Reversal of Turnover: Dallas Cowboys Defense Ready to Make Huge Plays in the New Season

It seemed inevitable. There was no way that the Dallas Cowboys could keep it up. The conversation surrounding the team after the 2021 season was that their historic turnover tally would regress to the mean in 2022. Plenty of NFL history to that point supported that claim. This is true for a variety of reasons, but generally because turnovers are a difficult thing for a defense to completely control.

In a literal sense that was proven to be true. The Cowboys defense generated 34 turnovers in 2021 (shout out Trevon Diggs) and did not reach that mark a season later in 2022. The 2022 Dallas Cowboys generated a measly 33 turnovers, if you can believe it.

Amazing was it was, that was clearly an exception to the norm that is football history. Kudos to the now-departed Dan Quinn and the players on the team for upholding that level of consistency in a way that most people have not been able to.

It should come as no surprise to learn that Dallas dipped again in total turnovers in 2023 and generated only 26, although DaRon Bland set the NFL record for the most interceptions returned for a touchdown in the process. While that is technically regression, 26 is still an incredible number. Not quite an exception but it puts the Cowboys of the last three years in some rarified air.

History is not totally against the Cowboys defense continuing to generate turnovers

Personally speaking I have felt like the bottom just had to come out of the Cowboys this year. How could you not?

They have pulled off the impossible (relatively speaking) by continuing to generate so many turnovers, but with Dan Quinn now gone, an incredibly important piece of the puzzle is now different with Mike Zimmer in place. It has felt somewhat inevitable.

Recently I had the chance to sit down with the great Aaron Schatz from FTN Fantasy to discuss a number of things concerning the Cowboys but I wanted to specifically hit on this point. You can watch our entire conversation below.

Thankfully I’d prepped Schatz for this question and he was able to have some information handy that made me feel better about the 2024 Cowboys potentially not falling off of a cliff in this overall department.