Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Did Jerry Jones finally fix one major issue with Cowboys?

By Ernesto Cova | Last updated Nov 19, 2025 10:09 AM ET

For years, the Dallas Cowboys struggled to fortify the interior of the defensive line.

They were always vulnerable against the run, and even team owner/GM Jerry Jones often criticized Micah Parsons for not being as efficient in that aspect of the game.

Jones claimed that he wanted to prioritize stopping the run when he acquired Kenny Clark from the Green Bay Packers, but that didn't do much to fix their woes.

Now, with Quinnen Williams in Arlington, things may finally be different.

The Cowboys' interior defense was spectacular on Monday

As shown by Pro Football Focus, Cowboys defensive tackles Osa Odighizuwa (90.6) and Quinnen Williams (90.2) were the highest-graded interior defenders in the league in Week 11.

The best interior defenders this week both reside in Dallas https://t.co/50KJqwBi0X pic.twitter.com/CXJLO4QUiT
— PFF (@PFF) November 18, 2025

Williams logged seven pressures and 1.5 sacks in his Cowboys debut, all while registering a 21.4 percent pass-rush win rate.

Having him out there gives everybody around him so much freedom, and while the Raiders' pedestrian offense clearly isn't the best to measure their success, the first returns were fairly encouraging.

The Cowboys held Chip Kelly's offense to just 27 rushing yards and 236 total yards. They also sacked Geno Smith four times for a loss of 29 yards.

That's a massive improvement for a defense that currently ranks 24th against the run by giving up 131.4 rushing yards per game.

The Cowboys are now 4-5-1 for the season, and with a somewhat easy schedule for the remainder of the season, the playoffs aren't out of the picture in Arlington.

Ernesto Cova

Ernesto is a bilingual (English-Spanish) sports writer with over eight years of experience covering major leagues such as the NBA, NFL, and MLB. Ernesto’s work focuses on providing insightful, up-to-date coverage of sports, blending his expertise in sports psychology with a passion for analyzing player performance, team dynamics, and trade developments across various sports leagues

More must-reads: