Today in Contrarianism: What Y'all Whining About?

buybuydandavis

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I responded to BobHaze talking about filling holes on the roster, and once I started thinking about it, they're few and far between.

DE - up in the air, but we've had worse, and we'll live. We sign Lawrence, or we don't. If we do, we're fine. If we don't, we'll have a stack of money to spend on a couple of rushmen to go with Crawford, Taco, and Armstrong. In both cases, everyone's favorite stoner may still come back.
DT - Collins, Woods, Ross. Really not bad. Last year we were worried about having our 1T *starter*. Marinelli will probably squeeze another rushman out of a rock. I don't see a Pro Bowler, but I don't see Nick Hayden starting, or Ash as a backup.
LB - Are you kidding?
DB - Everybody is back. "Wah wah wah, I wanna better S." Woods should be better this year. Frazier too. Live it up. If you're good, maybe you'll get another in the draft.

QB - All back.
RB - Rod Smith gone. Will we survive?
TE - Witten for Swaim, with the JV squad all back a year older and year better.
WR - Cooper and Gallup should just be better this year with Dak. Our starters will be better. Williams, Austin, Beasley gone. In terms of actual use last year, it's only Beasley we're losing. They picked up the option on Hurns, but that's not guaranteed, so it's just a lottery ticket you don't throw away. Then Hurns, Wilson, Brown. Devin Smith was actually a 2nd round pick. We'll see. Don't sleep on Hurns. He wasn't getting targeted, but somewhere maybe around game 7 a switch flipped and he was very effective and productive per target. Maybe it will scale.
TE - Swaim out, Witten in, the JV squad a year older and better.
Oline - Fredbeard back. No one leaves. The deepest since the 90s. We've actually got *too many* decent interior guys. Looney, SuaFilo, Redmond, Ehinger. With Frederick back, and Williams at LG, it's first round talent across the board.

ST - We'll bring in a guy to compete with Maher. The search for a reliable kicker returns.

Let the joyous news be spread - LINEHAN IS GONE!

And this is all before we've really brought anyone in, or got our draft picks.
 

Flamma

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Joyous news? Unless this new OC is the next best thing since toilet paper I won't be expecting better results than last season. It's basically the same team with an upgraded OL and a vastly downgraded DL without Randy and Tank. As is, this team is not a championship team anymore than last year's team was. My car does 0-60 in 5.4 secs. It will do 0-60 in 5.4 secs when I'm wearing sunglasses too.
 

d_cowboy31

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I responded to BobHaze talking about filling holes on the roster, and once I started thinking about it, they're few and far between.

DE - up in the air, but we've had worse, and we'll live. We sign Lawrence, or we don't. If we do, we're fine. If we don't, we'll have a stack of money to spend on a couple of rushmen to go with Crawford, Taco, and Armstrong. In both cases, everyone's favorite stoner may still come back.
.

Who are you going to sign? By the time it is decided we are not going to sign Lawrence (if we don't) there is only going to be a bunch of garbage players left. If we don't sign Lawrence then our d-line is worst in the league again.
 

Cowboysheelsreds053

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Who are you going to sign? By the time it is decided we are not going to sign Lawrence (if we don't) there is only going to be a bunch of garbage players left. If we don't sign Lawrence then our d-line is worst in the league again.

This! Love how the pats always come up about not spending in FA. Well when Bill and gang come over and replace the Jones boys then someone wake me. Till then you can't copy anyone, always remembered in the NBA he will be the next Michael Jordan. Yea right!
 

nightrain

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I responded to BobHaze talking about filling holes on the roster, and once I started thinking about it, they're few and far between.

DE - up in the air, but we've had worse, and we'll live. We sign Lawrence, or we don't. If we do, we're fine. If we don't, we'll have a stack of money to spend on a couple of rushmen to go with Crawford, Taco, and Armstrong. In both cases, everyone's favorite stoner may still come back.
DT - Collins, Woods, Ross. Really not bad. Last year we were worried about having our 1T *starter*. Marinelli will probably squeeze another rushman out of a rock. I don't see a Pro Bowler, but I don't see Nick Hayden starting, or Ash as a backup.
LB - Are you kidding?
DB - Everybody is back. "Wah wah wah, I wanna better S." Woods should be better this year. Frazier too. Live it up. If you're good, maybe you'll get another in the draft.

