Cowboys Defense Ripped as Former Pro Bowler Calls for Quinnen Williams Benching

Thursday night was an awful night for the Dallas Cowboys, who suffered a defeat at the hands of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was an embarrassing effort and a historically bad loss for a team that entered the year with championship hopes.

Making the loss sting even more is the fact that the Bucs were starting an undrafted free agent in Jalon Daniels at quarterback. Daniels, who struggled in his first start in Week 4 against the Green Bay Packers, had his way with this defense.

After the game, Dak Prescott said it was "right up there close to embarrassing," but added that he might not use that word. It's hard to find any other word to use, which was what the crew on ESPN's Get Up had to say. Former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky even stated that this defense is worse than they were a year ago, which didn't seem possible entering the season.

"This defense is worse this year than it was last year. This defense did everything last night that they couldn't. Four penalties they had to keep drives alive for Tampa Bay," Orlovsky said. "They lost leverage multiple times on a rookie quarterback that the thing he was going to do best was use his legs. Multiple times, the 72-yard run to start the second half is a microcosm because the peaking, the lack of tackling."

Quinnen Williams under fire for poor performance in Week 5

Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Quinnen Williams looks on during the game between the Cowboys and the Saints. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Orlovsky then called out the lack of fundamentals, pointing out that veterans such as Rashan Gary, Quinnen Williams, and Kenny Clark all let their team down on Thursday. That belief was echoed by former Pro Bowl safety Donte Whitner, who said Williams is playing like he has velcro sticking him to his blocker. He added that he should "probably be benched at this point."

"Well, schematically, they're penetrating too much. Whenever you bring a run blitz, you want to move sideline to sideline. You want to restrict the space. They're opening up too much lateral space and too much vertical space. And then you see a lack of effort to the football," Whitner said. "You see Quinnen Williams? He's like Velcro. He can't even get off of a block. How much are they paying this guy? And they probably should bench him at this point."

“[The Dallas Cowboys are] a defensive unit that, through five games, is a worse unit than last year.”@danorlovsky7 on the Cowboys' loss to the Buccaneers😬 pic.twitter.com/RRJ9zi3z7F
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) October 9, 2026

After five games, Williams has just 15 tackles and one sack for the Cowboys. He signed a three-year, $105.9 million extension before the start of the regular season, poised to be the face of their defense. That hasn't been the case as Williams has failed to make a huge impact.

Asking him to be benched, however, feels excessive. As poorly as he's performed, the fact is that he's still been one of their better defensive linemen. The problems in Dallas go well beyond Williams and considering this unit is worse under Christian Parker than they were under Matt Eberflus, it's clear the problem goes beyond the defensive coaching staff as well.

— Sign up for the Cowboys Daily Digest newsletter for more free coverage from Dallas Cowboys on SI —

Add us as a preferred source on Google