In a recent article, I wrote that the swelling of the Cowboys injury numbers was not something to be concerned about. Those numbers were deceiving; most of those players, I noted, were sidelined for precautionary reasons, with injuries that would allow them to practice and to play during a normal in-season game week. Few, if any, of them had sustained the kind of devastating season-ender that had curtailed entire seasons for Tyrone Crawford (2013) or Sean Lee (2014).
Well, now we have an injury to be concerned about. Late in practice on Tuesday, Orlando Scandrick, the team's best cornerback, suffered a torn ACL and MCL and will be lost for the duration of the 2015 campaign. To add insult to injury, he plays a critical position; while all season-ending injuries are concerning, the NFL reality is that those that happen to players at key positions are more troubling than those less influential positions.
What are those key positions? In today's pass-happy NFL, here are five of them (I've heard them referred to as the "moneyfive"): quarterback, left tackle, wide receiver, pass rusher (either DE or 3-4 OLB) and cornerback. These are the players that throw and catch the ball, and the men who try to disrupt the throwers and catchers—as well as the man who protects the thrower from the man trying to disrupt him. In short, they are the players at positions that keep the passing game humming and those that have the ability to slow or to derail it.
When an offense has a Pro Bowl caliber wide receiver, he can positively impact the game (by winning one-on-one matchups) more than, say an interior offensive lineman can. The same goes for defensive end; an elite DE matched up against a middling offensive tackle can wreak more havoc than an inside linebacker in the element of the pro game—the passing game—wherein success most neatly correlates to winning. Because of this, good teams have elite players at most or all of these five positions. Bad teams tend to lose more of these critical matchups than they win, because they don't have top-flight players at the "money five."
One indicator of the excellent job done by the Cowboys' front office in recent years is that they have acquired elite players across the "money five." Check it out: in Tony Romo, Tyron Smith, Dez Bryant, Greg Hardy and Orlando Scandrick, they boasted Pro Bowl quality players at each of the five critical positions. As a result, they were prepared to go out and win the most critical, game-defining match-ups. The bad news, therefore, is that, because of the position he plays, losing Scandrick is more devastating than losing Lee or Crawford; simply put, Number 32 plays a more impactful position.
And he plays it very, very well. Unlike the offensive teammates on this list, Scandrick was not a Pro Bowler in 2014—but the Cowboys are convinced that this was because he wasn't on the ballot, thanks to his early-season suspension. When he did play, he was terrific: Scandrick's NFL Passer Rating against was a mere 84.0, and he gave up just 1.08 yards per pass attempt, meaning that he wasn't being targeted much and, when he was, he didn't yield many receptions or big gains. Most impressive was that Scandrick went the entire season without yielding a touchdown pass.
The bad news? Losing Scandrick hurts. The good news is that they Cowboys are better prepared to replace him than they are any of the other Pro Bowl caliber money fivers. There is nobody behind Tyron Smith or Tony Romo who can begin to approach their level of play; if either is lost for any extended period, the season is lost as well. The drop-off at wide receiver, while not as precipitous, is still vertiginous; Cole Beasley is a match-up nightmare, but the Cowboys have nobody capable of winning on the outside. Finally, while the Cowboys do have a cadre of promising young defensive ends who might be able to replace Hardy, none of them is a proven commodity.
At cornerback, however, the team has options. Before Scandrick's injury, they were six deep in NFL quality players, with a group boasting an impressive combination of size, length, and athleticism. More comforting is the fact that the two corners who were playing the best in training camp—Mo Claiborne and Tyler Patmon—are the "next men up" who will be expected to replace Scandrick. Claiborne will take his right corner spot; Patmon will jump into the slot in nickel situations. The very capable Byron Jones and Corey While will provide quality snaps at corner, safety and at linebacker in dime packages.
In terms of on-field play, therefore, the situation is not as dire as it would have been a year ago, when the Cowboys went almost the entire season with three viable, healthy corners after Claiborne went down in week four against the Saints.
What can't be replaced is his leadership. After the Cowboys released DeMarcus Ware in a cap-cutting move last offseason, it was Scandrick and, once he joined the team, Rolando McClain who stepped into the leadership void. Unlike the genial Ware, both players have grumpy, perpetually dissatisfied personalities and play with a chip on their respective shoulders. In short, both have a lot of "dawg" in them.
In 2014, the rest of the defense took on that demeanor. Opposing coaches marveled at how the Cowboys' defenders hustled to the ball, and an undermanned unit hit everything that moved and refused to quit. Ultimately, what will be missed in 2015 is Scandrick's infectiously chippy, combative attitude. He'll bring some "dawg" to the defensive back meeting room, but it will be sorely missed on the practice field and in the defensive huddle.
