Cowboys' Defensive Deficiencies Spell Failure in Pursuit of NFC East Crown

There is no such word as "rebuilding" in the Dallas Cowboys' dictionary. Every year is supposed to be the year the Cowboys make it back to the Super Bowl.

Despite a 4-12 nightmare of a 2015 season, Dallas entered 2016 thinking quick turnaround. So far this summer, the only thing that's happened quickly is a defense that wasn't great to begin with fell apart.

And with it went any chance the Cowboys had of contending in the NFC East this year.

The latest blow came Tuesday. As Todd Archer and Adam Schefter of ESPN reported, second-year defensive end Randy Gregory checked into a treatment facility in light of another pending suspension for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy.

As Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweeted, Gregory won't take the field anytime soon:

Mind you, Gregory was already facing suspension for the first four games of the 2016 season for the same offense. If the 10-game ban is tacked onto that, the season's all but gone. According to Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, it is gone, as he noted a source believes the former Nebraska standout won't play this season.

A failed drug test at the 2015 combine caused Gregory to fall to Round 2 to begin with. It would have taken at least three more failed drug tests to trigger the four-game suspension. And as Bleacher Report's Jason Cole reported, a source told him Gregory failed "several" more tests since then:

In other words, Gregory appears to be a young man with a serious substance abuse problem. Team owner Jerry Jones told Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News that right now the priority is getting Gregory help.

"There’s no question he needs the kind of help and care he’s getting right now," Jones said. "We have no official notification from the league. We are first and foremost interested in how he can address his addiction and get to where he can function in society."

With that said, Gregory's problem leaves the Cowboys with big issues all their own—because he's far from the only Dallas defender who hasn't avoided trouble this offseason.

Fellow defensive end Demarcus Lawrence, who led the Cowboys with eight sacks in 2015, will serve a four-game suspension to open the 2016 season after the NFL denied his appeal at the end of June. According to Archer and Jean-Jacques Taylor of ESPN.com, Lawrence's ban is for testing positive for amphetamines.

Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press/Associated Press

It would have been a sizable hit for a Dallas defense that ranked 25th in the NFL in sacks to have been without Lawrence and Gregory (arguably its two best pass-rushers) for just the four games each. Now Gregory is out indefinitely...

And that still isn't all the bad news the Cowboys have received on defense in recent weeks.

Starting middle linebacker Rolando McClain, who finished third on the team with 80 tackles last year, earned a 10-game suspension—again for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy. It marks the second straight season McClain will begin the year with a drug suspension.

Team vice president Stephen Jones told Sefko on Wednesday that it's unknown when McClain might join the Cowboys for training camp. "That's another one that's a work in progress," he said. "We'll leave it at that."

Sure enough, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweeted later in the week that when the team left for California, McClain was nowhere to be found:

That's over 40 percent of Dallas' front seven on the shelf for at least the first month of the regular season. Two of the three will sit for at least two-thirds of the 2016 campaign.

Jerry Jones insisted to Sefko that none of this has caught the Cowboys flat-footed—that the team knew (or at least suspected) it would be short-handed defensively to begin the season.

"We've had an awareness that this potential was there," Jones said. "We've had it throughout the spring. Most of the time, you could say there's no surprises here."

If the Cowboys had a plan for all this, I'd like to know what it is. Because, danged if I see one.

It isn't all their fault. The annually cap-strapped Cowboys couldn't make any "splash" signings on defense in free agency. The biggest addition to the front seven they made (end Benson Mayowa) had knee surgery last month.

The injury bug also hit the Dallas draft picks. Maliek Collins, a defensive tackle the team drafted in Round 3, broke his foot at the beginning of June. In an optimistic scenario, Collins might make it back by the end of the preseason. At the time, head coach Jason Garrett told Archer he wasn't concerned.

Gus Ruelas/Associated Press/Associated Press

"We have a lot of defensive linemen on our team right now, so it gives some of the younger guys and even the veteran guys more snaps," Garrett said. "Maliek was doing well for us. He was off to a good start. We do anticipate him being back healthy and ready to go."

Care to revise that statement, coach?

If those injuries can't be blamed on the Cowboys, their inability to help the defense with the pick before Collins can.

With the 34th overall pick in this year's draft, the Cowboys could have selected UCLA linebacker Myles Jack, who would have more than filled the void McClain's ban left. Dallas also could have drafted a young pass-rusher like Eastern Kentucky's Noah Spence.

Instead, the Cowboys took Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith. There's no denying Smith's talent; he was one of the top 10 prospects in this year's class based on that metric.

However, there's also no denying that Smith's torn ACL, the nerve damage resulting from it and his slow recovery make it unlikely he'll be of any more help to the Dallas defense in 2016 than Gregory, as ESPN's Ed Werder noted:

Dallas brought back veteran linebacker Justin Durant, but he's a 30-year-old journeyman switching teams for the third time since 2012—the last year he was an effective player.

If the Cowboys indeed knew they had defensive starters facing suspension, they didn't act like it. Instead, most of the moves they made in the offseason appear based on the gamble that the players they had on defense could get them through the season.

That is a gamble that's blown up in their faces.

This wasn't a team that had a lot of margin for error on that side of the ball. The Cowboys were 17th in the NFL defensively in 2015, 22nd against the run and 16th in scoring defense. Now they have no pass-rushers to speak of and there's an immense amount of pressure on linebacker Sean Lee, who has never played a full 16-game season.

Brandon Wade/Associated Press/Associated Press

The same Sean Lee who missed all of the offseason program after "minor" knee surgery.

Granted, the Cowboys could still add a veteran pass-rusher. Dwight Freeney, who had eight sacks in 11 games last year in Arizona, is available. So is Greg Hardy.

However, Taylor wrote recently that the Cowboys have shown zero intention of pursuing either player. "The Cowboys want to see what they have in players such as fourth-round pick Charles Tapper and free-agent acquisition Benson Mayowa, who has two sacks in 30 games, before they go the veteran route," he wrote.

Oh good. Another gamble. Those have gone well so far.

Frankly, this Dallas team is looking like the 2013 Cowboys. That year quarterback Tony Romo threw for 3,828 yards and 31 touchdowns. Dez Bryant hit 1,233 receiving yards and scored 13 times.

And it was all for naught. The Cowboys went 8-8 and missed the playoffs, largely because of a league-worst defense that couldn't stop anyone.

This Dallas defense may not be as bad as that version, which allowed 415.3 yards per game. It doesn't look good, though. Without any pass rush, an average group of corners will be exposed. Without McClain in the middle, a Cowboys defense that struggled against the run in 2015 will again.

The New York Giants spent buckets of money improving their defense in free agency this year. The Washington Redskins added arguably 2016's biggest impact signing on that side of the ball in cornerback Josh Norman. The Philadelphia Eagles brought in Jim Schwartz (who has overseen dominant defenses in Buffalo and Detroit) as defensive coordinator.

While every other team in the division has made strides to improve defensively in the offseason, the Cowboys are hurtling in the opposite direction.

And that spells big trouble in Big D in 2016.

Gary Davenport is an NFL analyst at Bleacher Report and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and Pro Football Writers of America. You can follow Gary on Twitter @IDPSharks.