Dallas Cowboys defensive makeover is even more extreme than you think

“We have been able to, as of right now, rebuild this defense. I think the fact that we put a new newness to the system and coaching staff, and new faces that we’ve added, we’ve changed this defense.”

Jones also pointed out that the changes made were not just a reaction to last year, but a “product of 3, 4, 5 years, maybe more, where we ultimately didn’t get to where we were trying to go and be a contender.”

On the player personnel side, the degree of change becomes dramatically apparent when you compare the season-opening 2025 roster with the current offseason roster. Here’s a look at the 2025 Week 1 roster for the defense, with the red cells indicating players no longer with the team:

I’ve listed the current offseason roster below. The roster is still in flux, of course, and I may not have slotted every player correctly on the depth chart, but the green cells do give you a good overview of the additions the Cowboys have made since Week 1, 2025.

Overall, this is a significant overhaul of the defense in just one year. And as Jerry Jones pointed out, the personnel changes are accompanied by a change in scheme and a completely new coaching staff. And it’s not just a quantitative change, it’s also a qualitative change to the defense.

A change of this magnitude is not just unusual, it’s unprecedented for a team like the Cowboys that likes to keep things comfortable and is generally averse to change. The Cowboys of the past would have talked about a two- or three-year rebuild, but they are doing this in one year. If ever the “all-in” label could be applied to anything in Dallas, it’s on this defensive rebuild.

Will it work from day one? Who knows. There are so many moving parts to this that predicting an outcome is impossible. But the Cowboys don’t need to have a world-beating defense from day one anyway. Even a middling defense that doesn’t need the offense scoring touchdowns on every possession to keep them in games would already be a giant step forward for this team.

But if they pull it off, they become an almost automatic contender.