Tanking would have been the right strategy

[fivetwos]

I had my suspicions when he held out with 2 years remaining and was tapping out quite a bit.

I think he knew he had hit the pinnacle and was headed back down the other side and if he waited, he would lose millions.

There was a play that season before the hold out that reminded me of that play Emmitt made diving into the end zone and injuring his neck only this was a hurdle that Elliott came down unbalanced and the look on his face was like he was shocked, he was human after all. Emmitt had that same look on his face.

Elliott did not run the same the rest of that game and hasn't gone airborne near as much as he used to do when he ran with abandon. He realized that if he was going for the big bucks, it had to be then or never. He also had that last season of Demarco Murray's to consider, Murray didn't run the same after that season. He had been a runaway truck his last season as a Cowboy.

Could be more along the lines of the nature of the position.

Look at guys like Larry Johnson and Shaun Alexander off the top of my head...there's many others....

Studs and top fantasy picks to useless not so long after.

That decline is extremely sharp at that position, and why you use them for five years MAX. Draft accordingly.

Only way around it is extreme hard work and dedication. 21 got his payday and is into being a celebrity and enjoying getting stoned on the couch.

He doesn't have it in him to defy whats happened to many others.

 

[BotchedLobotomy]

The top two stale subjects at the zone are #1. Dak is not a good QB and #2 Tanking is the Cure all

 

[DFWJC]

Agreed. It's also a bit more entertaining watching a team at 8-8 over 1-15. However, I think the point was picking from 1-4 is better than picking from 15-18. Neither team made the playoffs. If you're constantly going 8-8 you are never going to get a franchise QB unless you get lucky.

Regarding QB

1) Agree or not, I think Jerry considers Dak a franchise QB....so they have one already in his eyes
2) Rodgers, Mahomes, Watson, Wilson, Jackson, Brady, Brees.....all were drafted at 10th or lower.

 

[KJJ]

This year isn’t the best time for the Cowboys to have a high pick because there isn’t a coveted defensive player in this draft ala a Chase Young, Jalen Ramsey or Myles Garrett. It’s possible we may end up trading down from number 10.

 

[JoeKing]

So you want to be perpetually mediocre?

 

[America's Cowboy]

I've never experienced a losing season in team sports. Ever. But we all knew this team's chances of making the playoffs was cooked after the Thanksgiving game loss. Some of us told y'all this team was not going to make the playoffs since they would have needed to win out PLUS get a little help from other division opponents. I believe it had like a 4 or 6 % chance of happening, so it was not going to happen. The team at the time had like the 3rd or 4th overall draft spot. The best thing for the team at the time would have been to lose out and secure a top 3-5 spot for every round in the draft. This way the team could either choose the cream of the crop talent in every round OR trade down while picking up more draft picks because this team has lots of holes to fill both on the Oline and pretty much the whole Defense.

But NOOOOOO, it hurts too much to even think about tanking. Pride and the Cowboys name was on the line. No way should the Cowboys consider tanking!!!

For not tanking what did the Cowboys save/win? Their pride? Pfft...they lost their pride since way back in October/November. Instead, this team will be forced to watch 9 other teams pick better players before them in every round of the draft. Way to go! You saved your pride but lost the season and at least 5-7 spots in every round in the draft. Salute!

 

[MonsterD]

Yes I know but a lot of people on this board thought that the 21st pick has the same value as the 3rd, or that the 6 wins this year translate to an amazing good 2021 season by magical prowess, or that the value of the #3 pick isn't worth several 1st rounders plus additional 2nd and 3rds.

But yeea we got to see an exciting race for who loses in the playoffs first round no matter if was us the Giants or the football team in Maryland.

 

[DogFace]

So you want to be perpetually mediocre?

No. But sucking isn’t a guarantee that you’ll ever be good. Jacksonville is one example and there are others.

I get your point, but I don’t think we are as bad as you do.

 

[fivetwos]

I've never experienced a losing season in team sports. Ever. But we all knew this team's chances of making the playoffs was cooked after the Thanksgiving game loss. Some of us told y'all this team was not going to make the playoffs since they would have needed to win out PLUS get a little help from other division opponents. I believe it had like a 4 or 6 % chance of happening, so it was not going to happen. The team at the time had like the 3rd or 4th overall draft spot. The best thing for the team at the time would have been to lose out and secure a top 3-5 spot for every round in the draft. This way the team could either choose the cream of the crop talent in every round OR trade down while picking up more draft picks because this team has lots of holes to fill both on the Oline and pretty much the whole Defense.

But NOOOOOO, it hurts too much to even think about tanking. Pride and the Cowboys name was on the line. No way should the Cowboys consider tanking!!!

For not tanking what did the Cowboys save/win? Their pride? Pfft...they lost their pride since way back in October/November. Instead, this team will be forced to watch 9 other teams pick better players before them in every round of the draft. Way to go! You saved your pride but lost the season and at least 5-7 spots in every round in the draft. Salute!

If there was an organizational decision made to hold players back so they didn't beat the Bengals and SF there would have been some serious locker room revolt. Its not at all worth a few draft slots....and in this case you don't know if you'd have not ended up with the same guy anyway.

Ask Philly if they wish they didn't handle that last game differently.

 

[blueblood70]

People talk about it never being helpful to lose on purpose, but we've been struggling to get to 8-8 every year for 15 years. If overcoming adversity to get to middling were actually such a character builder, we would have won many Super Bowls by now.