QB - All back.
RB - Rod Smith gone. Will we survive?
TE - Witten for Swaim, with the JV squad all back a year older and year better.
WR - Cooper and Gallup should just be better this year with Dak. Our starters will be better. Williams, Austin, Beasley gone. In terms of actual use last year, it's only Beasley we're losing. They picked up the option on Hurns, but that's not guaranteed, so it's just a lottery ticket you don't throw away. Then Hurns, Wilson, Brown. Devin Smith was actually a 2nd round pick. We'll see. Don't sleep on Hurns. He wasn't getting targeted, but somewhere maybe around game 7 a switch flipped and he was very effective and productive per target. Maybe it will scale.
TE - Swaim out, Witten in, the JV squad a year older and better.
Oline - Fredbeard back. No one leaves. The deepest since the 90s. We've actually got *too many* decent interior guys. Looney, SuaFilo, Redmond, Ehinger. With Frederick back, and Williams at LG, it's first round talent across the board.

ST - We'll bring in a guy to compete with Maher. The search for a reliable kicker returns.

Let the joyous news be spread - LINEHAN IS GONE!

And this is all before we've really brought anyone in, or got our draft picks.
I'm buying in.
 

buybuydandavis

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Joyous news? Unless this new OC is the next best thing since toilet paper I won't be expecting better results than last season. It's basically the same team with an upgraded OL and a vastly downgraded DL without Randy and Tank. As is, this team is not a championship team anymore than last year's team was.

Linehan was the worst. Being better than the worst is not the toughest trick in town. And a lot of people have great things to say about Moore. I'm skeptical, but almost anyone would have done better than Linehan, and maybe all of Moore's fans are at least kind of right.

DE has issues, but we've got a long time to see what happens. We sign or we don't. I'm for don't, as 5 sacks in the last 14 games is not the kind of performance I want to mortgage the team for. Yeah, Lawrences replacement would be worse. But we'd have 17mil to spend to replace that lost value *across the team* relative to last year. 17mil buys a lot of improvement.

I'm more bummed about Randy. Much better value. But every time someone talks about him, the tone shifts more toward him coming back. (It's not there yet. It's *toward* him coming back and *away* from him never playing again.)

As for championship team, I think that's why there is so much doom and gloom. People have set the bar at a dream team destined for the SB. It's all madden dream team with price no object, mortgaging the future.

We're not getting that. I don't want to get that.

But we don't suffer from tremendous holes. And we have a lot of serious strengths. RB. Oline. LB. CBs. Those are a lot of strengths to have, when they don't have to cover for glaring weaknesses.

If your name isn't Brady, you're not starting the season destined for SBs. The Not Bradies gotta build value, *and* hope they get lucky on a few players. We got quite a few guys we can reasonably hope to get lucky with.

Dak. Taco. Lee. Randy. Armstrong. Collins. Gallup. Wilson. Awuzie. Xavier Woods.

And we do have some draft picks.

We're a very young team with a lot of young guys who could make a jump this year. Some of them will.

When you're not the Dynasty, the season gets great from the players who break out. Breaking out means you're not gonna know it up front, and it ain't guaranteed.

That's what the Cowboys have to offer this year. A solid, young team with lots of players. It's actually pretty good for a Cowboy fan this year.

2016 was supposed to be over before it began. But Zeke was as advertised. And Dak broke out, against all odds. Maybe we can hold off on the obit for the season this year until at least after the draft.
 

