Justin Durant Injury Could Impact Cowboys More Than You Think

Replacing the stars is one thing, but replacing the replacements for the stars is an entirely different obstacle. And that's why it's worrisome that the Dallas Cowboys will likely have to spend the remainder of the 2014 NFL season without underrated linebacker Justin Durant. 

The veteran starter, who has yet to be ruled out for the rest of the season but is out indefinitely with a torn biceps, according to Rainer Sabin of The Dallas Morning News, was one of several defenders being counted on to make up for the loss of front-seven studs Sean Lee, DeMarcus Ware and Jason Hatcher. 

Lee is out for the year with a torn ACL, while Ware and Hatcher signed elsewhere in the offseason. 

And the 29-year-old had been doing a superb job with that onus. 

Pro Football Focus (subscription required) had him graded as the 12th-best 4-3 outside linebacker in the league this season, with his 28 "stops" ranking fourth among players at that position. Stops are defined by PFF as "the cumulative number of solo defensive tackles which constitute an offensive failure." Through eight weeks, only one other Cowboy—fellow linebacker Rolando McClain (23)—had more than 11. 

Player	Run stop %	PFF grade
1. DeAndre Levy	16.6	15.7
2. Justin Durant	16.3	3.5
3. Lavonte David	15.2	4.8
4. David Hawthorne	14.0	-1.9
5. Jelani Jenkins	13.6	8.8

Durant was also one of the team's leading tacklers and had forced a pair of fumbles. Not bad considering he missed two-and-a-half of the Cowboys' first eight games due to injury. 

"He's in the top three or four performers we've had this year on defense," owner and general manager Jerry Jones said, according to ESPNDallas.com's Tim MacMahon. "He plays a key position, that weakside linebacker principally. That's a significant loss for us."

Durant was quite simply one of the most reliable players this defense had, which really hurts when you consider their "addition by subtraction" approach to the 2014 campaign. 

This defense has somehow gotten better this season despite losing those three key cogs, and a lot of folks are chalking that up to the fact peripheral guys like Durant, McClain and fourth-year strong-side 'backer Bruce Carter can no longer rely on Pro Bowl teammates to carry them. As a result, they've been forced to raise their level of play. 

"Before we had guys who were unbelievable players, but we relied on them to make the play instead of making it ourselves," safety Barry Church said recently, per Sabin. "Now I feel like everybody is accountable for this team and guys are going out there and making plays."

Metric	2013	2014
Points/game allowed	27.0 (26th)	20.9 (9th)
Yards/game allowed	415.3 (32nd)	352.0 (14th)
First downs/game allowed	24.3 (32nd)	17.6 (2nd)
YPA/allowed	7.8 (T-26th)	7.4 (T-17th)
Passer rating against	96.0 (26th)	89.7 (13th)
Third downs	43.8% (29th)	41.4% (15th)
PFF grade	-118.7 (29th)	16.0 (13th)
TD/FG allowed per drive	39.7 (30th)	30.2 (T-8th)

So while Durant wasn't technically playing in place of Lee, his elevated bootstraps certainly helped McClain, who has thus far been a successful reclamation project in the middle, as well as Carter, who's having a career year despite missing three games due to a thigh injury. 

McClain has also missed a pair of games due to injury, and it's not as though the Cowboys have a pass rush that can mask these types of losses in the back seven. They're still waiting on top defensive draft pick Demarcus Lawrence to make his debut, and veteran defensive linemen Anthony Spencer and Henry Melton still aren't up to full speed after knee injuries derailed their 2013 seasons. 

Point being, there isn't a lot of depth up front or in the second level. At some point, no matter how hard guys are giving in order to make up for lost stars, you become too thin. "Next man up" only takes teams so far.

"It’s a big loss for us," cornerback Brandon Carr said, per MacMahon. "That was our guy that held down the middle for us, called all the plays, made a lot of plays for us in a short amount of time this season."

It's tough to tell how much softer the Dallas defense can afford to get, but a lot of onlookers are expecting a unit that gave up the third-highest yardage total in NFL history last season to come back to earth eventually. They had a lackluster performance against the lowly Washington Redskins and their third-string quarterback Monday night, and now it looks as though they'll be down yet another reliable veteran for an extended period of time. 

Maybe a youngster like Kyle Wilber or Anthony Hitchens can emerge and get the job done. But this is still another straw on the camel's back. 

Brad Gagnon has covered the NFC East for Bleacher Report since 2012.

Follow @Brad_Gagnon