Mike Nolan To Revamp Cowboys Defence For 2020

New Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Nolan arrives in Dallas during a time of flux. He intends to use it to make changes to their defensive strategy. 

DT Maliek Collins, LB Sean Lee, DE Robert Quinn and corner Byron Jones are set to become free agents. The franchise will undoubtedly look to upgrade on personnel over the summer. Meanwhile, Mike Nolan will look to upgrade the defensive philosophy.

Throughout 2019, the Cowboys defense was underwhelming and one dimensional. Mike Nolan says he wants to make opposition offenses work harder in 2020.

“You want it to look like a swarming type of mentality,” Nolan said, via ESPN. “I believe there’s parts of coaching that goes into that.”

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“The things you do with players, the way you teach your players, everything from the language to the scheme, I think, are all critical factors in making it look just like that.”

Nolan certainly has a big job to do, considering the Dallas defense only generated 39 sacks last season. They rank 19th in the league for sacks in 2019.

Nolan hired Jim Tomsula as the team’s defensive line coach, and he says that Nolan has a different coaching philosophy.

“Doesn’t always happen that way,” Tomsula said. 

“I mean, I’ve been in different places where a guy shows up, throws a book on the table and you go. Coach Nolan is different. You can tell he’s cerebral. …He sits down and he wants your opinions. He wants your thoughts. He’s always learning. He’s a guy that shows up in the room with a pen and pencil.”

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“If you give yourself too much of doing one thing, that’s easy for the best quarterbacks to dissect and take advantage of,” Nolan said. 

“You have to have a good mix between man and zone. … You don’t want to create so much volume that you really don’t have an identity, but you have to have some kind of variety in order to be successful.”