Rockport

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Joyous news? Unless this new OC is the next best thing since toilet paper I won't be expecting better results than last season. It's basically the same team with an upgraded OL and a vastly downgraded DL without Randy and Tank. As is, this team is not a championship team anymore than last year's team was. My car does 0-60 in 5.4 secs. It will do 0-60 in 5.4 secs when I'm wearing sunglasses too.
I guess you be blind if you can’t see the improvements being made not only this year, but in the past several years. But I know the real reason and that is you just like to whine about everything.
 

conner01

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Who are you going to sign? By the time it is decided we are not going to sign Lawrence (if we don't) there is only going to be a bunch of garbage players left. If we don't sign Lawrence then our d-line is worst in the league again.
Of the players signed and the money I only see one I wish we had done and that’s M Jackson
The Tank thing though you are right
If we wasn’t gonna sign tank that should have been decided before FA so you could replace him
In reality we need Tank and another DE
Without Tank we need two
Day one after the rams game I would have been on the Tank deal and by start of FA I would have paid or traded
 

Swanny

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I responded to BobHaze talking about filling holes on the roster, and once I started thinking about it, they're few and far between.

DE - up in the air, but we've had worse, and we'll live. We sign Lawrence, or we don't. If we do, we're fine. If we don't, we'll have a stack of money to spend on a couple of rushmen to go with Crawford, Taco, and Armstrong. In both cases, everyone's favorite stoner may still come back.
DT - Collins, Woods, Ross. Really not bad. Last year we were worried about having our 1T *starter*. Marinelli will probably squeeze another rushman out of a rock. I don't see a Pro Bowler, but I don't see Nick Hayden starting, or Ash as a backup.
LB - Are you kidding?
DB - Everybody is back. "Wah wah wah, I wanna better S." Woods should be better this year. Frazier too. Live it up. If you're good, maybe you'll get another in the draft.

QB - All back.
RB - Rod Smith gone. Will we survive?
TE - Witten for Swaim, with the JV squad all back a year older and year better.
WR - Cooper and Gallup should just be better this year with Dak. Our starters will be better. Williams, Austin, Beasley gone. In terms of actual use last year, it's only Beasley we're losing. They picked up the option on Hurns, but that's not guaranteed, so it's just a lottery ticket you don't throw away. Then Hurns, Wilson, Brown. Devin Smith was actually a 2nd round pick. We'll see. Don't sleep on Hurns. He wasn't getting targeted, but somewhere maybe around game 7 a switch flipped and he was very effective and productive per target. Maybe it will scale.
TE - Swaim out, Witten in, the JV squad a year older and better.
Oline - Fredbeard back. No one leaves. The deepest since the 90s. We've actually got *too many* decent interior guys. Looney, SuaFilo, Redmond, Ehinger. With Frederick back, and Williams at LG, it's first round talent across the board.

ST - We'll bring in a guy to compete with Maher. The search for a reliable kicker returns.

Let the joyous news be spread - LINEHAN IS GONE!

And this is all before we've really brought anyone in, or got our draft picks.
Why Matt Bryant hasn't been signed yet is the only thing frustrating me
 

Sydla

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Here's the problem. Our front office came out just weeks ago and said the team wasn't good enough. We can't rest on our laurels and think we are good enough and accept the results we have seen recently. We have to build off the playoff appearance in 2018. Stephen said that. Pretty damn clearly.

And yet, when we read your post, what you see is a lot of treading water. Can you honestly say that this roster is now better than it was last year? At best, it's the same. The Cowboys are largely eschewing a proven way to add a couple of players to make you better and then use the draft in a month to further supplement your roster.

- Let's start with your DE. If we don't sign Lawrence, yes, we suddenly have $20MM in cap space. But the best FA DEs are gone. So when you say we have a boatload of money to sign on DEs, who? It makes a nice sound bite to say we save cap space, but when you are a team that said you have to take the next step beyond where you just went, what FA defensive ends are you signing in June, July, August that give you good to great DE play in 2019?

- Now let's look at DT. The team simply lacks a playmaker in the middle. That's depressing but it appears by design. I guess we can always assume they will draft one high, but that's a pipe dream at this point, I guess. Their DTs, are at best, maybe Top 20 in this league. Maybe.

- It's interesting that when you get to DBs, you fail to mention the one guy that most people want replaced - Heath. That should have been, at the very least, the focus in FA. Find someone to upgrade the SS position. But apparently we are just good there. And Frazer is a limited player. I like him, but he is what he is. The "wah wah" comment was funny because it shows a bit of homerism in thinking that S is fine and people wanting to upgrade it were being ridiculous. Our safety play last year was probably bottom third in the league, maybe bottom half if you are feeling your oats.

