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

Diehardblues

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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.
Reloading is perhaps more fitting to our situation. And it’s yet to be seen if we have duds or suitable replacements . We could possibly have increased our talent pool but again too early to say.
 

CowboyRoy

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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.

Roster was lopsided and poorly constructed. We also had some top heavy contracts that needed to be moved on from. This was an offseason correcting that, maintaining the talent we currently had and replacing those veterans with young talent.

In every way I think the Cowboys did a great job. Especially starting out 25 million in the hole on the salary cap. The Cowboys have now cleared out the cap, while maintaining the quality of talent they had as well as continuing to get younger. Quite a task. Now whether that translates to a better season who knows. But it gives the Cowboys the window they need starting in 2023. A window they never would have had by keeping these aging veterans that were overpaid. Zeke is next.

Now if the Cowboys continue to go bargain hunting in FA, it wont matter. But if they actually have a plan to go for it over the next few years starting in 2023 then they have made it possible to do that with what they did THIS offseason.
 

CowboyRoy

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Same roster will end the 2022 season with the same 2021 results. One and done AT BEST!

Thats about what I see at this point. If we continue to hit in the draft and some of these picks continue to develop, we give ourselves a nice window starting in 2023 with the cap cleared.

Takes more then a few years to clear out the Garrett team and construct a contender both with talent and the cap.
 

gimmesix

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I don't think anyone thought we blew it up. The concern was/is that we didn't improve it, at least not through free agency, when we already weren't as good as the teams we need to beat to win a title.

We removed Cooper and Wilson at WR and added Washington and Tolbert. Anyone see that as an improvement?

We lost Gregory and added Fowler and Williams. No guaranteed improvement there.

We lost Collins and Williams and added Tyler Smith. Maybe an improvement at guard, but who knows at RT.

Other players who contributed to last year's defensive improvement are gone (Kazee, Urban, Neal) and we didn't really add FA replacements for them, depending instead primarily on players we had on the roster. Doesn't mean those players won't be improvements, just that there aren't any guarantees and in all probability, some will fail to come through for us.

A team that finished first in its division isn't going to blow up its roster, but a good GM is going to strategically add to it to try to improve enough to win more than just the division.
 

CowboyRoy

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I don't think anyone thought we blew it up. The concern was/is that we didn't improve it, at least not through free agency, when we already weren't as good as the teams we need to beat to win a title.

We removed Cooper and Wilson at WR and added Washington and Tolbert. Anyone see that as an improvement?

We lost Gregory and added Fowler and Williams. No guaranteed improvement there.

We lost Collins and Williams and added Tyler Smith. Maybe an improvement at guard, but who knows at RT.

Other players who contributed to last year's defensive improvement are gone (Kazee, Urban, Neal) and we didn't really add FA replacements for them, depending instead primarily on players we had on the roster. Doesn't mean those players won't be improvements, just that there aren't any guarantees and in all probability, some will fail to come through for us.

A team that finished first in its division isn't going to blow up its roster, but a good GM is going to strategically add to it to try to improve enough to win more than just the division.

If winning a title was as easy as signing a few high priced FA's everyone would be doing it.

This team is better salary cap wise, its younger, and it has as much talent as it had before. Its just younger talent. Better prepared going into the future over the next 3 to 4 years. Now will that translate into instantly being better? That depends on how quickly the young guys develop.

Sometimes you have to take a step sideways to take 2 steps forward.
 

zrinkill

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Who thought they blew up their roster? The problem is they did not try and get better in free agency ...... but I think they improved their D in the draft..
 

CowboyRoy

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I don't think anyone thought we blew it up. The concern was/is that we didn't improve it, at least not through free agency, when we already weren't as good as the teams we need to beat to win a title.

We removed Cooper and Wilson at WR and added Washington and Tolbert. Anyone see that as an improvement?

We lost Gregory and added Fowler and Williams. No guaranteed improvement there.

We lost Collins and Williams and added Tyler Smith. Maybe an improvement at guard, but who knows at RT.

Other players who contributed to last year's defensive improvement are gone (Kazee, Urban, Neal) and we didn't really add FA replacements for them, depending instead primarily on players we had on the roster. Doesn't mean those players won't be improvements, just that there aren't any guarantees and in all probability, some will fail to come through for us.

A team that finished first in its division isn't going to blow up its roster, but a good GM is going to strategically add to it to try to improve enough to win more than just the division.

I honestly dont think Urban, Kneal, Kazee did much of anything to be honest. Better then what we had possibly, but nothing great. I like a healthy Hooker better than Kazee. We replace Kneal with Cox. Urban got injured early.

