The Cowboys' turnover differential last season was poor, and it makes Schottenheimer sick to think about it.
One of the Dallas Cowboys' biggest bugaboos last season was turnovers, and that was on both sides of the ball.
The offense gave it away for fun at times, and the defense struggled to get takeaways, and that recipe gives you a 7-9-1 record and no playoff football.
The Cowboys ranked 29th in turnover differential per Football Database (-9), struggling to come out on top in the turnover battle each week.
Dallas managed just 12 takeaways for the season, yet gave the ball away 21 times, and that is a hard place to live in the NFL.
It has been a problem for a couple of seasons now with the Cowboys, and it was poor viewing for Schottenheimer in his first year as a head coach.
So, there's no second-guessing for what has been a big emphasis at The Star during OTAs, right?
“You'll see a big emphasis on ball security for us,” Schottenheimer said. “It's because it disgusts me, minus nine, it's awful. We got to protect the football better on offense. We got to take it away on defense. That's an area where we need to make a big jump."
That big jump simply has to happen, because if your offense is turning the ball over, and the defense can't get takeaways, you won't win many games of football.
So with Schottenheimer stating there has been a bigger emphasis on protecting the football, he revealed something that might not seem like a big deal at first, but the more you think about it, it sort of is.
“Last year we really didn't spend a lot of time doing ball security circuits," he added. "Klayton [Adams], Derek Foster, the offensive staff, Ldub [Lunda Wells], they've done a great job of coming up with different ball security circuits where we're teaching guys not only how to protect the football head, body, tail, clasp in in traffic, but getting the ball on the outside arm.
"It's basic fundamentals. So there are things like that that we're doing a deep dive into getting fixed.”
In 2024, Dallas had a -6 turnover differential (24th), and the following offseason, didn't make it a priority? That's odd, and a little alarming.
But this offseason, there is a clear plan of attack for the Cowboys to fix what has been one of their biggest issues over the last two seasons.
Time will tell if it translates into positive results.
