{"id":470327,"date":"2026-10-19T07:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T07:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/470327\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T07:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T07:18:10","slug":"cowboys-make-changes-to-defensive-lineup-as-rookie-lawrence-starts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/470327\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys make changes to defensive lineup as rookie Lawrence starts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Safety\u00a0Markquese Bell started as the deep safety with Malik Hooker. That move pushed rookie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/cowboys\/article\/cowboys-caleb-downs-defense-packers-22480396.php\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Caleb Downs<\/a> to slot corner.<\/p>\n<p>On the first defensive series, Downs allowed two pass receptions.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest move was inserting Lawrence over\u00a0Ezeiruaku, who was second on the team in quarterback pressures with 14.<br \/>In the last two games, Ezeiruaku had six quarterback pressures.<\/p>\n<p>But the team feels Lawrence, one of two first-round picks last spring, is rising.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe natural\u00a0Gumby,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/cowboys\/\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cowboys<\/a> owner and general manager Jerry Jones said of Lawrence in a pregame radio interview on The Fan 105.3 FM (KRLD-FM).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jones later added: \u201cHe has the bend and explosiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gumby, a fictional character, is noted for his slim build and ability to bend, which is what teams want to see in a pass rusher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Safety\u00a0Markquese Bell started as the deep safety with Malik Hooker. That move pushed rookie Caleb Downs to slot&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,93042],"class_list":["post-470327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-dallas-cowboys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}