Mailbag: Will new culture bring more discipline?

(Editor's Note: Time to check the mail! The DallasCowboys.com staff writers answer your questions here in 'Mailbag' presented by Miller Lite.)

One of the unfortunate traits of the last four years has been a lack of discipline leading to a large amount of penalties, particularly pre-snap. Any indication the new head coach and his culture change will improve this area? – Doug Varga/Knoxville, TN

Nick: This is a good question. Unfortunately there is no good answer to this. In theory, you'd like to think this change in culture and philosophies will result in better discipline and execution but there's no way of knowing this.

And penalties are always a tricky thing to figure out. There have been teams that won the Super Bowl that were the most penalized in the league. Those teams likely got applauded for their aggression. There have been teams with the fewest amount of penalties that won it all and I'm sure they were called smart and disciplined.

What you hope is the new coaches are teaching better technique than we've seen before. Usually with that, it cuts down on holds and hands-to-the-face type of infractions.
But just thinking new staff and new culture will help with less penalties would just be wishful thinking at this point. Only time will tell.

Tommy: Well, you'd certainly hope this is a more disciplined team than last year's regardless of culture. Pre-snap penalties especially were ridiculous at points for the Cowboys last season, and they added up at inopportune times.

Could Brian Schottenheimer's emphasis on a different type of culture and buy-in to his players help in that department? Absolutely, but it isn't going to be the only thing that's going to be necessary to see an increase in discipline, players have to get right and ensure that they're not off the line, moving before the snap, etc. and that all comes with better communication.

Having Dak Prescott back at quarterback will help, and maybe a fresh perspective from a new coaching staff can too. Just like it will be for many things like winning games, being more disciplined, etc., Brian Schottenheimer's culture shift within the Cowboys will help in more ways than you think, but they'll still need to do more than just change the culture if they want to achieve their goal of winning a Super Bowl.