INDIANAPOLIS – Rod Marinelli finds himself back in a similar spot, just with a different team.
The former Cowboys defensive line coach is now also the defensive coordinator. It's a change he's both familiar with and excited about, going back to the role same role he had in his previous stop in Chicago.
"I'm really looking forward to it, but it's all football," Marinelli said. "I'm excited about the whole thing."
The promotion for Marinelli, who's now in charge of the whole defense, likely means an increased role for assistant defensive line coach Leon Lett. Marinelli said he feels like Lett has grown tremendously in their year together, and he believes both Lett and Ben Bloom's help on the line will alleviate his workload.
He also said a year under his belt in Dallas will help "big time" as he prepares for his new role.
"You've kind of got things in place, I think, for the most part," Marinelli said. "Now you've just got to make corrections and add some people and kind of go from there."
The first place he said he'll look for help is on the front seven. Given that the Cowboys probably won't have much room to add key pieces via free agency given their cap situation, it's likely Marinelli will look to the draft to try to get that done.
"We've always got to look at the front seven, that kind of drives the whole thing for us," he said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to add some pieces. I like some of the guys still that were injured last year, (Tyrone) Crawford, Ben Bass, some of these other guys."
Crawford figured to be a key piece in the defensive line rotation last year, but he ended up being the first casualty of camp and the first in a snowball effect of defensive linemen going down the rest of the year.
Marinelli said he has to see how Crawford moves coming off his injury before deciding what position the defensive lineman will play, but he still thinks Crawford has the ability to move inside or outside. It wasn't long after Crawford's injury that the Cowboys found out they'd lose both Anthony Spencer and Jay Ratliff the rest of the year, forcing them to cycle new linemen on and off the team.
The new defensive coordinator said he tries to look at the positive of every situation, even when it's not always apparent.
"You have a chance to maybe really become a better teacher through the season," Marinelli said. "It forces you to really be on the details every week, because you miss things. It's easy to miss something when you get a guy in on Tuesday and you've got to get him ready for Sunday, how to condense your menu, all those things. I kind of looked at that as a positive, and I think we found a couple guys that might be able to help us continually, like (George) Selvie and Nick (Hayden) and some of those guys." [embedded_ad]
While his focus was on the defensive line, Marinelli still had a chance to speak to and coach other players throughout the season. He said he loves talking to and teaching players, regardless of position, which should help him as he prepares for his more expansive role.
But Marinelli said Monte Kiffin will still be around, helping every step of the way.
"He'll be in there every day with us, film, working, drills, all of those things," Marinelli said. "He's a tremendous resource and a great coach. I've got great respect for him."
It's important to Marinelli that he's as detailed and exact as possible in what he's teaching over and over again to ensure his players know what he demands. When he looks back to last year's struggles, he said it's all about the coach and player relationship and execution, and that everyone's involved in the team's success, or lack thereof.
He said another year with the roster and adding more pieces will help the defense. The Cowboys likely won't be major players in free agency this year, but Marinelli still believes management will bring in enough pieces. He said he's not concerned with the cap, and he's more concerned with improving whatever he's got.
"With me, it all goes back to fundamentals," he said. "That's kind of always been my base, and just getting guys to do things right and coaches got to work extremely hard. You've got to get more takeaways, those types of things."
