News: BTB: The Dallas Cowboys didn’t “blow up” the roster even if some observers think so

Diehardblues

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A better description would be cleaned up their Cap.
But I can see how some might want to spin as such .

We did release several starters. 3 on offense and 1 on defense . The effects are yet to be seen.

OL is probably biggest concern. But losing Cooper and Gregory does initially lessen our talent pool. But contracts were probably too much to endure moving forward. But to say there won’t be any effects is possibly short sighted . We shall see.
 

OmerV

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A better description would be cleaned up their Cap.
But I can see how some might want to spin as such .

We did release several starters. 3 on offense and 1 on defense . The effects are yet to be seen.

OL is probably biggest concern. But losing Cooper and Gregory does initially lessen our talent pool. But contracts were probably too much to endure moving forward. But to say there won’t be any effects is possibly short sighted . We shall see.
And people need to look realistically at the starters we let go.

Conner Williams: The large majority of fans wanted him out as a starter anyway
Amari Cooper: It was always expected that the salary cap wouldn't allow the Cowboys to keep Cooper, Gallup and Lamb together for the long haul.
La'el Collins: Maybe a mild surprise, but I think many people felt he didn't perform as well at RT as Terrence Steele did.
Randy Gregory: Almost 30 years old and only 16.5 sacks over the 7 seasons that have passed since he was drafted. is career has always proven to be more promise than production, and his frequent league suspensions ate up some of the prime years where he might have had a chance to at least partially live up to the promise.
 

Cowfan75

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We didn't blow up anything. We didn't want to DO anything. If Cooper hadn't slighted Dak, and if Gregory had taken the mountain of cash Jerry tried to give him, we'd have done nothing at all. Williams and Collins as scrub casualties were no-brainers, even for Jerry. Add a couple scrubs from the bargain bin, there's your offseason.
 

Oz-of-Cowboy-Country

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Maybe they are changing to a defense first mentality. The next off-season will definitely tell the truth about their thinking. Are they going defense first or are they just bring cheap?
 

DanA

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I don't mind who we got rid of. I just think we misread the WR market and still didn't spend in the right areas for free agency.
 

jazzcat22

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And people need to look realistically at the starters we let go.

Conner Williams: The large majority of fans wanted him out as a starter anyway
Amari Cooper: It was always expected that the salary cap wouldn't allow the Cowboys to keep Cooper, Gallup and Lamb together for the long haul.
La'el Collins: Maybe a mild surprise, but I think many people felt he didn't perform as well at RT as Terrence Steele did.
Randy Gregory: Almost 30 years old and only 16.5 sacks over the 7 seasons that have passed since he was drafted. is career has always proven to be more promise than production, and his frequent league suspensions ate up some of the prime years where he might have had a chance to at least partially live up to the promise.

Good points.
I will say look at games played vs. years played for Gregory, and he never had a full season.
However, never having that to get into a full season rhythm still does not say much.

I think Jerry got lucky and avoided a disaster. Not that Gregory will flop in Denver. But he would flop here to fans expectations.
I think we came out, or will come out ahead in all situations. Except we need to see how the Cooper deal works out.
 

OmerV

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Good points.
I will say look at games played vs. years played for Gregory, and he never had a full season.
However, never having that to get into a full season rhythm still does not say much.

I think Jerry got lucky and avoided a disaster. Not that Gregory will flop in Denver. But he would flop here to fans expectations.
I think we came out, or will come out ahead in all situations. Except we need to see how the Cooper deal works out.
I agree on Cooper. Especially with Gallup expected to miss maybe the first 6 games or so, the WR position is a bit up in the air. I was a little surprised they didn't make a deal with Cedrick Wilson, but maybe that was his choice more than theirs.
 

fivetwos

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Every one of the players they let go was either not performing up to their salary or was not worth what another team gave them.

Are those moves all part of some actual plan? That I don't know, and have my doubts....but it certainly can be spun as a positive moving ahead.

We will see exactly how much Cooper is missed when the games start, but the only glaring mistake I saw was paying Armstrong 2/13. He has done absolutely nothing to command that kind of money, other than being drafted by Dallas (i.e. born into the family).
 

Diehardblues

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And people need to look realistically at the starters we let go.

Conner Williams: The large majority of fans wanted him out as a starter anyway
Amari Cooper: It was always expected that the salary cap wouldn't allow the Cowboys to keep Cooper, Gallup and Lamb together for the long haul.
La'el Collins: Maybe a mild surprise, but I think many people felt he didn't perform as well at RT as Terrence Steele did.
Randy Gregory: Almost 30 years old and only 16.5 sacks over the 7 seasons that have passed since he was drafted. is career has always proven to be more promise than production, and his frequent league suspensions ate up some of the prime years where he might have had a chance to at least partially live up to the promise.
All reasonable arguments . Bottomline is still ; have we adequately replaced their talent . And if not what could the effects be. No one knows yet.

But if there are some effects this year reducing our talent pool will be a place to begin or at least provide some of the discussion and contributing factors especially if those areas on the team under perform.
 

OmerV

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All reasonable arguments . Bottomline is still ; have we adequately replaced their talent . And if not what could the effects be. No one knows yet.

But if there are some effects this year reducing our talent pool will be a place to begin or at least provide some of the discussion and contributing factors especially if those areas on the team under perform.
Of course every team goes into every year with some question marks, but that doesn't necessarily mean it blew up the roster or is in rebuilding mode.

Obviously if a team signs an Aaron Donald or a star player with verifiable history it can feel confident it has adequately replaced that position, or upgraded it, but teams also frequently rely on younger players, draft picks, less proven free agents or some combination of these things to fill holes.

Other than Cooper I just don't see replacing any of these players as a daunting task. They just weren't playing at a level that suggests they can't be adequately replaced. The Cowboys took steps to replace all these guys with reasonable, or even somewhat exciting options, although admittedly the options at WR are unlikely to result in the team not experiencing any dropoff from Cooper.
 

Carson

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And people need to look realistically at the starters we let go.

Conner Williams: The large majority of fans wanted him out as a starter anyway
Amari Cooper: It was always expected that the salary cap wouldn't allow the Cowboys to keep Cooper, Gallup and Lamb together for the long haul.
La'el Collins: Maybe a mild surprise, but I think many people felt he didn't perform as well at RT as Terrence Steele did.
Randy Gregory: Almost 30 years old and only 16.5 sacks over the 7 seasons that have passed since he was drafted. is career has always proven to be more promise than production, and his frequent league suspensions ate up some of the prime years where he might have had a chance to at least partially live up to the promise.
Wait.

We didn’t like a prime Staubach? Irvin? Larry Allen and Charles Haley?

Good post. I agree completely
 

kevm3

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The problem is they released all of that talent and didn't sign in free agency. How are we a better team this year after losing our #1 WR and one of our best rushers and two o linemen? Teams like Philly actually were aggressive in getting better while we stayed complacent and put the entire burden on rookies.
 
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