Shaking up the D line & Changes at LB

[haleyrules]

Gotta love the guys that say you cant buy a defense just because the Cowboys cant and arent doing it. Early, but Giants early returns are promising.

Denver also. But the Cowboys seem snakebit when it comes to high end FA's in recent years and as a strategy for any team it is questionable at best. If club is one player away from a SB...OK. But as a plan to get better...drafting is the only proven way to go.

 

[Mr Cowboy]

This front office will never put together a complete team that can truly compete for a ring. Every year they go with scrubs at one position group or another. From not needing great OL because Romo makes them better to not needing a great defense because Romo will keep the defense off the field. Well Romo is injured again, and the defense is terrible. I've said many times, Marinelli is no miracle worker, he needs talent to field a top tier defense. He's never taken cart pushers from Wal Mart to a championship caliber defense. Marinelli needs top tier talent to field a top lever defense.

These clowns they brought in in FA, couldn't even start on their old teams, yet they're suppose to be stars here, because of Marinelli? That is just dumb, and people bought into it! Jerry can sell ice to eskimos, and BS to fans. At the end of the season he said his priorities were fixing the DL and the back up QB. He brought in these FA's that would be lucky to be on a top defense's practice squad, and Kellen Moore! And fans were applauding the moves Jerry made, being so financially sound. What a joke!

 

[haleyrules]

If we are assuming Smith gets healthy and returns to his college form, I might consider moving Lee back to MLB and Smith at WLB.

I know, I know, Lee struggles with healthy at the MLB position but I think if Smith is really healthy and as good as the Cowboys think, then he's a perfect, dominant WLB type......... he can cover, blitz, operate in space, etc.

Smith gets a lot of good ink. He was a great college kid with two legs. He may never have been a great Pro and with a lost year and a serious injury he should be considered a long shot. If he can be good it would be a bonus for Dallas.

 

[Sydla]

Smith gets a lot of good ink. He was a great college kid with two legs. He may never have been a great Pro and with a lost year and a serious injury he should be considered a long shot. If he can be good it would be a bonus for Dallas.

Hence the word "if" in my post.

 

[haleyrules]

This front office will never put together a complete team that can truly compete for a ring. Every year they go with scrubs at one position group or another. From not needing great OL because Romo makes them better to not needing a great defense because Romo will keep the defense off the field. Well Romo is injured again, and the defense is terrible. I've said many times, Marinelli is no miracle worker, he needs talent to field a top tier defense. He's never taken cart pushers from Wal Mart to a championship caliber defense. Marinelli needs top tier talent to field a top lever defense.

These clowns they brought in in FA, couldn't even start on their old teams, yet they're suppose to be stars here, because of Marinelli? That is just dumb, and people bought into it! Jerry can sell ice to eskimos, and BS to fans. At the end of the season he said his priorities were fixing the DL and the back up QB. He brought in these FA's that would be lucky to be on a top defense's practice squad, and Kellen Moore! And fans were applauding the moves Jerry made, being so financially sound. What a joke!

It seems to me tha the FO has a long history of over evaluating the clubs core players and believing the team is better than it really is.

 

[Stash]

I read an article that went over teams that had pushed the most money into the future on the salary cap. And it was the Cowboys by a long long margin. Basically saying that they have mismanaged the cap more than any other team by a long shot. To some dagree mortgaging our future.

I wasn't aware of that. If you can find it, I'd appreciate a link to it before I'd believe that was the case.

 

[Dalmations202]

I still think eventually McClain is a 3T and would be a very good 3T. I just don't think they have a better 1T than him right now. At least they are making changes which should help the run defense and keep the pass rushmen on the sideline till passing situations.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

This front office will never put together a complete team that can truly compete for a ring. Every year they go with scrubs at one position group or another. From not needing great OL because Romo makes them better to not needing a great defense because Romo will keep the defense off the field. Well Romo is injured again, and the defense is terrible. I've said many times, Marinelli is no miracle worker, he needs talent to field a top tier defense. He's never taken cart pushers from Wal Mart to a championship caliber defense. Marinelli needs top tier talent to field a top lever defense.

