ESPN Dallas’ Todd Archer: Lots Of ‘Ifs’ On Cowboys’ Defense

As the Dallas Cowboys prepare for the 2014 season, the team has a stronger offensive line, which should bode well for starting quarterback Tony Romo. However, the team has plenty of questions on defense, including a newly rebuilt line, inexperienced linebackers, and an unproven secondary. Todd Archer, who covers the Cowboys for ESPN Dallas, joined Sportstalk yesterday afternoon to give his thoughts on the team's chances for the upcoming season.

"I think everybody is ready for the season and at this time of the year, every team has hope. Even a team coming off of three straight 8 and 8 years and not having Sean Lee, Demarcus Ware, and Jason Hatcher have hope."

"You can make the argument that expectations were unrealistically high for this team and what they’ve had to do the last few seasons, and that this was a team with a lot of holes."

"Part of the problem the Cowboys have is that they get so much play in the national media, they’re on TV all the time, they’re in the high profile games, that everybody knows Tony Romo, Jason Witten, Dez Bryant, Ware, and Sean Lee. They know all these guys and 1 through 12, the Cowboys are pretty good. But 13 through 35, they haven’t been very good."

"There’s a lot of ifs, especially on that defense. The offense, I’m not worried about that much. You can go defensive line and linebackers, ifs all across the board. They have to turn those ifs into answers here pretty early this season with this schedule."