Clowney led the Cowboys with 8.5 sacks last season, one in which Dallas tied for 24th with just 35 team sacks.
Over the previous four seasons, Parsons produced at least 12 sacks per season and led the Cowboys in sacks in each campaign. In 2020, Lawrence was the team’s sack leader.
In 2026, a cast likely to be led by edges Rashan Gary, Donovan Ezeiruaku, rookie first-rounder Malachi Lawrence, James Houston and Sam Williams is aiming to improve upon those numbers while employing an it-takes-a-village approach.
“I really do think it’s more of the unit,” Schottenheimer said. “And that’s what we’re excited about with the depth that we feel that we have.”
On paper, Gary would be the hopeful leader. He was a 2024 Pro Bowler with the Green Bay Packers and is a 2019 first-round pick acquired via trade this offseason. However, he’s never reached double-digit sacks in a season, and his individual performance last year with the Packers was oddly emblematic of the Cowboys’ team performance.
Gary had 7.5 sacks in 2025, but none after Week 8. That, obviously, includes the final three games of the season, which were after Parsons’ injury. Thus, he struggled aplenty sans Parsons, just like Dallas did.
Malachi Lawrence was a surprising selection at No. 23 overall. Houston, who had eight sacks as a rookie with the Detroit Lions in 2022, hasn’t had that many total in his three seasons since, though he did provide 5.5 last year for the ‘Boys. Williams had just one sack last season in 17 games after missing all of 2024 with an injury. And Ezeiruaku, a 2025 second-rounder, mustered only a pair of sacks in 17 games’ worth of action as a rookie.
The potential is plentiful, but production is lacking and a star is absent.
With Christian Parker joining the fray as defensive coordinator, though, pass rush by committee is offered up with a proven track record. Over the past two seasons, Parker was a defensive assistant for the archrival Philadelphia Eagles, who won back-to-back NFC East titles and Super Bowl LIX in that span. Philly achieved that success by, in part, using a defense in which pass rushers came from all over. Neither of the last two Eagles squads had a pass rusher with more than eight sacks, but pressure was had and so too were wins.
The end result for Dallas in 2026 was a 7-9-1 record with much of the blame laid upon the feet of a defense that was 31st in points allowed.
Remedying those lackluster numbers will be a team effort, including from the pass rush.
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