Maligned defensive end Taco Charlton had what can only be described as a bizarre interview session at his locker following the Dallas Cowboys’ preseason loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Whether he was pontificating about playing through injury (something nearly every NFL player does every single season) or saying that his agent “sets the mentality” it was four minutes worth noting for its weirdness.

It’s hard not to scoff when Charlton sits at his locker and says, “No matter if I do good, they’re going to say it’s bad. If I do bad, they’re going to say it’s terrible.” because at no point has he played up to his draft status as the team’s first-round pick from the 2017 draft.

To get a picture of how poorly he has performed over his first two seasons, here are some comparisons for Charlton. This is a list, courtesy of Pro Football Reference, of first-round defensive lineman drafted since 2008 who have played at least 24 games in their first two seasons and had five or fewer sacks.

The first thing that jumps out is the lack of true star power.

It’s a list of veritable disappointments, defensive tackles and 30-front defensive ends. Only two players on the list ever notched double-digit sacks in a season, Cameron Heyward and Jerry Hughes.

Defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli is known for one thing, coaching up defensive lines. So when Charlton says, “I really wasn’t asked to pass rush”, not only is that not true, it also might just be because he can’t do it.

Marinelli joined the Cowboys as the defensive line coach in 2013 before taking control over the entire defense in 2014. For years, he worked with an undermanned unit. Here’s a sample of players he managed to get as many sacks out of in a single season than Charlton has managed in two.

Year Player Sacks 2013 George Selvie 7* 2014 Jeremy Mincey 6 2014 Henry Melton 5 2015 Jack Crawford 4 2016 Benson Mayowa 6*

*Career high

No one on that list has ever been considered a top tier pass rusher. Not one of them was a Top-100 pick in the NFL draft, yet Marinelli was able to extra quality performances out of them. Charlton has yet to show even this level of performance through two years and his quotes about not getting an opportunity to rush can be fact checked.

According to Pro Football Focus, Charlton had 218 pass-rush snaps from defensive end in 2018 and had a pass-rush productivity score of just 3.9. In 2017, he had 222 rush attempts and a 3.8 PRP.

PRP is a formula that combines sacks, quarterback hits and pressures and grades them over the number of pass-rush opportunities; a score under four is pretty bad.

Mincey (7.3), Melton (7.1) and Mayowa(5.5) all had PRPs above 5.5 for their seasons under Marinelli. Charton’s numbers put him on par with journeyman George Selvie (3.4).