The Dallas Cowboys’ Biggest Draft Need – is it on Offense or Defense? A Fan’s Questio

[cowboyjoe]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ycn-11174334
By Dan Rogers, Yahoo! Contributor Network20 minutes ago


The 2012 NFL Draft is less than a month away and the Dallas Cowboys will have some difficult decisions to make. As fans everywhere share their opinions, there still seems to be a lot of uncertainty as to who we are going to select with our first round draft pick. Most of us have it narrowed down to two possible areas of need, which are pass rusher and pass blocker. Do we take the top guard in the draft, Stanford's David DeCastro, if he is available? Or do we go after one of the elite quarterback chasers? It's a tough choice. As we sit patiently and wait for Jason Garrett and the Joneses to make their decision, here are my arguments for each of these two possibilities.



The view of Cowboys Stadium from the suite of owner Jerry Jones. It is at the 50 yard line. The other side at the 50 yard line is reserved for the football television broadcast team.
2010

Help the Offense - Draft DeCastro
The Cowboys need to get back to running an efficient offense and stop playing like riverboat gamblers. The big plays are exciting, but we need to be able to sustain drives and move the chains. This requires us to establish a strong running game and avoid third and long situations. If we put Tony Romo in situations where he has to make play after play, it is eventually going to bite us. Let's do a little Romo breakdown. Here are some interesting stats during the three seasons where he has started every game for the Cowboys:
2007 = 24 sacks, Cowboys record 13-3
2009 = 34 sacks, Cowboys record 11-5
2011 = 36 sacks, Cowboys record 8-8

[SilverStarCowboy]

First off I think everyone who is in love with Guard should take a closer look at the current roster and tell me who you are going to cut that doesn't get scooped up by another franchise.

Then the talent available in the Defensive front 7 in the Draft.

[Zimmy Lives]

This is a simple answer: Pick the best player on the board.

The only need the Cowboys have not addressed in free agency yet is TE. Of course Leonard Pope is still out there so he might be an option.

What it will come down to is who is the highest ranked player on the board when the Cowboys pick. If that player is there then make the pick. If all the players they rank as top-15 talent are gone, or, if there are several to chose from, they trade down.

[cowboysooner]

A bad guard will allow 4 sacks a great OLB will get 12 and a great de will get you 5-7 more than a dead man or Kenyon Coleman.

[a_minimalist]

i've thought about this a lot and i really don't think it's one or the other. they are both pretty equal and carry the same weight. we need to protect romo and we need to do whatever possible to maximize demarco murray's efforts. we also need to give ratliff and ware help to start putting the hurt on other quarterbacks. they are both equal. boring answer but i really think it's the right one.

[Ren]

Originally Posted by SilverStarCowboy

First off I think everyone who is in love with Guard should take a closer look at the current roster and tell me who you are going to cut that doesn't get scooped up by another franchise.

Then the talent available in the Defensive front 7 in the Draft.

Some of our interior OL might be serviceable backups for someone else, but that doesn't really make them good starters here. I'm trying to think of an interior OL on this team that i'm ok with starting and i can't name a single on. I'm not really all that worried about losing 1 to make room for someone better

[DBOY3141]

How many double digit leads did we lose last year??

How many 4th quarter leads??

We need a lot more help on defense than offense.

We need a center, a back-up TE and a 3rd WR on offense.

We need 2 DL, 1 OLB, 2 CB, 2 safeties on defense.

How many picks do we have...8?

Defense is more of a problem than offense.

[Ren]

Other then SF we didn't beat a single good team last season and every time we faced someone semi decent at getting after then QB our offense simply didn't work. Our line is good enough to beat the Rams and Browns of the world which is great if your goal is 6-7 wins, but if we want to compete in the NFCE we're going to have to get A LOT better at protecting our QB

Romo getting hurt the last 2 seasons is really all that needs to be said though. Wanna roll the dice again on other teams disgarded backups and/or the crap we had last season?

[DBOY3141]

Dallas had the Giants beat until the defense gave up 12 points in the last 5 minutes.

We can win 10 games with this offense. We can't win 10 games with this defense.

As we have seen 9 wins can get you a Super Bowl.

[Ren]

Originally Posted by DBOY3141

Dallas had the Giants beat until the defense gave up 12 points in the last 5 minutes.

We can win 10 games with this offense. We can't win 10 games with this defense.

As we have seen 9 wins can get you a Super Bowl.

Had we been able to sustain a drive and keep the D off the field we would have won

Our D good or bad is going to get very tired if all we can do against decent teams is go 3 and out. Give me an offense that can run out the clock over a good but tired D any day. Our D ain't going to be good for a few years no matter how much resources will dump into it now. With better OL play our offense will be elite and that gives us a much better shot at winning

[DBOY3141]

Originally Posted by Ren

Had we been able to sustain a drive and keep the D off the field we would have won

Our D good or bad is going to get very tired if all we can do against decent teams is go 3 and out. Give me an offense that can run out the clock over a good but tired D any day

So if we would have just scored 40 points we could have won.

This defense is terrible....period. You should not lose if you score 31 points...ever.

[Doomsday]

Our offensive line vs division opponents was atrocious last season. That and corner were the two main reasons why the Eagles and Giants swept Dallas.

[reddyuta]

Center is easily our biggest weakness(both on offense and defense).you are not going anywhere with a bad center who hasn't even mastered the art snapping the ball.I really hope Costa is not the starter this season.