There were days while we were in Oxnard, where he took reps against DeMarcus Ware in one-on-one pass rush and he more than held his own and that put him on the right path. There were two seasons where Free had none, where during his best seasons, he was full of it. Another area that these coaches had to work on, was his confidence. When rushers got to Free's chest, this is where he had the most trouble and without the lower body power to sit down, he became a compressed player and rushers took advantage of that. What Callahan and Pollack worked with him on daily is getting his hands inside and not on the outside of the defenders pads. When Free is bad, it is because his hands are bad. When you study Free's game, it's never going to be about power but leverage, angles and positioning. What was also important in the transformation was getting Free to buy into the changes but by his own admission, it was something that had to be done. Where Bill Callahan and Frank Pollack went to work with Free was on his technique and how to correct the flaws in his hand placement and foot work. To Free's credit, the front office asked for a salary reduction and he accepted it, then begin to work on getting his game back in shape. What started out as a promising career and a large extension, led to some awful play by his standards in 20. 2013 Impact: If there was a player on this Cowboys roster that needed to have a bounce-back season, it was Doug Free.
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