- So when you survey the defense right now, the defense got worse after the season. No Gregory and they added no one of value in FA thus far, and frankly, history would tell us they likely won't the entire FA period. But I guess I am a sucker and hold out hope they bring in a guy like Iloka or Boston to put Heath on the bench. But as I said, I am probably a sucker.

- Offensive, we seem to be in better shape. Simply because we appear to be getting Frederick back and then that makes Looney a very good swing guy for OG and C (maybe even a starter at OG if Williams struggles - I'd still entertain swapping Williams and Collins but that's just me).

- I got no issues at QB (other than making sure we don't pay our non-elite QB an elite contract).

- I have no issues at TB because I think you can find a backup TB pretty easily.

- TE is ehh. Witten does little. The other guys have ceilings. I guess they are looking to the draft to find that starting caliber type TE.

- OL should be fine as long as they are healthy. You have a solid starting group and now have Fleming back as a swing OT and Looney as a back interior OL.

- WR is ehh. Cooper is a good #1. Gallup showed he can be a pretty good #2. But after that? I think banking on Hurns is a mistake. Frankly, I would have considered cutting him and using his cap space to sign a better slot WR or scrapping together a couple of million and making a run at Golden Tate. Cooper, Gallup and Tate would be one of the best three headed monsters at WR in the league and would take some pressure off the fact we have little dynamic playmakers at TE. Brown? Ehhh. Wilson? We know zero about him. I guess Austin could be back, which wouldn't bother me too much.

I try to look at this pragmatically without the Cowboys homerism.

We have a good roster. Not a great roster. With premium coaching, maybe, this roster could make a SB run. With the coaching we have now, I think they need a more talented roster to win. This was the time to spend just a little bit of cash in FA to fix a need, whether that be a big time DT or a good SS (or FS to move Woods to SS) or add a pass rushing end to help what was still a fairly average pass rush even with Lawrence.

The owner's son came out and basically said we had to get better and that what we saw wasn't good enough. But apparently it is based on the fact they have shown zero desire to get involved in FA while there were some players on the board that could have helped this team. I guess what this tells us, is yet again, don't believe anything the Jones boys say.
 
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Carson

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Positive post is always nice to see!

I believe the biggest issue with the non FA pickups is that our have to nail your draft picks. We need a few guys to be like (LVE, Dak, Zeke) to come in and take serious reps.

Leaves you little room for error
 

Denim Chicken

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I responded to BobHaze talking about filling holes on the roster, and once I started thinking about it, they're few and far between.

DE - up in the air, but we've had worse, and we'll live. We sign Lawrence, or we don't. If we do, we're fine. If we don't, we'll have a stack of money to spend on a couple of rushmen to go with Crawford, Taco, and Armstrong. In both cases, everyone's favorite stoner may still come back.
DT - Collins, Woods, Ross. Really not bad. Last year we were worried about having our 1T *starter*. Marinelli will probably squeeze another rushman out of a rock. I don't see a Pro Bowler, but I don't see Nick Hayden starting, or Ash as a backup.
LB - Are you kidding?
DB - Everybody is back. "Wah wah wah, I wanna better S." Woods should be better this year. Frazier too. Live it up. If you're good, maybe you'll get another in the draft.




The defense last year was one of the best squads we have fielded in quite a while. That said, there are some definite issues with the way they match-up with some teams (see Tennessee, Indy, and, of course, LA). The main issues we had were stopping the run.

To take the next step forward personnel wise (because I do think an adjustment to defensive scheme need to happen as well) We need a RDE who can set the edge, a SS who can shed blocks, take good angles, and tackle soundly, plus a run stuffing 1 tech who can draw double teams at times.

Some of these upgrades must be sourced from FA.
 

