We are at least one year away from serious contention

[Trajan]

We are at least one owner away from serious contention.

Hahahaha, sure. Once Jerry is out of the picture it moves to Stephen, once Stephen is out of the picture it moves to those goofy grandkids who are now tagging along at every event "learning the ropes" from the master Jerry.

We are a good 3 generations from contention, that's only like 75 years. My hope is one of them has a horrible gambling problem and is forced to sell the team to cover the debts, and a decent owner takes control.

 

[atlantacowboy]

You forgot the GM and HC.

The HC has coached a team to the super bowl. The GM is inept but its been 25 years. So, the blind squirrel rule may apply at this point.

 

[nate dizzle]

Your second premise is faulty. Wins are not a QB stat. The Bucs beat the Saints, Packers and Chiefs. The reason the Buccs did are because they are the most loaded roster in the NFL and everyone knew it. They have top 2-3 weapons on offense, a top 3 OLine, and a top 6 defense. Tom Brady is a bus driver for this team. There are about 14 or 15 QBs who would win a SB with that kind of roster. Taking out the QB it is one of, if not the, the strongest roster we have seen in several years.

I get it. Tom Brady has been a great QB his entire career. However now he is a good QB who will not lose you the game. He is not capable of being the reason you win, but if capable of being the reason you do not lose. He is Alex Smith pre leg injury. That is not a slight. At his age that is impressive, but to talk about as a top 5 let alone top 10 QB shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the QB position.

No.

 

[Cowboysheelsreds053]

We are at least one owner away from serious contention.

LLLOOOLLL

 

[DanA]

There's just too many unknowns at this stage. On offense we were middle of the road with some fairly significant injuries.

Offense:
Dak: We lost him after 4 games but he was gearing up for a record breaking season
Zeke: Was carrying a groin injury and was on a Cabo heavy diet in the off-season
Smith: Lost him after two games
Collins: Lost him in pre-season
Jarwin: Lost him 1st game

Plus I think Shultz, Ceedee and Biadasz progress as players after their first seasons as starters. That's a majority of our starters in our lineup, we added some depth and only really lost Looney so with a bit of luck in terms of injuries we could be anything on offense.


Defense:
You might as well throw out last years performance.

• Hill missed 11 games
• LVE missed 10 games
• Gregory missed 6 games
• Brown missed 6 games
• Diggs missed 4 games
• Jaylon was overused in coverage
• Parsons and Joseph added via the draft
• Kazee and Neale added via Free agency

That's nine of our expected starters that are either new or missed more than 1/4 of the season with D-Law and Jaylon really the only two starters to show consistency. IMO there's several new addition on the D-line (Odigizuwa, Golston, Bohanna, Urban, Watkins, Basham) that might not make us heaps better but at least will add consistency in depth that's been lacking. Really I'm looking more to Diggs and Gallimore to be guys that step up rather than the rookies (as you'd expect from second year players). That is with the exception of Parsons who I personally expect Parsons to have a Zeke like impact as a rookie. Joseph I'm not so sure is as NFL ready as some suggest, IMO he could take some time to be a regular at outside corner.

And yes, Mike Nolan is a trash DC so we should see insta-improvement from hiring Dan Quinn alone.

 

[cowboyblue22]

lol fans have been saying that for over thirty years they are what they are under the current front office average at best when it comes to the playoffs

 

[LACowboysFan1]

Guess that depends on what you mean by contention. To me that means you get in the playoffs. After that nobody knows. Doubt the Giants thought they'd beat the Pats who rolled into the SB on an 18-0 run in the season.
Raiders won the first SB as a wild card due to having lots of early injuries, but late in the year they got on a roll.
Who thought an FCS quarterback would be the winning quarterback in a SB?
Who thought Marino would get to only one SB, and lose that one to boot?

It's too early to make predictions anyway...

 

[Aerolithe_Lion]

There's just too many unknowns at this stage. On offense we were middle of the road with some fairly significant injuries.

Offense:
Dak: We lost him after 4 games but he was gearing up for a record breaking season
Zeke: Was carrying a groin injury and was on a Cabo heavy diet in the off-season
Smith: Lost him after two games
Collins: Lost him in pre-season
Jarwin: Lost him 1st game

Plus I think Shultz, Ceedee and Biadasz progress as players after their first seasons as starters. That's a majority of our starters in our lineup, we added some depth and only really lost Looney so with a bit of luck in terms of injuries we could be anything on offense.


Defense:
You might as well throw out last years performance.

• Hill missed 11 games
• LVE missed 10 games
• Gregory missed 6 games
• Brown missed 6 games
• Diggs missed 4 games
• Jaylon was overused in coverage
• Parsons and Joseph added via the draft
• Kazee and Neale added via Free agency

That's nine of our expected starters that are either new or missed more than 1/4 of the season with D-Law and Jaylon really the only two starters to show consistency. IMO there's several new addition on the D-line (Odigizuwa, Golston, Bohanna, Urban, Watkins, Basham) that might not make us heaps better but at least will add consistency in depth that's been lacking. Really I'm looking more to Diggs and Gallimore to be guys that step up rather than the rookies (as you'd expect from second year players). That is with the exception of Parsons who I personally expect Parsons to have a Zeke like impact as a rookie. Joseph I'm not so sure is as NFL ready as some suggest, IMO he could take some time to be a regular at outside corner.

And yes, Mike Nolan is a trash DC so we should see insta-improvement from hiring Dan Quinn alone.

