Dallas Cowboys: Could Nolan Carroll be benched for a rookie?
By Carl Daley
The Dallas Cowboys are building their secondary. The rookies they have drafted should play a pivotal role in the upcoming season.
The Dallas Cowboys are building this roster to compete for a title and a big part of that is building a quality defense. That somewhat starts with the secondary as the team has added several defensive backs through the 2017 NFL draft.
These young players will look to earn snaps as the offseason progresses. It could be possible the Cowboys have a new crop of starters in 2017.
The Dallas Cowboys are looking to build up their secondary for the upcoming season and several of their young draft picks are slated for bigger roles. Third-year player Byron Jones looks to be one of the main veterans in this secondary as a new crop of talent begins to learn the scheme.
With so many new players in the secondary, it is important to have some veterans to build around however currently the starters at cornerback are somewhat unknown.
Veteran corner Nolan Carroll is expected to play a major role in this year’s defense, however, he may not be the best player after training camp. The Cowboys signed multiple defensive backs heading into the 2017 season and their rookies should also look to play a pivotal role.
The positional battle at secondary should be heavily contested as several veterans and rookies will clash for snaps as training camp begins.
Anthony Brown is seemingly the incumbent starter after he had a productive 2016 season. The team will look to Nolan Carroll and Orlando Scandrick for veteran leadership, however, both players could end up losing their spots to some young upstarts.
Carroll has gotten torched by Cowboys star wide receiver Dez Bryant pretty often and is not a great example in terms of being a lock down defender. Rookies, Chidobe Awuzie and Jourdan Lewis are expected to play a big role in the team’s defense for the foreseeable future.
The big question comes from how big of a role will they play in the upcoming season. It is a question that should be answered by the end of training camp but the team absolutely needs versatile young defensive backs who can be more productive than their predecessors.
The Cowboys have been bounced out of the playoffs based off of the terrible play in their secondary. The offense has scored a ton, even the pass rush has arrived at points, but the secondary has always been the constant struggle.
Now the team is finally addressing the issue as they have several young players who will look to take on a bigger role in this defense. If the young corners on the Cowboys roster can impress the coaching staff then players like Nolan Carroll and Orlando Scandrick could find themselves on the outside looking in.
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Scandrick is expected to be the team’s top slot cornerback, however, Anthony Brown or Jourdan Lewis could potentially be a more effective option. On the outside, Lewis and Awuzie could be incredibly productive as they should be able to match up with the faster wide receivers in the NFC East. As of right now, it is unknown just how productive the Cowboys rookies will be but they are in a prime position to succeed.