belt and Jane Slater of The ‘Boys and Girl Podcast saying
“There’s some things here and there that you can pick up between the two, but anytime you’re learning a new defense, there’s going to be so much of a…everybody uses different words as far as terminology, so it’s mainly that.