Daronte Jones and the Defensive Staffing Thread

[Conn]

I am more forgiving of that with Kain because he was a receiver into his college career

Edit: noted that this is the wrong thread for this 🫡 but I’ll leave it to cap off the thought process on this page so it’s readable, and not add further.

That’s fair, but that’s just a different sort of risk. Like McCaffrey.

Every FO has its quirks. For us, it may be these late position-converts with raw athleticism that we bet on—but you need to have coaches who can develop them if you go that route. Clearly we whiffed on that during Quinn 1.0, and if it doesn’t improve during Quinn 2.0, these raw prospects are all gonna be starting over with new coaches in the future.

Back to FO quirks—in SF, they had a half decade stretch recently where they consistently drafted a mid round faller who had a serious IR-worthy injury their final year in college, in order to redshirt them and develop. It rarely worked out for them (not to say it never does). Under Bruce Allen for a stretch, we had a penchant for drafting ballers with no athleticism. Guys who were undoubtedly sound players with experience, who just couldn’t keep up and compete with superior athletes. Some teams only draft team captains. Some teams prefer Senior Bowl players when possible. Some prefer their lotto tickets to be young, early breakout phenoms who fell off later in their college careers but still had pedigree.

Lots of things can work, lots of things don’t work, an average of 4 GM’s get fired every cycle I believe. Whatever trends we prefer, however we grade and stack players on our board…they just need to hit.

I think for a bad football team lacking both starters and quality depth, taking the risk on questionable-ceiling/low floor guys with a long runway to productivity who need to be taught to play their NFL position…maybe not the smartest move. Maybe a little “I’m smarter than everyone else”, actually. But we’ll see. It may not even end up being a long term trend.

Edit: maybe the draft thread is the better spot for this, if we continue it. Not sure

 

[DWinzit]

The Cowboys hired Minny's DL coach Marcus Dixon to be their DL coach. I am wondering if he was a target of Daronte for his staff.

Whether he was a target or not, by Minny losing a D coach could hurt DJ's ability to pull others from there as they can move lower coached up the ladder.

 

[heisenberg]

The Cowboys hired Minny's DL coach Marcus Dixon to be their DL coach. I am wondering if he was a target of Daronte for his staff.

Whether he was a target or not, by Minny losing a D coach could hurt DJ's ability to pull others from there as they can move lower coached up the ladder.

Minnesota let his contract expire and he made a lateral move when their coaching staff remained largely the same from last year.

Not a ringing endorsement for dixon.

 

[HTTR]

Minnesota let his contract expire and he made a lateral move when their coaching staff remained largely the same from last year.

Not a ringing endorsement for dixon.

Yeah, he’s not a very good coach, we didn’t want him.

jk of course. I have no idea. But it’s never too soon to start bashing a Dallas cowboy! 😎

 

[heisenberg]

Yeah, he’s not a very good coach, we didn’t want him.

jk of course. I have no idea. But it’s never too soon to start bashing a Dallas cowboy! 😎

I have no earthly idea if hes a good coach to be honest im just saying the signs are there that he may not be great.

Its like Bienemy, he was the offensive coordinator for one of the best offenses in the league which on paper makes him look like a great coordinator but we all know that it was Reid and mahomes.

Maybe the defensive line in Minnesota is good because of flores and the rest of the guys around and not so much because of dixon.

The fact they let him make a lateral move is just a clue that its more probable.

 

[actorguy1]

 

[skinsinparadise]

 

[burgold]

Seems like a solid hire.

 

[skinsinparadise]

 

[skinsinparadise]

 

[Always Commander Never Captain]

Ooo, I wonder if he had a say in the 2023 draft at all. They had two big hits with above average DL in the 3rd round. An Edge and an undersized DT.

Hmmm...probably not actually. He wasn't around when they did the same in 2024. An Edge in round 1 and a DT in round 2. And both of those guys hit as well. Makes it seem more like the Front Office just nailed prospect evaluations.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

Ooo, I wonder if he had a say in the 2023 draft at all. They had two big hits with above average DL in the 3rd round. An Edge and an undersized DT.

Hmmm...probably not actually. He wasn't around when they did the same in 2024. An Edge in round 1 and a DT in round 2. And both of those guys hit as well. Makes it seem more like the Front Office just nailed prospect evaluations.

Exactly and this is the concern with the “look” of an overly collaborative FO; the FO can evaluate talent well and provide it to the coaches, and the coaches need to use those talented pieces and make the most of them. The FO can talk, sure, but needs to be careful on the talent eval side and not leaning on coaches too much there. It looks like we didn’t hit that line well in y1/y2. You gave a great example of an FO that probably does.

 

[Conn]

 

[RWJ]

This is an interesting hire as DL. There is no coaching history or connections between DQ Jones and Henderson. I like this.

 

[method man]

I assume Henderson is making $2M+ here. Probably highest paid defensive RGC in the league.

We had money to spend on the staff. Between DQ, Daronte and Blough, this must be one of the cheaper staffs in the league

 

[Canuck]

Didn't Henderson play for the Vikes? Or am I thinking of someone else

Edit: Someone else

 

[method man]

Didn't Henderson play for the Vikes? Or am I thinking of someone else

Edit: Someone else

Erin Henderson?

 

[Iraolaball]

Erin Henderson?

Ex Terp. Heckuva LB. Would love a 23 year old Erin Henderson on our defense now!

 

[COWBOY-KILLA]

The DL coach seems like a huge get. Hope hes as good as advertised, exciting.

 

[Bulldog]

Well, it's a good sign that as a defensive back seven specialist by background that Daronte Jones realizes he needs some experience and teaching skills up front on the DL on that side of the ball.

I like it when coaches are aware of their strengths and limitations.

You contrast that with Kliff Kingsbury who thought he knew everything evidently - even though he had never won anything as a coach.

Perhaps he gets a McVay ride to the Super Bowl in 2026 if Stafford can stay healthy.