Another slant on our FA acquisitions ....

[Woods]

I thought that last our our FA acquistions were pretty good all in all, esp. given how much we paid for them.

Terry Glenn - For a 6th round give-up, he has been doing an excellent job.

Dan Campbell - Excellent blocker and team leader.

R. Anderson - All in all, is doing a good job as a 3rd down back. Unfortunately,we don't have a 1st and 2nd RB on the roster. Though maybe J Jones will be the answer.

T. Gowin - Awful job, cut after season. (Though our replacement is good.)

R Young - Injuries, injuries. Forced to retire.

Leo Carson - Last year he played well for a end of pre-season pick-up. He did well last year in rotation.

Al Singleton - Not spectacular, but did a respectable job. Came pretty cheap as well.

I'm probably forgetting several players, but my point is that last year's pick-ups vs. this year's pick-ups has been almost night and day - though I think VT is doing a respectable job while keeping the seat warm for Henson.

Comments?

[VirusX]

The problem is we are going after dimishing talent not up-and-commers. Parcells brings in his old "Parcells Guys" and it screws up developement of the younger players (Henson\JJ\AB)

Granted letting henson adjust may not be a bad thing but when your no longer playing for the season just let him get in and take his lickings now so it will be 2nd nature next season.


Drop Dedric Ward and play Randal Williams for Chrissake! Hes our ST stud for speed to make the stop and we dont even have him dressed. Parcells needs to stop looking to his 30-40 year olds for awnsers and concentrate on the young talent that is avaliable or around him.

[LaTunaNostra]

The problem is we are going after dimishing talent not up-and-commers. Parcells brings in his old "Parcells Guys" and it screws up developement of the younger players (Henson\JJ\AB)

Granted letting henson adjust may not be a bad thing but when your no longer playing for the season just let him get in and take his lickings now so it will be 2nd nature next season.


Drop Dedric Ward and play Randal Williams for Chrissake! Hes our ST stud for speed to make the stop and we dont even have him dressed. Parcells needs to stop looking to his 30-40 year olds for awnsers and concentrate on the young talent that is avaliable or around him.

This is absurd.

Henson is not being screwed up. Q and poor Hutch WERE, with the throw them into the fire philosophy which sacrficed proper development to//who knows what the rationale was there..maybe it was play a "real" Cowboy over a Tony Banks :rolleyes: .

AB was NOT mishandled. He, like any young recevier, had to build on a good rookie season by learning his trade , by learning to read defenses, run crisp routes, submerge his frustration and not give up on routes, not freelance, etc. One reason Haley was brought in, imo, was because McNulty suffered what looked like a failure with AB, but in retrospect, AB's step back performance last year was not unusual in a sophomore player. This year AB looked darn good. It was "working" and he had every op to be the wide out the future here. But not unlike Carter, his character issues defeated that here.

JJ is being mishandled? Only if Bill had put him on the field injured. Then you'd have a gripe.

And to bring up the guy Drew Pearson claims is wasting a roster spot and getting a free ride, as an example of who can save the day, or even logically even become an NFL calibre receiver --- well, there IS an example of mishandling.

Pearson is correct when he says that keeping that flop around is a bad example to the rest of the team, I think Randall is getting over on one thing - the very fact so many young players like Ross and Martin and AB did not work out. There would be a screaming and a hollaring if yet another young sow's ear was cut off. And Randall is riding that gravy train just fine.

There is one valid way to judge Bill's rebuild of the Dallas Cowboys and that is to look at his 2003 and 2004 drafts, and compare them to the drafts of the previous few years. Despite the sophomore year travails of Tnew and JJ's injury, I think the conclusion is clear.

[MichaelWinicki]

This is absurd.

Henson is not being screwed up. Q and poor Hutch WERE, with the throw them into the fire philosophy which sacrficed proper development to//who knows what the rationale was there..maybe it was play a "real" Cowboy over a Tony Banks :rolleyes: .

AB was NOT mishandled. He, like any young recevier, had to build on a good rookie season by learning his trade , by learning to read defenses, run crisp routes, submerge his frustration and not give up on routes, not freelance, etc. One reason Haley was brought in, imo, was because McNulty suffered what looked like a failure with AB, but in retrospect, AB's step back performance last year was not unusual in a sophomore player. This year AB looked darn good. It was "working" and he had every op to be the wide out the future here. But not unlike Carter, his character issues defeated that here.

JJ is being mishandled? Only if Bill had put him on the field injured. Then you'd have a gripe.

And to bring up the guy Drew Pearson claims is wasting a roster spot and getting a free ride, as an example of who can save the day, or even logically even become an NFL calibre receiver --- well, there IS an example of mishandling.

Pearson is correct when he says that keeping that flop around is a bad example to the rest of the team, I think Randall is getting over on one thing - the very fact so many young players like Ross and Martin and AB did not work out. There would be a screaming and a hollaring if yet another young sow's ear was cut off. And Randall is riding that gravy train just fine.

