Comparing 2025 FA moves and trades to 2026 moves so far

[Bobhaze]

Money is always a factor in every move/decision in the NFL. It's fine for a fan to ignore it, but the reality is that it's always important.

For instance, if we hadn't overpaid Diggs/Bland/Osa/Hooker, we could've made much better pickups in FA. Money badly spend. And for those who scream hindsight, not true at all in this case, I didn't think we should've paid any of those guys.

I don’t think most fans realize how important talent evaluation is in being wise with salary cap numbers.

Poor talent evaluation is how you end up making big contract commitments with guys like Jalen Smith, a clearly declining Zeke Elliott and many other players they over-valued because they drafted them.

 

[Bobhaze]

His point was based on first signing one of those LBers. That or something similar is a huge key and must if we want to be better. Also including the first rounders. I'll use guys I like in the draft, but don't get hung up on the names I pick, feel free to use whatever draft picks you like:

Q, Clark, Peter Woods at #20
EZ, Jordyn Brooks, Overshown, Gary
Bland, Thompson, Hooker/Locke, Delane #12

You don't think that is or at least has a chance to be "pretty solid"? We are short a top pass rusher and that would be a problem, but you can assume that at pick #12 instead. If one of the Edges falls to 12 instead we can go that route and then CB at #20. We could always still find a DE at some point.

Yes there is a decent chance our defense will be better. My question had more to do with why should any Cowboys fan be confident that we will be better?

 

[jazzcat22]

Jazz, quality of FA historically has a direct correlation to money spent.

Does spending money on Free agents guarantee quality? No, certainly not. But the likelihood of success is much greater than with a bunch of low cost one year guys.

It’s like buying a $30k used car or a $10k used car. Which one is more likely to be better?

We’ve seen the low budget FA approach for years and what it has brought us. I guess we can “hope” this year is better?

I still think what they done this year is far better. I don't care if they spent more or less. Again what top FA would have they signed that is the difference maker?
Yes a LB, but they can't control that as fans think they can.

Yes fans get frustrated and vent, especially the time of the year. Do fans want them to do another Brandon Carr deal (yes a pun on your car analogy).

 

[gtb1943]

I still think what they done this year is far better. I don't care if they spent more or less. Again what top FA would have they signed that is the difference maker?
Yes a LB, but they can't control that as fans think they can.

Yes fans get frustrated and vent, especially the time of the year. Do fans want them to do another Brandon Carr deal (yes a pun on your car analogy).

far better then last year is damning with faint praise

 

[jazzcat22]

Yes there is a decent chance our defense will be better. My question had more to do with why should any Cowboys fan be confident that we will be better?

Depends on the fan.
Some as myself, I go into each year as a new adventure. Lets see, and hope (as we all do as fans) things will be better, even if a team come off a winning season, fans do this.
Some, many fans, will be in constant doom and gloom, as we seen. And that is their choice.

I do not use the past to get me down about it, unless a team is basically gutted. And you know they will be bad, such as going from 1988 3-13 to 1989 when they went 1-15, though Jimmy was here. Then there was nothing to get down about, we all knew it was a complete rebuild.

I feel they will be better, and am confident of that. However, I still need to see it on the field. But I am not hating on how the off season is going so far. Just because they did not spend super huge over the contract money.

 

[SlammedZero]

And Murray had been terrible for his entire career before that!!!! Murray was drafted in 2020. So, he'd been in the league 5 years before we traded for him. And had been consistently just a bad player. Soooooooooooo, why did we trade for him? Makes absolutely zero sense.

In 2025, Jerry was still employing his amazing strategy of acquiring highly drafted players who had been terrible. He is not doing that this year. That is the difference.

Jerry definitely loves his 1st-round busts Always thinks his organization will unlock what everyone else couldn’t. Never works.

 

[jazzcat22]

My only hope is that Schotty/Parker are being allowed to pick the groceries. I see the guys we picked up as useful players. Only move I really didn't understand was paying Bass 6 mil.