You also have to define what you want 'contention' to mean. I believe football is 50% under your control, and 50% up to the opponent you're facing. You could be the second greatest team in nfl history playing the super bowl, but if you have to play the greatest team in nfl history, then all it'll ever be recognized as is a team that wasn't good enough.

So if all 3 other teams in the NFCE flounder while you get a little bit better, that could mean an 11-12 win season, with half of those coming in the division, and you going 6-5 outside of the division. And if you draw a sub-standard team in the wild card round, suddenly you have another playoff win and a big season under your belt. Is that a contending year, or is that a mirage based on the division you played in?

 

[DFWJC]

I mean right now there are about 10-13 QBs better than Brady.

Not last year there wasn't. Not even on paper, let alone the main thing...off it.

If you include overall package of how literally (as they claimed last year) even the defense gets boosted by him, the number better than him is still small.

 

[Reid1boys]

Anything can happen, and while I think our defense will be better this season, realistically, I think we are 1-2 years away from serious contention at the top of the NFL.

The defense will be better this year, but most of our rookies will take at least a year in the system and training program to be as impactful as a contender needs. Add to that another offseason with another draft, along with a free agent period where we may be slightly more aggressive if we see the team with a real opportunity to succeed, and I believe the Cowboys can be NFC/NFL championship contenders.

I like this draft class, but if most of these players turn out to be backups at best, Dallas will be looking at more dark times. If both LBs meet expectations, if at least 1 CB becomes a starter, if 1-2 of our DL picks at least become part of the game day rotation, and if Urban, Kazee, and Neal play as well as they did with former teams, this season will be fun to watch, and Jerry will be looking to extend a couple of 1-year contracts.

If we go 9-7, maybe even 10-5 it wont be fun on this board. It will be one week of moaning after another. Wins will still be dissected because they werent dominant enough.

 

[JJHLH1]

Wins are not a QB stat. The Bucs beat the Saints, Packers and Chiefs. The reason the Buccs did are because they are the most loaded roster in the NFL and everyone knew it.
.

Wins actually are a QB stat.

And respectfully, the Bucs were underdogs in their playoff games against the Saints, Packers, and Chiefs so everyone did not know at the time they had the most loaded roster.

Brady came in and turned that entire organization around. Even Bruce Aryans acknowledged it. There is a reason why so many players want to be with him. Brady deserves the Super Bowl MVP that he won.

 

[jrumann59]

I could list two or three counterpoints to each of yours and we could go on and on but instead of going down that rabbit hole I'll say just wait. Defense will have an attitude this year.

Wait I forget is SAS on the Like List this week because he is praising the Cowboys Draft, sorry hard to keep track either he is a blow hard or he is a sports news God. Micah Parsons is an athlete but how is that athletic ability when he has opposing OL depositing his DL in his lap going to help him. One could argue the DL is probably better top to bottom talent wise between the "starters" and the rotational guys. I understand the hate the LVE and Swipe Smith but even Ray Lewis couldnt handle 600LBS of man coming at him.

 

[Aviano90]

We've been a year away for the past 15 seasons.

 

[Creeper]

Define serious contention. Optimism is high with every team after the draft and before the season starts. No doubt we will hear during training cam some guy has really come on and looks really good this year. No doubt he lost weight, looks quicker, and appears to have really focused unlike in previous years. Then the games start and everyone is the same they were last year. Shocking.

The first thing we need to do when evaluating Dallas is cut through all the hype we hear and read about the Cowboys players. They are 50% to 75% as good as the Cowboys hype them up to be. With that in mind, you get a different expectation.

The Cowboys are not a year away from serious contention. The reason is every year they lose players to free agency and they replace them with rookies. It is unreasonable to expect rookies to carry this team to contention. I like Kelvin Joseph as a player, but to expect him to step into the NFL and be a good CB right away is unrealistic. The same goes for all the other draft choices. IMO, the Cowboys have some of the same problems on defense they had before this offseason. All the free agent signings and draft did not change that. The biggest improvement they made was replacing Xavier Woods with someone who wants to play football every down.

 

[triplets_93]

Anything can happen, and while I think our defense will be better this season, realistically, I think we are 1-2 years away from serious contention at the top of the NFL.

Agreed. We don't have Bill Belichick, so it will take longer under the soft McCarthy regime to get the pieces we have in place to function together well and consistently, at the top level.

 

[Future]

They're a contender in the NFC right now.

I've said it and I'll keep saying it - there aren't 3 teams in the conference with more talent.

 

[morasp]

Wait I forget is SAS on the Like List this week because he is praising the Cowboys Draft, sorry hard to keep track either he is a blow hard or he is a sports news God. Micah Parsons is an athlete but how is that athletic ability when he has opposing OL depositing his DL in his lap going to help him. One could argue the DL is probably better top to bottom talent wise between the "starters" and the rotational guys. I understand the hate the LVE and Swipe Smith but even Ray Lewis couldnt handle 600LBS of man coming at him.

Have fun in the rabbit hole. It's a long time until the season opener.

 

[Praxit]

We are at least one owner away from serious contention.

..lol..

 

[Steve007]

Just b/c you pay a QB like he's better than Rodgers and Brady, doesn't make him better than Rodgers or Brady. Dak is the limiting factor on this teams ceiling.

Yes, and in 2 years he will be really expensive. For the kind of money he is getting he needs to play like Rogers and Brady.

 

[ICP]

We are at least one owner away from serious contention.