Kearse was a guy that made us a lot better and we retained him. Think of all the 2nd year players that are going to be better this year.

And no a good GM is going to rebuild a team in his image while still remaining competitive. This roster needed a lot of work. With the cap and in reconstruction.
 

kskboys

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If winning a title was as easy as signing a few high priced FA's everyone would be doing it.

This team is better salary cap wise, its younger, and it has as much talent as it had before. Its just younger talent. Better prepared going into the future over the next 3 to 4 years. Now will that translate into instantly being better? That depends on how quickly the young guys develop.

Sometimes you have to take a step sideways to take 2 steps forward.
Not to mention, we have to pay Diggs and Lamb next off, so we need some rollover money.
 

CowboyRoy

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Who thought they blew up their roster? The problem is they did not try and get better in free agency ...... but I think they improved their D in the draft..

This team is not a player or two away from a SB. Not the year for that. Next year possibly.
 

CowboyRoy

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Not to mention, we have to pay Diggs and Lamb next off, so we need some rollover money.

This is Lambs 3rd season. We have him locked up through 5.

Diggs this is his 3rd. We have him through 4. And we both know Jerry will wait until the bitter end on both. Like an idiot.

I think they want the rollover to pay Dak a big portion next season. AT some point he has to cost us 40 million.
 

zrinkill

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This team is not a player or two away from a SB. Not the year for that. Next year possibly.

Its been like that since Romo was still QB ......... next year, next year, next year ...... I have been saying next year about this team since I was 24 years old ........ and here I am 50 and pissed off at our POS owners for wasting the last 27 years and getting richer and richer while doing it.
 

CowboyRoy

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Its been like that since Romo was still QB ......... next year, next year, next year ...... I have been saying next year about this team since I was 24 years old ........ and here I am 50 and pissed off at our POS owners for wasting the last 27 years and getting richer and richer while doing it.

Yah I get it bro. Me too. But its NEVER been next year to be honest. This team has NEVER been good enough. Maybe that one year with Wade and that one year with Garrett, but no chance that was happening with the coaching.
 

zrinkill

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Yah I get it bro. Me too. But its NEVER been next year to be honest. This team has NEVER been good enough. Maybe that one year with Wade and that one year with Garrett, but no chance that was happening with the coaching.

Yea I know ....... I'm gonna go do something else before I start spewing anti Jones venom that does no good anyway ...... ... see ya.
 

CowboyRoy

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Yea I know ....... I'm gonna go do something else before I start spewing anti Jones venom that does no good anyway ...... ... see ya.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I actually think they are building the team the right way at the moment. They finally have quality coaching that is giving him good advice. They are clearing out the cap and setting up the roster with young talent for a nice run coming up.

But yah, that only works if at some point in the next year or two they use FA to get us over the hump.
 

gimmesix

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If winning a title was as easy as signing a few high priced FA's everyone would be doing it.

This team is better salary cap wise, its younger, and it has as much talent as it had before. Its just younger talent. Better prepared going into the future over the next 3 to 4 years. Now will that translate into instantly being better? That depends on how quickly the young guys develop.

Sometimes you have to take a step sideways to take 2 steps forward.

Teams get instantly better every year. There was absolutely no reason for us to take a step sideways when a few moves might could have put us in position to win a title now. Other teams have shown that method works. No team has shown that the method we are using works.

You need to build with young talent and supplement with a few high-quality players. Looking ahead three or four years only means that some of the talent you have now may be gone. Tyron will probably be retired then, possibly Martin. Elliott and Pollard could both be gone. Lawrence might be too. Diggs and Lamb could price themselves out of Dallas when they become FAs. Three or four years from now, this could be a very different team.
 

gimmesix

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I honestly dont think Urban, Kneal, Kazee did much of anything to be honest. Better then what we had possibly, but nothing great. I like a healthy Hooker better than Kazee. We replace Kneal with Cox. Urban got injured early.

Kearse was a guy that made us a lot better and we retained him. Think of all the 2nd year players that are going to be better this year.

And no a good GM is going to rebuild a team in his image while still remaining competitive. This roster needed a lot of work. With the cap and in reconstruction.

They contributed to our defensive success as starters. It's quite possible that players like Cox will contribute more, but it's hard to say. We're counting on a second-year player who showed promise but had little playing time. Meanwhile, the Rams, a team that already was better than us, adds a linebacker like Bobby Wagner. That's not exactly the way you catch a Super Bowl-winning team.

It's great that we retained Kearse. It's great that we draft well. It's sad that we don't better use free agency to improve our chances of competing now.
 
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