Friday, April 17, 1998

Cowboys pressured to get immediate defensive end help

By Jean-Jacques Taylor / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS -- Defensive coordinator Dave Campo tried several schemes la st season to help the Cowboys put pressure on the quarterback.

None worked with any regularity.

Owner Jerry Jones would like to solve that problem during the NFL draft, which begins Saturday. He also will be looking for linebackers, offensive linemen and receivers to give the Cowboys depth at those positions. The Cowboys have the eighth overall pick. Their second pick will be the 37th player selected.

"With our first and second picks, we have to have players who can come in and be the equivalent of starters," Jones said. "And if they're not starters at the start of the season, then we expect them to be starters later in the season."

The Cowboys recorded only 38 sacks last season, their third consecutive with less than 40. Their defensive line had only 24 sacks, and no lineman had more than 10 quarterback pressures.

The Cowboys had to blitz because they didn't have anybody who could get to the quarterback.

"In the past, we've put a handicap on our draft picks because we put a premium on the talent we had and the veterans we had because we didn't think we had players who could start," Jones said. "We're not rebuilding, but we're not holding veterans as sacred as we have in the past."

The top three defensive ends in the draft are Florida State's Andre Wadsworth, Nebraska's Grant Wistrom and North Carolina's Greg Ellis.

Wadsworth and Wistrom are considered top-10 selections, and Ellis is expected to go between the 12th and 15th picks.

Arizona is expected to select Wadsworth with the third pick, which could leave Wistrom for Dallas.

There is, however, a potential roadblock.

St. Louis needs a defensive end, and the Rams, who have the sixth pick, have made no secret that they covet the 6-4, 273-pound Wistrom, the draft's only speed rusher.

Wistrom, the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year the past two seasons, had 17 tackles for losses and eight and a half sacks last season. But he must show he can play effectively at his new weight.

If Wistrom is gone, the Cowboys probably will attempt to trade down because Ellis is not good enough to be selected with the eighth pick.

One potential trading partner is New England, which has the 18th and 22nd pick in the first round. Jones and New England owner Bob Kraft have a close relationship, and the Patriots are looking to move up in the draft and acquire a running back to replace Curtis Martin, who signed a free-agent contract with the New York Jets.

Ellis broke Lawrence Taylor's school career record for sacks with 32-1/2. At 6-5 and 280 pounds, Ellis is bigger than Wistrom but not as fast.

He had 87 tackles, 18 for losses, and nine sacks as a senior, but he is not considered a physical player. The Cowboys need a young, productive defensive end because they have so much age in their defensive line.

On the Cowboys' depth chart, Tony Tolbert and Kavika Pittman are starters and Broderick Thomas, who had more penalties (four) than sacks (three) last season, will be used as a third-down, pass-rusher. Tolbert, bothered by chronically sore knees, had only six sacks last season and Pittman has one sack in two seasons.

The Cowboys also are negotiating with 34-year-old, free defensive end Leslie O'Neal, who had 10 sacks last season. Even if Dallas signs O'Neal, he and Tolbert are near the end of their careers.

In the second round, the Cowboys could be looking for a linebacker.

The problem is the 37th pick probably is too low to draft someone like Florida State's Sam Cowert, and too high for someone like Stephen F. Austin's Jeremiah Trotter.

That would allow Dallas to move Randall Godfrey from strongside linebacker to middle linebacker and move a rookie into Godfrey's spot.

The Cowboys always have envisioned Godfrey as a prototype middle linebacker in their scheme because of his size (6-2, 237 pounds), speed and tackling ability. In the Cowboys' defense, the defensive tackles occupy the guards, allowing the middle linebacker to run to the ball and make tackles.

There was some concern among the defensive staff last season that middle linebacker Fred Strickland had lost his explosiveness and ability to run to the football.

The Cowboys also need offensive linemen because Nate Newton is near the end of his career, Erik Williams will be 30 in September and the Cowboys have no proven depth.

They also may draft a receiver because, other than Michael Irvin, the Cowboys don't have a proven receiver. Billy Davis, the starter opposite Irvin, has three career receptions.

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