Quote:
Originally Posted by Risen Star
Well, I'm always looking forward to the next football season but I can't tell you I'm optimistic about the Cowboys' chances until I see what they do in the offseason.
What they did last offseason didn't work. Now they need to get serious and address the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. You're not going to fix it all in one offseason but you can do enough to compete next year.
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I have thought about that for a while.
Anybody who knows me knows that I'm a big fan of stockpiling draft picks. And I generally dislike trading away picks to get one player.
We did that with Claiborne.
Although, the scouts felt he was the best cornerback in the draft in perhaps the last 10 years. They felt he was the best defensive player in the draft as well. And essentially we only gave up a 2nd round pick for him. Combine that with the rookie salary cap, the deal looked better.
From watching All-22, I thought Claiborne was great this year. He has a little issue with trailing in coverage on crossing routes and slants. His tackling improved a lot. But his general man-to-man coverage was excellent and he was getting very good in zone coverage. So it appeared to me that the scouts knew what they were talking about.
I liked what I saw in Brandon Carr as well. And I think Crawford was very good this year all things considered.
I generally think we were much better on defense. The injuries ate us up. To me, I think if we stay healthy the stuff we did in the offseason worked and worked quite well.
I think it's a bit like the Falcons did when they gave up all of those picks to trade up and get Julio Jones. It hurt them in the short term as they didn't make the playoffs that year, but as long as they got the player they wanted for their team and he was as good as advertised...then they went back garnering picks instead of trading them away...it works out in the end. It may hurt you for 1-year, but 2-years down the road it will pay dividends.
The thing with Dallas is we can't continue to trade away picks, thinking that because we got Clairborne by trading up, it will always work. Now we need depth on defense. We need safeties, which are usually undervalued in the NFL. And we need O-Linemen, also undervalued in the NFL.
I don't think it's preposterous to think that our offseason moves were done to work more in 2013 and beyond than in 2012.
YR