Yes, that is a head scratcher to me as well. Probably one of the things I disagree with so far.
But is a trade still in the works, if not before, but on draft day. Say a team did not get any OL they liked or wanted.
Or during TC as players get inured, and need an OL. Of course that does not help the cap for this year, but all for next year.

Who know, maybe the negotiate a long term contract with Bass to reduce his 2026 cap hit.

 

[gtb1943]

Depends on the fan.
Some as myself, I go into each year as a new adventure. Lets see, and hope (as we all do as fans) things will be better, even if a team come off a winning season, fans do this.
Some, many fans, will be in constant doom and gloom, as we seen. And that is their choice.

I do not use the past to get me down about it, unless a team is basically gutted. And you know they will be bad, such as going from 1988 3-13 to 1989 when they went 1-15, though Jimmy was here. Then there was nothing to get down about, we all knew it was a complete rebuild.

I feel they will be better, and am confident of that. However, I still need to see it on the field. But I am not hating on how the off season is going so far. Just because they did not spend super huge over the contract money.

no matter what you claim, in the end you always default to defending the FO

when you ignore thirty straight years and keep on drinking the kool aid without results to back it up, its just supporting the con man

 

[jazzcat22]

far better then last year is damning with faint praise

Swapping out the defensive coaching staff and scheme is much of this reasoning.
Still a wait and see approach as usual. But that is all we have for now
Better than the WE SUCK mantra. Which just get likes from the mob crowd.

 

[maryquality]

Forget the pick, what he did to our defense was something so destructive that only a double agent could have accomplished it. Check his bank transactions!

This made me laugh too much!!

 

[jazzcat22]

no matter what you claim, in the end you always default to defending the FO

when you ignore thirty straight years and keep on drinking the kool aid without results to back it up, its just supporting the con man

Again, how am I depending the FO. You are making stuff up again.
30 years mantra, I do not live in the past like that to fuel my dislike.
I DO NOT like the FO or their ways. But I DO NOT hate on them every time they take a breath.

How long will it take you to understand that. Oh, you will not or can not.

 

[zrinkill]

The people who are "so confident" they will be better because they got rid of Eberflus

Are the same ones who voted "so Happy" that they hired him last year.

Are you happy the Cowboys hired Matt Eberflus as the new Defensive Coordinator?

 

[kumizi]

The only difference is signing Thompson the safety to a multi year contract. For the Jones boys, 3yrs $36 million is apparently busting the budget.

 

[kumizi]

Money spent wise no, quality of players, yes.
Is that not what fans want?
I would think so.

How do you figure?

Last offseason they got Pickens, Javonte Williams, and Dante Fowler.

This offseason they got Thompson, Gary, and Cobie Durant.

 

[kskboys]

I don’t think most fans realize how important talent evaluation is in being wise with salary cap numbers.

Poor talent evaluation is how you end up making big contract commitments with guys like Jalen Smith, a clearly declining Zeke Elliott and many other players they over-valued because they drafted them.

Correct. And Jerry is absolutely the worst at evaluating CBs. He has consistently overpaid them.

Look at Diggs. I don't care how many picks you have, the primary objective of any CB is to stop the WR from catching the ball. In Diggs's career year w/ 11 picks, he was the worst CB in the NFL at allowing catches/yards. That means he is not doing his job, period. You absolutely do not pay a CB who allows the most yards of any CB in the NFL. It was blatantly stupid.

However, as most fans are, they are blinded by flash. Chicks dig the long ball.

 

[kskboys]

The only difference is signing Thompson the safety to a multi year contract. For the Jones boys, 3yrs $36 million is apparently busting the budget.

It is. Due to former horrific player evaluation, they severely limited what they can do in FA. Any time anyone feels the need to scream "JUST PAY HIM", think about this offseason where we were limited to budget acquisitions.

 

[kskboys]

The people who are "so confident" they will be better because they got rid of Eberflus

Are the same ones who voted "so Happy" that they hired him last year.

