The phrase “next man up” has almost become cliche in the sports world at this point due to its overuse, but Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett has complete buy-in from his team when it comes to this philosophy. It did take them a while to reach this point, however, because ever since they won their last Super Bowl in 1996, this franchise has become known more for folding under the pressure and shrinking when it comes to facing adversity than anything else. But Garrett recognized this when he took over as coach and immediately put a plan in place to acquire players who were both mentally tough and highly disciplined on the field.

This was never more evident than last year when the team lost their defensive leaders in DeMarcus Ware and Sean Lee, one to free agency and the other to injury. And to top it off, the guy they drafted to replace Ware, Demarcus Lawrence, went down with an injury early on in training camp and was forced to miss the majority of his rookie season. They were already coming off of a year where they were historically one of the worst defenses in the franchise’s history, so the prospect of them improving without their two best players on that side of the ball was pretty bleak.

But through free agency and the draft, the Cowboys added the likes of Rolando McClain, Anthony Hitchens and Tyrone Crawford to help them in just these types of situations. All three players stepped their game up last season and put up career-best numbers to help turn this defense from being one of the worst in the league to an opportunistic one that wound up in the middle of the pack.

They needed the help of a dominant running game to keep them off the field, but they still had to produce whenever they were out there and were put in critical situations; and produce is exactly what they did. They played a critical part in this team making its first trip to the postseason in five years and in the process were able to get some key young players some invaluable experience that could help take them to the next level. And it’s because of this that the Cowboys will be able to survive the four games they will have to play this year without their star defensive end Greg Hardy and the aforementioned McClain.

They have a healthy Lawrence and Lee coming back as well as the talented defensive end Randy Gregory, who they drafted out of Nebraska to help their pass rush off the edge. So they do have pieces in place to steady the ship until they have their full complement of players available to them.

This team took their first step towards a championship last year, and it finally appears that may have the pieces both mentally and physically that are needed to complete that run this season.