These clowns they brought in in FA, couldn't even start on their old teams, yet they're suppose to be stars here, because of Marinelli? That is just dumb, and people bought into it! Jerry can sell ice to eskimos, and BS to fans. At the end of the season he said his priorities were fixing the DL and the back up QB. He brought in these FA's that would be lucky to be on a top defense's practice squad, and Kellen Moore! And fans were applauding the moves Jerry made, being so financially sound. What a joke!

The problem is the "math" makes it virtually impossible for any team to have a "complete" team from front to back. J

Those days are long gone. Free agency & the cap make it so.

You've got a 53 man roster plus the practice squad spots and you've got 7 draft picks to fill those spots and after the first 3 rounds (almost 100 players) the talent thins considerably so the chances of finding a better than average NFL player drops precipitately.

Some units on your team are going to be band-aided together... There's no getting around it. You wanna rebuilt the Cowboys offensive line and skill positions then you're going to pay a price by neglecting the defensive side of the ball to a certain extent.

You want a marquee QB, they you're going to devote 15% of your cap space for him? You want a marquee WR, then you're going to devote another 10% of your cap space for him.

Again, the math doesn't allow for "complete" teams.

And that's why coaching is so darned important.

Most of us watched the Patriots dismantle the Texans last night with a roster, which I doubt isn't even one of the top-8 in the NFL in terms of overall talent.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

It seems to me tha the FO has a long history of over evaluating the clubs core players and believing the team is better than it really is.

Oh no question they've been guilty of that... Or I should say Jerry has.

 

[DBOY3141]

This front office will never put together a complete team that can truly compete for a ring. Every year they go with scrubs at one position group or another. From not needing great OL because Romo makes them better to not needing a great defense because Romo will keep the defense off the field. Well Romo is injured again, and the defense is terrible. I've said many times, Marinelli is no miracle worker, he needs talent to field a top tier defense. He's never taken cart pushers from Wal Mart to a championship caliber defense. Marinelli needs top tier talent to field a top lever defense.

These clowns they brought in in FA, couldn't even start on their old teams, yet they're suppose to be stars here, because of Marinelli? That is just dumb, and people bought into it! Jerry can sell ice to eskimos, and BS to fans. At the end of the season he said his priorities were fixing the DL and the back up QB. He brought in these FA's that would be lucky to be on a top defense's practice squad, and Kellen Moore! And fans were applauding the moves Jerry made, being so financially sound. What a joke!

Good post. Any one paying attention the last 20 years, should see this. It's not changing as long as JJ/Stephen are in charge. They are not football guys. JJ as the GM spends a great deal of time, trying to lure other venues into the Stadium (boxing, college football). What other GM does that? Stephen....if his daddy didn't own the team, he would have no job in an NFL front office. But hey, they are worth 4 billion dollars...yipee.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

I wasn't aware of that. If you can find it, I'd appreciate a link to it before I'd believe that was the case.

You go to one of the salary cap sites and take a look at what the Cowboys have committed in salary cap for the 2017 season and it's the most or 2nd most in the NFL.

So yeah that's a sign that things have been "pushed" forward a lot.

And of course that starts the argument of "What's the best way of effectively managing the cap– max it out every year or have a bundle of cap space?" We've had that argument on here more times than I could count and each side makes convincing points.

Quite frankly any team with a star QB and a star WR, past their first contract has some heavy contract commitments. On top of that you have the young'ins on the offensive line who are also getting big money contracts now.

 

[Mr Cowboy]

The problem is the "math" makes it virtually impossible for any team to have a "complete" team from front to back. J

Those days are long gone. Free agency & the cap make it so.

You've got a 53 man roster plus the practice squad spots and you've got 7 draft picks to fill those spots and after the first 3 rounds (almost 100 players) the talent thins considerably so the chances of finding a better than average NFL player drops precipitately.

