Dallas Cowboys potential 2018 breakout player: Taco Charlton

Will Dallas Cowboys defensive end and former 2017 first round selection Taco Charlton have a breakout performance in his second season?

Last year the Dallas Cowboys spent their first-round draft pick, 28th overall, on defensive end Taco Charlton. After going through rookie growing pains, a second-year leap in production could help the defense become one of the best units in the NFL.

Taco didn’t have any starts and played sparingly in his first season. As most rookies do, he struggled to adjust to the NFL and dominate like he did at Michigan. After getting zero sacks as a freshman, he got 3.5 as a sophomore, 5.5 as a junior, then 9.5 as a senior.

The Cowboys are hoping that year to year improvement will continue with Charlton, as he only had 3.0 sacks last season. Taco isn’t the first defensive end to struggle in year one while adjusting to the NFL. Khalil Mack only had 4.0 sacks as a rookie, J.J. Watt was able to get 5.5, and Chandler Jones ended up with 6.0.

All three of those players ended up getting more pressure in year two and improved their sack totals by at least 5.0 compared to their rookie year. Other defensive ends like Vic Beasley, Everson Griffen, Calais Campbell, Jason Pierre-Paul, and Danielle Hunter all saw a huge jump in sacks after struggling to put up big numbers as rookies.

These are some of the best defensive ends the league and not one put up huge sack totals. I’m not saying Taco is an elite defensive end yet, but I am saying there is a learning curve and a lot of times the numbers are much better after figuring out the nuances of the game.

Last season, Charlton’s snaps went up as the season wore on, and he improved as a player. Through his first seven games, Taco only had five tackles and zero sacks while he wasn’t getting that much playing time. After showing improvement in practice, he got more snaps and had 14 tackles and 3.0 sacks in his last nine games. He is still just 23-years old and only going to get better, period.

The word from training camp is Charlton is looking much better this season. He has added some muscle on his 6-foot 6-inch frame and has been giving right tackle La’el Collins all he can handle in one-on-ones, and team drills. You can already see the year two improvement, as seen on twitter when Taco hit Collins with his spin move. The move was so good, head coach Jason Garrett showed the video to the entire team.

With a second-year leap from Taco Charlton, the pass rush and defense as a whole has a chance to be something special. The secondary should be much better in coverage and force quarterbacks to hold onto the ball longer. With David Irving, Randy Gregory, DeMarcus Lawrence, and Taco Charlton all bringing the heat, NFL quarterbacks better watch out for this defense in 2018.