There is one valid way to judge Bill's rebuild of the Dallas Cowboys and that is to look at his 2003 and 2004 drafts, and compare them to the drafts of the previous few years. Despite the sophomore year travails of Tnew and JJ's injury, I think the conclusion is clear.

Barb... you're really writing some nice stuff today. Must be mid-semester break or something. :D

You're right on the drafts.

What many fail to comprehend is how bare the talent base was here. 2000, '01 & '02 were just abysmal. Those folks that said Bill did what he did last year because there WAS talent on this team that Campo didn't utilize are out of their minds. Last year was the culmination of many good & lucky things coming together at once. This year we're not quite as lucky, but talent wise I think it is a more talented team overall, which probably doesn't make a lot of sense since we were 5-1 last year at this juncture.

[Yakuza Rich]

Let’s look at some of last year’s non-draft acquisitions:

Terry Glenn
Dan Campbell
R. Anderson
T. Gowin
R Young
Leo Carson
Al Singleton
Donald Mitchell
Torrin Tucker
Matt McBriar
Kenyon Coleman
Keith O’Neill
Scott Shanle
Willie Blade
Aveion Cason
Eric Bickerstaff
Darien Barnes
Andrew Davieson
Jameel Powell
Jermaine Brooks

19 players, none of them really pricey by no means. Forgetting the injuries to Glenn and Campbell, 6 of them were making solid starting contributions this season (Glenn, Campbell, Anderson, Singleton, Tucker, McBriar).

5 of them are solid backups/special teams players that make contributions (Carson, Coleman, O’Neill, Shanle, Barnes)

The only major bust from a non-injury, just didn’t play well standpoint was Gowin. Ryan Young got injured, something you can’t foresee. Cason was effective in his own way for the first season. Mitchell got injured. Bickerstaff….injured. Davieson, Powell and Brooks were paid so little that it’s not worth getting in a fuss about.

Out of the 2003 draft, they got Newman, Al Johnson, Witten, Bradie James, Zuriel Smith, BJ Tucker, and Justin Bates. Bates was cut as most 7th rounders are. Tucker was a complete bust…so that was a bad pick. Smith was a 6th rounder who did contribute his rookie season to a degree, so not a completely bad pick.

So out of those acquisitions and draft picks, we got 10-12 starters that have made solid contributions and didn’t cost much to acquire. I still believe that Newman will be better once there’s better pressure against the QB and Bradie James will only get better given his inexperience. On top of that, the special teams coverage unit is pretty good right now. Now, they’ve only got to do better on the return game.

I won’t go into the 2004 rookies because it’s way too early to tell. But, FA’s are a different story. Keyshawn is a much better receiver for the Cowboys than Galloway is and the contract they pay him is better than Galloway’s as well. Say what you will about Vinny, but he has an 86.3 QB rating right now and he’s not killing the team. Even Eddie George who isn’t playing very well right now is still costing them minimal amount of $$$.

Last offseason’s FA pool wasn’t very big, especially for defensive players. That means that guys were most likely getting overpaid. My assumption is that Parcells looked at the way last year’s defense played and felt that they needed work on offense only. So far, the offense is moving the ball better than it did last season.

But, Blade showed up to camp grossly overweight and with an attitude, Woodson got hurt, and then later on Hunter got hurt.

Obviously, there were some poor personnel decisions, but I think from an overall standpoint and comparing it to the rest of the NFL, Parcells has done a good job with personnel so far. Obviously, we can’t tell on the 2004 draft until Jones, Petermann, Rogers, Crayton, Ryan, Bruce Thornton, Reeves, and Jones get a chance to play. Plus, we’ll have to wait and see on how guys like Kalen Thornton, Fowler, and Frazier do as well.

Rich……….

[DipChit]

Last year was the culmination of many good & lucky things coming together at once. This year we're not quite as lucky, but talent wise I think it is a more talented team overall, which probably doesn't make a lot of sense since we were 5-1 last year at this juncture.

You're right. But then again a lot of things dont make sense compared to the old days of the NFL. Back then you were what you were.. usually for years on end, for better or worse.

Nowadays nevermind year by year but even week by week we see all sorts of things happen. We, but for the grace of football gods, shoulda prolly been about 7-9 or 8-8 last year. This year too for that matter. But because we won 10 last year people were expecting a logical progression. These days forget it though. It's pretty much a year to year proposition with each and every team (save a couple on either end of the spectrum).

If we Boys fans are freakin over going from 5-11 to 10-6 back down to say 7-9, how in the world are other fans coping with their teams? T.B. going from S.B champs to 7-9. Giants going from S.B to 7-9, the Falcons a few years ago from S.B to 5-11.

How bout the Raider fans.. going from S.B to 4-12. What were they doin over that, jumping of the Bay Bridge?