Some units on your team are going to be band-aided together... There's no getting around it. You wanna rebuilt the Cowboys offensive line and skill positions then you're going to pay a price by neglecting the defensive side of the ball to a certain extent.

You want a marquee QB, they you're going to devote 15% of your cap space for him? You want a marquee WR, then you're going to devote another 10% of your cap space for him.

Again, the math doesn't allow for "complete" teams.

And that's why coaching is so darned important.

Most of us watched the Patriots dismantle the Texans last night with a roster, which I doubt isn't even one of the top-8 in the NFL in terms of overall talent.

I understand this, but you have to have at least a top tier player at every level of the team. Crawford is being paid like one, but is not one, Lee no longer is one, and the secondary....well more than one is paid like top tier talent, and they are not. It is important to maximize your draft as well. You can't keep using high round picks on players who have a good probability to never play, and not to use premium picks to move up in the draft. Having bottom of the barrel players is not the answer for a good defense, and counting on Romo to be healthy and keep the defense fresh is also not the answer.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

I understand this, but you have to have at least a top tier player at every level of the team. Crawford is being paid like one, but is not one, Lee no longer is one, and the secondary....well more than one is paid like top tier talent, and they are not. It is important to maximize your draft as well. You can't keep using high round picks on players who have a good probability to never play, and not to use premium picks to move up in the draft. Having bottom of the barrel players is not the answer for a good defense, and counting on Romo to be healthy and keep the defense fresh is also not the answer.

I'm sure every NFL team would love to have a "Top Tier" player at every position, but again math and opportunity offer differing results. For what 3 years in a row the Cowboys had an opportunity to take a top flight offensive lineman at the beginning of the draft– And took it, rightly or wrongly.

Hey you're frustrated. I get that, but reality is reality.

 

[NextGenBoys]

I like this. Love me some Hitch as a former Hawk, but he's just not getting the job done at Mike.

 

[Plankton]

If we are assuming Smith gets healthy and returns to his college form, I might consider moving Lee back to MLB and Smith at WLB.

I know, I know, Lee struggles with healthy at the MLB position but I think if Smith is really healthy and as good as the Cowboys think, then he's a perfect, dominant WLB type......... he can cover, blitz, operate in space, etc.

I would also look to draft a SLB. Nzeocha is a relatively inexperienced 26 year old LB coming off of a couple of lower leg injuries. He is far from a sure thing.

 

[CowboyRoy]

Denver also. But the Cowboys seem snakebit when it comes to high end FA's in recent years and as a strategy for any team it is questionable at best. If club is one player away from a SB...OK. But as a plan to get better...drafting is the only proven way to go.

There is no way the Cowboys are going to maintain a contender using only the draft to get what they need. Way too many holes in this defense. We cant just stop doing high priced free agents because Jerry has whiffed to many times in the past. He has to get better at doing it. I would suspect that McClay would help in that regard. FA should be much easier than the draft to get it right.

 

[CowboyRoy]

I wasn't aware of that. If you can find it, I'd appreciate a link to it before I'd believe that was the case.

Sorry, I am having a hard time finding it.

 

[Sydla]

I would also look to draft a SLB. Nzeocha is a relatively inexperienced 26 year old LB coming off of a couple of lower leg injuries. He is far from a sure thing.

But given the increased usage of nickel alignments, I don't think you need to invest a high pick in a SLB. You can probably add a vet in FA to fill that role.

 

[visionary]

I like it, but am suprised Thorton cant break into the starting line up.

They're that good

 

[Plankton]

But given the increased usage of nickel alignments, I don't think you need to invest a high pick in a SLB. You can probably add a vet in FA to fill that role.

I'd want a SLB that can slot in as a replacement for Lee or Smith if they end up injured during a season. If the front four continues to be a weakness, I'd like to at least have the LB corps be worse, like it is this year.