Get Us To the Playoffs; Sean Lee

Sean Lee of the Dallas Cowboys. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One game away. For the last 3 seasons this team had been one win away. The NFL is by definition a team sport so asking one player to "get us to the playoffs" seems like an question that shouldn't be asked. However many players make a key play and even win a game.

Richard Sherman In the NFL championship. Colin Kapernick in any post season game against Green Bay. Even the absence of a player can lose a game for a team. Aqiub Talib in the last 2 AFC championships.

Tony Romo will be exempt from these post. The reason why is this. A quarterback is the leader and head of the team but no one quarterback can win a championship. We saw that with Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and even the aforementioned Kapernick. One man can only do so much. Romo can only do so much. We know what Romo is. For all the stats he breaks there isn't too much more Romo can do. The burden if the post season falls on other players. 

Sean Lee get us to the playoffs.

Lee has totaled 6 pass deflections. One more fewer than Luke Kuechly the NFL defensive MVP. Kuechly was a major factor in getting the Panthers to the playoffs for the first time in five years.  Carolina had a 7-9 record in 2012. Another place where Lee and Kuechly are tied are interceptions among linebackers. Both players are tied with 4 during 2013. Another player tied with 4 picks at the linebacker position is Karlos Dansby who led Arizona to a 10-6 record. A record would have had Dallas winning the division and in the playoffs. 

Lee really shows his worth in coverage.  Lee has 6 pass deflections last season.  Where does this rank among playoff linebackers? Patrick Willis and Navarro bowman of the 49ers had 1 and 8 respectively. Danny Trevathan (Denver) had 10. The only other playoff linebackers that surpassed Lee were Bobby Wagner, Ahmad Brooks, Thomas Davis and Demeco Ryans with 7 pass deflections. Remember Lee missed 5 games due to injury.

It's no secret the injuries held Lee back. If Dallas had a healthy Sean Lee his total combined tackles could have increased by 45 putting him at 144 in combined tackles which would have landed Lee at 7th in the NFL in combined tackles. If we look at solo tackles, a healthy Sean Lee missed out on 30 tackles which could have pushed his solo tackles to 98 which would have placed Lee at 8th in the entire league.

Outside of staying on the field Lee can improve in 2 major areas. The first is sacks. For the most productive player on your defense with ware now gone the fact that Sean Lee had never grabbed a sack is alarming. I don't mean this season but in his entire career Lee had never recorded a sack. Sacks are normally easily gathered by defensive linemen. In fact 14 of the top 20 sack leaders from 2013 are defensive linemen. Linebackers in a 3-4 defense make up the 6 players that round out that top 20. Lee came from a 3-4 and still produced no sacks. This has to change.

Forced fumbles is the other area which Lee needs to increase productivity.  Unlike sacks I have more faith in Lee to obtain more forced fumbles than sacks.  Marinelli teaches and empathize stripping the ball,  also Lee has gotten 2 forced fumbles in his career.

As we have seen from last year this is a completely different defense without Lee. We saw what we are against New Orleans. If Lee goes down indefinitely we can forget it. With a healthy Lee this team can surprise the league.

The Cowboys have to make it to the playoffs within the next 2 years. I have a feeling this team is not as bad as we all saw last year. The injuries at the defensive line was unprecedented. If any team would have sustained over 15 different players having to play at any two positions, they would break franchise records in horrible ways as well. The Dallas Cowboys have never missed the playoffs 5 straight years EVER. I don't think they want to break that record.