We're picking 10th. Which is OK. But we could have been picking 3rd or 4th or something in every round. So that's 40-50 spots of surrendered draft capital. And we didn't make the playoffs, so that flurry of wins at the end of the year did nothing but set us back long-term.

Also, signing a veteran backup quarterback - unless you're a serious contender, not a Jerry Jones magical-thinking contender - is a waste of resources. We got Andy Dalton. At the end of the year, our backup quarterback was better than the backup quarterbacks for other teams with injured starters. So we won a few games. It didn't help us. It hurt us. See paragraph 2.

this again,,jeez!! shut it up..you are wrong!!!..tanking is illegal and its shallow shows a lack of character and the phrase the integrity of the game comes into play. What sports idiots!!

eagles didnt even try and tank yet pederson got heck just for benching hurts after having 3 bad qtrs of play and hes being roasted..

coaches and player never play to lose, EVER!! they will not even if asked..

ughh

 

[JoeKing]

No. But sucking isn’t a guarantee that you’ll ever be good. Jacksonville is one example and there are others.

I get your point, but I don’t think we are as bad as you do.

For every example you give of it not working, I'll give you one that it does work. The Browns are playing today in the divisional round of the playoffs. So, it's not a guarantee that you'll never be good.

 

[The Fonz]

If we picked in the top 3, we would have had a lot of options, but now that Fields and Lawrence will be off the board, you pretty much have no option but to resign Dak and we'll get to see the likes of Philly potentially snag a guy we want ahead of us. All of that character building stuff NEVER carries over. When we went 8 and 8 a few years ago under Romo, it was followed by 2 more 8 and 8 years. Mediocrity is almost perpetual and 8 and 8 years are more often followed by more 8 and 8 years here.

When we went 4 and 12, we followed that up buy 13 and 3. Just by the coaches we fire, we are a talent dependent organization and the only place we actually grab talent from is the draft. Our FA record is terrible.

We might have chance to take Trask or Mac Jones and I hope they do

 

[Kingofholland]

There is really not a super pick after pick#3 that is a need for Dallas that you can't get at pick#10. I would rather back up a few spots and get who's left between Farley and Surtain II . Dallas needs a lot of help on Defense.

Feel the same way, only difference is fetching more draft capital if you were picking 3 or 4. Defensively there's likely better value in the 8 to 15 range.

 

[America's Cowboy]

If there was an organizational decision made to hold players back so they didn't beat the Bengals and SF there would have been some serious locker room revolt. Its not at all worth a few draft slots....and in this case you don't know if you'd have not ended up with the same guy anyway.

Ask Philly if they wish they didn't handle that last game differently.

Serious locker room revolt? I hear nothing but excuses here. That serious locker room revolt should have happened months ago. Maybe then the season could have been saved.

 

[Hardline]

I really want to see how to "tank".

Do you ask the players not to try? Do you ask the coaches put in a terrible game plan? Do you play your backups?

What happens when both teams in a game try to tank? That would make for a fun game. Two teams fumbling on purpose, two coaches putting in their ball boys as quarterback.

Philadelphia did this. Their coach played along and got fired. There was tremendous backlash. Players on the Eagles were angry. Philly may have done itself more harm.

But I go back to my original question. How do you tank?

Call up your practice squad?

 

[Hardline]

Regarding QB

1) Agree or not, I think Jerry considers Dak a franchise QB....so they have one already in his eyes
2) Rodgers, Mahomes, Watson, Wilson, Jackson, Brady, Brees.....all were drafted at 10th or lower.

You may want to do a little research on some of those QBs draft positions.

 

[blueblood70]

For every example you give of it not working, I'll give you one that it does work. The Browns are playing today in the divisional round of the playoffs. So, it's not a guarantee that you'll never be good.

that was a 15year process of losing not a 3-4 yr turn around they've had 15-20 straight top 5 1st round picks , some multiples and once i believe they had 3 first round picks and many coaches and gms they are the worst example ever ion how losing works..

they haven't done squat yet this year either so tap the brakes..you are very wrong..

its doesnt work more times then it does..most teams that are losing for long periods of times like the jets and browns and heck even the bills to and extent plus others show losing is NOT helping as its taken a decade of being the worst tram on the planet to finally have one winning season?. How long is it supposed to work? lmao..

 

[Ranched]

eagles didnt even try and tank yet pederson got heck just for benching hurts after having 3 bad qtrs of play and hes being roasted..

Pederson said after the game he was “coaching to win.” How can you justify that in the slightest when the qb you took out of the game has earned the right to start & finish the season after what he was able to put together in the previous 3 games?

How can you say that when in the first 5 plays that Sudfeld was under center, an interception & fumble lost occurred, but he remained in the game?!

Many Eagles including Kelce & Staley tweeted about the deliberate tank. It was very obvious what Peterson was doing & he paid the price.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Serious locker room revolt? I hear nothing but excuses here. That serious locker room revolt should have happened months ago. Maybe then the season could have been saved.

Like anyone has to excuse anything to you. Tanking does not get a presumption of success.

We saw a trainwreck in Philly when they appeared to tank 1 game. You wanted to tank 4. That is just reality.

The best case would've been Sewell as we never had a shot at the top 2.

Then of course we would've had to blow up the team again with a new coaching staff because all trust in them would be gone.

Noteveryone thinks blowing up the team every couple of years is a good idea much less every year.

 

[SteveTheCowboy]

So you want to TANK PURPOSELY TEACH OUR PLAYERS TO LOSE...

Then complain about our terrible draft picks.

It's so idiotic it's not even funny.