Are fans ready to accept the Micah trade devasted our defense?

[Diehardblues]

Would it make a difference if we moved up 5 spots? Honestly?

I’m not sure how we can argue that it wouldn’t be easier to build around a talent like Micah than without?

 

[Paperbag]

I understand if we were actually in an official rebuild mode and Micah wasn’t in our plans as we planned on trading him to highest bidder during Free Agency that could have actually been a strategic plan. But that’s not what happened. We had every intention on resigning. We just couldn’t get a deal done . But I’m not here to argue out as that’s been exhausted over last couple months.

This thread is about what the impacts of losing Micah has meant to this defense . The fact we lost him a week before the season had to be devasting to a DC and schemes with other losses on defense in FA and injuries.

Where was our pass rush going to come from. We also lost Lawrence as a Cap Casualty. Our top two edge rushers gone .

And with our 2 CB’s not a 100% recovering from injuries we were leaving our secondary very vulnerable without a pass rush.

WTH were we thinking. We had to know it could be a disaster .

I don’t think the defense would be much better if we still had Parsons
Sure Parsons would help the pass rush and command double Teams but we only rush 4 don’t really blitz , having Parsons wouldn’t fix the run game and wouldn’t help fix the inability of our DBs with zone

 

[Batman1980]

We are more than a man child pass rusher away. We need an influx of talent at all 3 levels of the defense.

 

[Cmac]

Truth be known.......the trade can't be evaluated until Jerry does something with the picks. Problem.....Jerry doing something with the picks.

 

[Batman1980]

Truth be known.......the trade can't be evaluated until Jerry does something with the picks. Problem.....Jerry doing something with the picks.

More OL and injured LBs!

 

[DickWhitman]

I understand if we were actually in an official rebuild mode and Micah wasn’t in our plans as we planned on trading him to highest bidder during Free Agency that could have actually been a strategic plan. But that’s not what happened. We had every intention on resigning. We just couldn’t get a deal done . But I’m not here to argue out as that’s been exhausted over last couple months.

This thread is about what the impacts of losing Micah has meant to this defense . The fact we lost him a week before the season had to be devasting to a DC and schemes with other losses on defense in FA and injuries.

Where was our pass rush going to come from. We also lost Lawrence as a Cap Casualty. Our top two edge rushers gone .

And with our 2 CB’s not a 100% recovering from injuries we were leaving our secondary very vulnerable without a pass rush.

WTH were we thinking. We had to know it could be a disaster .

Actually no. Parson would not have had that big of an impact. No way I pay that kind of money to an edge rusher. Salary cap suicide as the Packers will soon find out.

 

[Diehardblues]

I don’t think the defense would be much better if we still had Parsons
Sure Parsons would help the pass rush and command double Teams but we only rush 4 don’t really blitz , having Parsons wouldn’t fix the run game and wouldn’t help fix the inability of our DBs with zone

It’s speculative of course but even slightly better with our high powered offense might be enough to be more competitive especially once our CB’s fully recover and Overshown returns .

It’s not like we’ve been blown out every loss. A 3 and 4 point loss and 1 tie. Slightly better, Cowboys could have 3 or 4 wins.

My best hope with Micah was 8 or 9 wins which could have kept us in playoff hunt. Dak has never had a losing record when he’s healthy entire season.

 

[Diehardblues]

Actually no. Parson would not have had that big of an impact. No way I pay that kind of money to an edge rusher. Salary cap suicide as the Packers will soon find out.

Time will tell for us. It’s certainly possible contract negotiations failing and last minute bail out trade pans out for us. But most likely will take years to see.

On the other end the Packers will be able to measure it much sooner.

 

[Risen Star]

Devasted is a little harsh.

 

[Adreme]

This defense would have been bad with Micah as well. Its that bad.

Now that it is over I am glad they traded him. They have money to sign players and draft picks to help this defense going forward.

They had money to do all of this before. Anyone who says otherwise does not understand the cap. The Cowboys had the money to sign Micah and the top 3-4 free agents while keeping their draft class.

 

[4lifecowboy]

The defense wasn't any good last year with Micah. No regrets, rather be where we are at with the draft capital and cap space we have, than to be where we at with Micah's salary on the books.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

I've seen nobody pretend Micah wasn't out there for the GB debacle.

So why do people keep talking about how good things were with Micah?

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

One game.

One? You sure?

 

[Reality]

They had money to do all of this before. Anyone who says otherwise does not understand the cap. The Cowboys had the money to sign Micah and the top 3-4 free agents while keeping their draft class.

I'm quite familiar with how the salary cap works and yes, every team could sign every free agent and make it work provided their agent would be accomodating.

