Sean McVay didn’t exactly hand out a pep talk to the Dallas Cowboys, but he may have said enough to fuel their fans for a while.
Dallas has rolled through a strong training camp and then backed it up with a dominant defensive showing against the Los Angeles Rams, a team widely expected to be in the Super Bowl. That’s already a pretty loud statement. Then Brian Schottenheimer shared a comment McVay made to him on “Up and Adams,” and it landed with extra weight coming from a Super Bowl-winning coach.
“Man Schotty, you guys have adjusted your roster a little bit,” McVay told Schottenheimer.
That line matters because the Cowboys’ defense has been looking different all summer, and McVay got a firsthand taste of it in joint practice. Schottenheimer pointed out that McVay didn’t go against Kenny Clark, Caleb Downs, Quinnen Williams, Rashan Gary and Dee Winters, which only adds to the sense that this is not the same group on paper.
The production has backed that up. Some Cowboys reporters said the defense against the Rams’ offense wasn’t even close, and undrafted linebacker Justin Barron turned in a massive day of his own with three interceptions.
That kind of performance usually makes a roster battle interesting. In Barron’s case, it may have gone a long way toward locking up a spot on the 53-man roster.
The momentum doesn’t stop there. Per Joseph Hoyt, cornerback Shavon Revel has looked confident after his work against the Rams this week, and he reportedly had a realization while facing them. Revel has been making good on that promise all summer, and he’s starting to look like a No. 1 cornerback, especially if DaRon Bland keeps trending the way he has.
Up front, the Cowboys are building an argument that their front seven could be one of the best in the league. That case gets a little stronger when Quinnen Williams is being called the best defensive tackle.
And that’s why McVay’s words carry so much weight. He’s been a top coach for years, even before all the hardware, becoming the youngest coach in modern NFL history at 30 and later reaching two Super Bowls while winning one. He was also the AP NFL Coach of the Year in his first season.
Schottenheimer still has plenty to prove before he’s anywhere near that level, and McVay still has a long road ahead of him too. With the addition of Myles Garrett, the Rams will be in the mix for the Lombardi Trophy, but the Cowboys may have a real case as well based on what they’ve put together.
There’s still work to do, and Dallas has plenty of new faces to sort through. But when a Super Bowl champion coach says the roster has changed like that, Cowboys fans have every reason to pay attention.
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