Cowboys want Barry Church to be more of a leader
By Mike Dyce
The Dallas Cowboys will have a different look in 2014. They’ll have a nbew defensive coordinator in Rod Marinelli, they’ll be without longtime defensive staple DeMarcus Ware, defensive tackle Jason Hatcher left in free agency and middle linebacker Sean Lee is out for the year with an ACL injury.
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Aside from all the talent that is missing, the Cowboys defense is lacking some leadership on the field. Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett has pegged safety Barry Church as a player that needs to step up and be the leader for this defense.
“He loves to play,” Garrett said, via ESPN Dallas. “People respond to him. And he does a lot of positive things. He’s around the ball a lot. He makes a lot of plays. So he has that way about him where people kind of gravitate toward him because of his personality and because of his play. Just needs to play more and keep doing that. In regards to the absence of Sean, he absolutely needs to step up as a leader. Your best players need to do that. When you play a position like safety, you’re a big communicator back there with everybody else in the secondary. So being strong with his [voice] and being strong with his mannerisms and getting everybody squared away, I think that’s a big part of what his job is.”
The coaches want him to be more vocal, and he is willing to speak up.
“I pretty much know the defense front and back, so the more I can communicate to the other guys and get people lined up, the better,” Church said. “I definitely feel like I can do it. I could’ve done it last year, but Sean was the designated leader and the vocal captain, so you roll with him. He was the guy. He proved himself. I was coming off an injury and had to re-prove myself.”