The problem is that at some point, it will become impossible to make it work because of too much dead money and back-loaded contracts.

If you only did that with one player, like your quarterback, then you would be fine. When you start doing it with multiple players it becomes a problem.

Beyond that though, I do not believe any defensive player, including Micah, is worth $40+ million per year in the salary cap era because defensive money needs to be spread around to field a solid team.

 

[EPL0c0]

This defense would have been bad with Micah as well. Its that bad.

Now that it is over I am glad they traded him. They have money to sign players and draft picks to help this defense going forward.

Defense wasn't exactly balling last year WITH Micah and DLaw
24th Total Defense
17th Pass Defense
29th Run Defense
23rd in Turnover Margin (-6)

Dan Quinn adjusted his scheme to fit the players.

Zimmer & Eberflus are forcing players to fit their system.

I don't think that works too well in the NFL anymore with how specialized players are developing/coming out of college now.

 

[LysleE]

I thought Micah was a great situational pass rusher making opposing offenses account for him; but was not a factor in run defense as teams would run to his side thus neutralizing him. Moreover, he is undersized for a DE; and in the latter part of last season he was dinged up and took himself out of the games at critical junctures. With that said, Micah did serve to cover a lot of warts in the pass defense because he was able to exert pressure on the QB in those passing situations.
I understand why Jerry traded him; I wouldn’t pay him $48 MM a year either, especially given how he was acting; but Jerry (and Eberflus) should have had some type of contingency plan in place in the event Micah left. But they didn’t.

 

[Verdict]

Yes, it was the right move to screw things up so much that one of the best players in the league couldn't make a difference.

I know you are being sarcastic, but this “logic” is about like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer. Why put yourself through this? If this team bothers you that bad why endure it?

 

[Adreme]

I'm quite familiar with how the salary cap works and yes, every team could sign every free agent and make it work provided their agent would be accomodating.

The problem is that at some point, it will become impossible to make it work because of too much dead money and back-loaded contracts.

If you only did that with one player, like your quarterback, then you would be fine. When you start doing it with multiple players it becomes a problem.

Beyond that though, I do not believe any defensive player, including Micah, is worth $40+ million per year in the salary cap era because defensive money needs to be spread around to field a solid team.

Yes at some point in 5 years you have to have a down year for one year or you have to make a decision but the Cowboys are nowhere near that point. There are maybe 5-6 teams legitimately pressed up against the cap and the Cowboys were not close to being one of them. They were so far from it that to say this gave them freedom is simply not realistic. There is not a single move, or series of moves, they can make now that they could not make before. Yes they can make those moves without having to make decisions in 5 years but they also will continue to not be making any deep playoff runs in the meantime.

Meanwhile a lot of the successful teams built their defense around one expensive player. See Chris Jones and Nick Bosa for current examples. Relatedly you can also use the latter as an example of how you can load up a roster with a lot of all pro talent and sign them.

 

[Kwyn]

...yep, we put 40 burger on his vaunted defense.

They give up 11 ppg less than we do.

We’re at 31 and they are at 20.

They’ve got a really good defense, one that is good enough make a playoff run.

Our defense has gone backwards.

I’m so tired of the entire storyline, especially the debates with fans who just repeated what Jerry said. The verdict was in before kickoff of the eagles game.

We have what we have. Unfortunately what we have sucks. But it’s ours, so let’s just own it and move on.

 

[youngjerryjones]

I would mostly agree, but I think the big issue is simply that this defense overall is not very good so no one person will be the missing link. Parsons wont take a bad defense to good, but I think he could help an average defense become good....especially at the rate this offense can score which is where Parsons has done his best work.

Parsons would at least have given me some hope as maybe Overshown can provide some plus value when he gets back, or maybe they can make a deadline deal for a rental DB to get the secondary on track. Without a true centerpiece on defense like a Parsons I'm skeptical that any move will really move the needle....especially if Eberflus is going to continue to be stubborn with his scheme.

The thing is I do believe the rumors are correct that the FO overvalued our own talent. This might be a blessing in disguise, where 1-person was making up for so much ineptitude on defense the whole philosophy has to change.

This might actually end up being better for us in the long-run. No Micah will lead to 3/4 picks being injected into the defense. We would have gotten lucky to sign Micah and pick in the bottom 20's for 1/2 of our own guys as replacements and not use FA at all. The only way this is a down-fall is if we can't bring in 1-2 more starters on D in FA next year. I'm ok with even 1 and the other 2/3 coming from the draft.

DE1 - FA

Draft - (Projected 12, 29, 44)
LB1
CB2
FS1/S1