DQ Report, Wk 17 - Appreciating Tank Lawrence
Dallas barely survives Detroit and has made some defensive adjustments at the end.
DeMarcus Lawrence will finish his tenth season as a Dallas Cowboy on Sunday in Washington. He has played in 136 regular season games and another 8 playoff games, meaning his 144 games as a Dallas Cowboy currently position him as the fifth most of any defender in the last 30 years of Cowboys football.
On Sunday, he ties the other DeMarcus, Ware, for fourth. If the Cowboys can play two playoff games this January, then he will tie and ultimately pass Bradie James for third most. It will take a few more seasons to get to Greg Ellis (162) and Darren Woodson (175), but it is conceivable that in just a few years, Lawrence can be the most veteran Cowboys defender since the eras of career-long Cowboys like Jim Jeffcoat, Too Tall Jones, Bill Bates, and, of course, Bob Lilly.
They don’t make many like DeMarcus Lawrence anymore and since this game we are finally writing about this morning was played several days ago, I wanted to take a moment and do something I don’t do much these days, but used to be a common occurrence in my writings; which is, quite simply, to remind the Dallas Cowboys fanbase to appreciate and to savor the career of DeMarcus Lawrence.
Nobody has to ask you to do this with Ware or Micah Parsons. Deep inside, the sack producers have no issues with fans understanding what that does to a game or a drive or even an individual. Sacks are basically defensive touchdowns in that they are rare and when you get them, every person in the stadium is well aware of who we should be cheering and telling our neighbors about when we get home.
But, as you know, Lawrence has probably only had flashes of being a true “sack artist” and when he is done with his career, he will likely only have enough to get in the 60-70 career sack club. To compare, Greg Ellis was at 77 and Jim Jeffcoat was at 94 and Ware? Well, Ware had so many that they put him right into Canton. He had 146 career sacks when you add in his post-season work which puts him with the greatest of the great to ever play this sport at all.
Yet, that isn’t Lawrence. Tank is a different kind of defender and has always been that guy. He is the old-school defender who is not about edge defending. He is about run-destroying. Yes, he wants to get sacks, but he is just as interested in blowing up the run plays.
You know, stop the run? The grunt work of defense? The inside run plays that make the casuals look at their phone in the stadium? That seldom gets the people on their feet, but there is Lawrence, busting his tail again, taking on players at the point of attack when the sack guys play patty-cake, going to war.
I bring this up because Tank had a huge Tank game on Saturday. There is a real chance you didn’t realize he was the Cowboys best defender.
Now, that we are talking about our guy, it is a good time to point out that since 2014, he has been the Cowboys top graded run defender nearly every year. Here he is in 2024 and well past his 30th birthday and guess who the Cowboys top run defender is again?
It is always DeMarcus Lawrence.
Do you know who is the Cowboys top splash play defender in the last two seasons?
Of course you do. It is Micah Parsons. But, the margin to second place behind Micah might surprise you.
Since the start of 2022, look who is in a 2nd place position. And he is close enough that with a big game on Sunday, he could actually pass Parsons for the title at the finish line: