When it comes to getting to the other team’s quarterback, few teams in the NFL have been worse at it through the first month of the season than the Dallas Cowboys.
And that tracks, because the Cowboys traded away arguably the game’s best edge rusher in Micah Parsons before the season and are tied for 29th in the NFL with 4.0 sacks through 4 games.
Unfortunately for the Cowboys, their worst defensive year in recent memory is coming in a year where they have one of the NFL’s best offenses, with the latest failing coming in front of a prime time audience with a 40-40 tie against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football in Week 4.
The task doesn’t get any easier in Week 5 against the winless New York Jets, who actually have a somewhat competent offense that starts up front with one of the NFL’s best rookies in right offensive tackle and 2025 No. 7 overall pick Armand Membou.
ESPN’s Mina Kimes compared Membou to one of the game’s dominant blockers in Detroit Lions right offensive tackle and 2-time NFL All-Pro Penei Sewell.
Sewell is also one of the NFL’s highest paid players with a 4-year, $112 million contract extension he signed in April 2024.
He’s a young Penei Sewell, right?” Kimes said on The Mina Kimes Show with Lenny on October 2. “As far as the right tackle position goes, as a run blocker and as a pass protector, you could argue he’s even futher along than Penei was as a rookie. And to start your career pitching a shutout to T.J. Watt and then getting highlight reel run blocking stats … Armand Membou is just hit after hit after hit. He is like must-see TV to offensive line enjoyers.”
Membou’s Terrible Luck on Draft Day
It’s hard to look at anyone with a fully guaranteed 4-year, $31.9 million contract — Membou’s contract — and having as much talent as any young player in the NFL as having bad luck … but it’s also hard to look at anyone drafted by the Jets in the last 50 years as having good luck.
There is no NFL team who runs young talent into the ground on a more consistent basis than the Jets, who have the longest consecutive streak of non-playoff seasons across the 4 major professional sports leagues at 14 years headed into 2025 .
In that 14-year stretch, the Jets have finished with a winning record just once, going 10-6 in 2015.
“Membou has been the best rookie offensive lineman in the NFL through four weeks,” The Athletic’s Dane Brugler wrote on October 1. “Full stop … Still just 21, Membou looks like a cornerstone player for the Jets.
Cowboys Don’t Have Concrete Plan for Pass Rush
The Cowboys‘ pass rush is a nightmare. Of their 4.0 sacks through 4 games, 2.0 of them have come from journeyman edge rusher James Houston and none from veteran free agent Dante Fowler Jr. or promising second round pick Donovan Ezeiruaku.
It’s safe to assume that won’t be getting better anytime soon — Parsons is one of just 2 players in NFL history to have at least 12.0 sacks in each of his first 4 seasons.
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