FRISCO, Texas – As a new regime comes into town for the Cowboys in 2025, their linebacker core will look different as well with former Tennessee Titan Kenneth Murray Jr. and former Chicago Bear Jack Sanborn signing with the team in free agency.
Murray is on his third team in the last three seasons after leading the Titans in tackles last year with 95 and being named a team captain. With the Cowboys, he's hoping to emerge as one of the leaders manning the defense on the field and off the field.
"I just think everything starts with leading by example first, I'm a firm believer that you can't ask people to do something that you're not doing…" Murray said. "I kind of feel like I'll be that traffic cop in the middle of the street just trying to get everything and get everybody lined up."
The best thing you can have as a leader is a strong supporting cast, and Murray believes that is the case with the personnel that the Cowboys have on their roster.
"I feel like we've got every piece that we need to be a dominant defense in the NFL," Murray said. "Just looking at our personnel, we're going to be a really fast defense, a really violent defense."
That identity falls right under the umbrella of what new defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus is looking for. Sanborn spent the first three years of his NFL career with Eberflus and now Cowboys linebackers coach Dave Borgonzi in Chicago, and he knows exactly what to expect now that they've all reunited again.
"Both are great coaches, and both are great defensive minds. I think that is one thing that stood out for me with my time in Chicago, and at the same time just both great people, people that you want to play for, and two people that kind of get the best out of me," Sanborn said. "I really enjoyed working with them, I'm excited to work with them more and have a great defense here."
When Eberflus' defenses have been at their best in the past, they specialize in being able to stop the run and take the ball away. Turnovers have been a staple of the Cowboys defense in recent years, but they've struggled to stop the run, finishing 29th in the league last season and have not finished top 10 in the league since 2018 in the run defense category. Sanborn thinks all that will change soon.
"Being aggressive, one of the big things is he wants to stop the run," Sanborn said. "I think being aggressive, being physical, flying around to the football, tackling well, and we've got to get the football taken away from opposing offenses and that's what he harps on and is something he wants to get accomplished."
In order to accomplish that goal, Murray believes that the Cowboys focus should be centered more around the mentality of what they want to be on defense, and that will be what leads to success in the scheme.
"I think run defense is all about mentality, there's definitely some schematics that go into it but I think for us it's just going to be about having the right approach, right mentality, and then just sitting down and getting our goals together of what we want to do, what we want to be…" Murray said.
"I don't think it's rocket science in the sense of you have to do a bunch of different things, I really do think it comes down to making sure that we're communicating and on the same page, understanding what our jobs are within the scheme, and then just play with the mentality that we're not going to let anybody run the ball on us."