Are you happy the Cowboys hired Matt Eberflus as the new Defensive Coordinator?

Right? Eber was maybe 5% of the problem last season. What I cannot comprehend is how so many cannot get in their minds that our D was 28th the previous year, and that was w/ Parsons/Golston/Lewis/Kendricks/DLaw. That's 5 talented players we lost from a D that was already bad. Blaming it on Eber is one of the silliest short-sighted thingies I've ever seen on this site. And the sheeples are rushing to do it. Just strange. Is Eber any good? Hades, I don't know, but I guarantee there isn't a DC in the history of the NFL who would've done much better. Before the Q acquisition, I don't think there has ever been a more talent bereft D.

 

[kskboys]

Swapping out the defensive coaching staff and scheme is much of this reasoning.
Still a wait and see approach as usual. But that is all we have for now
Better than the WE SUCK mantra. Which just get likes from the mob crowd.

It shouldn't be. That's a lazy evaluation from whomever is doing it.

The difference is that we are picking up useful players. Last off we did not.

 

[Fla Cowpoke]

I still think what they done this year is far better. I don't care if they spent more or less. Again what top FA would have they signed that is the difference maker?
Yes a LB, but they can't control that as fans think they can.

Yes fans get frustrated and vent, especially the time of the year. Do fans want them to do another Brandon Carr deal (yes a pun on your car analogy).

The only difference makers available for the defense were Crosby and Hendrickson at edge or Lloyd at LB. And that is even debatable. How much of a difference maker was Dean for the Eagles? When he was healthy that is.

There were some good players. I honestly put Lloyd and Dean in that category. Maybe even Hendrickson....he was having a less than normal year before he suffered his injury. No guarantee the guy the Ravens paid a lot of money for will be the guy that averaged 15 sacks a year.

Additionally, it appears as if the coaching staff has a plan for what they are looking for and the players we have acquired fit that mold. We had a defense where the players in the secondary were much more suited for man coverage and we tried to force them to play zone. The decision to get rid of Parsons on the eve of the season was one that was hard to recover from. As the season went on we tried patching holes with Clowney and Wilson. Clowney was of course pretty effective but Wilson was a waste. Adding Williams at the deadline was too little too late.

The hope is that we are addressing the things we need to turn the defense around. A new staff with fresh ideas, players that actually fit the system, and an actual plan. The draft should bring us two more starters...most likely a LB and a CB. There are some excellent depth pieces that should be available in the draft as well. It would be nice to get a solid veteran LB by trade or with a post June release but that probably isn't happening.

 

[kskboys]

The only difference makers available for the defense were Crosby and Hendrickson at edge or Lloyd at LB. And that is even debatable. How much of a difference maker was Dean for the Eagles? When he was healthy that is.

There were some good players. I honestly put Lloyd and Dean in that category. Maybe even Hendrickson....he was having a less than normal year before he suffered his injury. No guarantee the guy the Ravens paid a lot of money for will be the guy that averaged 15 sacks a year.

Additionally, it appears as if the coaching staff has a plan for what they are looking for and the players we have acquired fit that mold. We had a defense where the players in the secondary were much more suited for man coverage and we tried to force them to play zone. The decision to get rid of Parsons on the eve of the season was one that was hard to recover from. As the season went on we tried patching holes with Clowney and Wilson. Clowney was of course pretty effective but Wilson was a waste. Adding Williams at the deadline was too little too late.

The hope is that we are addressing the things we need to turn the defense around. A new staff with fresh ideas, players that actually fit the system, and an actual plan. The draft should bring us two more starters...most likely a LB and a CB. There are some excellent depth pieces that should be available in the draft as well. It would be nice to get a solid veteran LB by trade or with a post June release but that probably isn't happening.

With no pass rush and no talent at DB, you have to play zone. Come on, people, you cannot man up w/ players who are poor at coverage and no pass rush. This is Football 101 stuff.