TexasHillbilly

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Joyous news? Unless this new OC is the next best thing since toilet paper I won't be expecting better results than last season. It's basically the same team with an upgraded OL and a vastly downgraded DL without Randy and Tank. As is, this team is not a championship team anymore than last year's team was. My car does 0-60 in 5.4 secs. It will do 0-60 in 5.4 secs when I'm wearing sunglasses too.
You said it Flamma. An upgraded OL. Dak with better protection and Zeke with better running lanes will help the offense get back to 2016 results. We'll see if that pans out. Lots of work to be done and the draft will be here soon.
 

Creeper

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Of course being optimistic is good once in a while but I prefer realistic. Right now the defense stands to be worse than it was last year based on what we KNOW. Counting on players to be better is a fools errand. They could be better or they will be who they have been. At DE we have Taco Charlton, who was inactive for a few games last season. They are claiming it was an injury now but back then the story was more about attitude and commitment. We also have Lawrence who is reportedly unhappy about the way the Cowboys have treated him in contract negotiations. He has been franchised again and he is putting off shoulder surgery until he gets a deal. Sounds great. We still have Heath at Safety. I like Heath but I also recognize he is a major gap in the defense. He takes horrible angles and seems to have a knack for arriving late on deep balls. Who can forget the Rams game and the QB bootleg that sealed the game. Then again, who can forget the way the Rams and Colts blew out the Cowboys DTs? If the Cowboys were going to dive into free agency the place to go would be DE, DT or Safety. Plug two quality guys into this defense and they would be set.

On offense, they lost the one guy who could get open on 3rd downs and take some heat off Cooper. What's worse is his cap impact with the Bills is just a few hundred thousand more than Hurns's with the Cowboys. Signing Witten after a year of retirement is not a solution. I just don't have any great expectations for Witten after a year of TV broadcasting. I have no idea why they re-signed Olawale. If they want a FB, and I think they do, they should get a guy who can lead block more than anything. Had they used free agency to address defense, they could then draft a RB, another WR, TE and FB.

The goals is not to stay the same. The goal is to take the next step. What's the old expression? "If you are standing still, then someone is gaining on you".
 

Flamma

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You said it Flamma. An upgraded OL. Dak with better protection and Zeke with better running lanes will help the offense get back to 2016 results. We'll see if that pans out. Lots of work to be done and the draft will be here soon.

The off season isn't over yet, there is that. But going into the next season with the same team and expecting better results is, well, what they tried in 2017. Best case scenario is the 2016 offense with this defense. It's possible, but not likely. The good news is the last two times I had low expectations going into a season was in '14 and '16. So don't go by me.
 

Rockport

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Here's the problem. Our front office came out just weeks ago and said the team wasn't good enough. We can't rest on our laurels and think we are good enough and accept the results we have seen recently. We have to build off the playoff appearance in 2018. Stephen said that. Pretty damn clearly.

And yet, when we read your post, what you see is a lot of treading water. Can you honestly say that this roster is now better than it was last year? At best, it's the same. The Cowboys are largely eschewing a proven way to add a couple of players to make you better and then use the draft in a month to further supplement your roster.

- Let's start with your DE. If we don't sign Lawrence, yes, we suddenly have $20MM in cap space. But the best FA DEs are gone. So when you say we have a boatload of money to sign on DEs, who? It makes a nice sound bite to say we save cap space, but when you are a team that said you have to take the next step beyond where you just went, what FA defensive ends are you signing in June, July, August that give you good to great DE play in 2019?

- Now let's look at DT. The team simply lacks a playmaker in the middle. That's depressing but it appears by design. I guess we can always assume they will draft one high, but that's a pipe dream at this point, I guess. Their DTs, are at best, maybe Top 20 in this league. Maybe.

- It's interesting that when you get to DBs, you fail to mention the one guy that most people want replaced - Heath. That should have been, at the very least, the focus in FA. Find someone to upgrade the SS position. But apparently we are just good there. And Frazer is a limited player. I like him, but he is what he is. The "wah wah" comment was funny because it shows a bit of homerism in thinking that S is fine and people wanting to upgrade it were being ridiculous. Our safety play last year was probably bottom third in the league, maybe bottom half if you are feeling your oats.

- So when you survey the defense right now, the defense got worse after the season. No Gregory and they added no one of value in FA thus far, and frankly, history would tell us they likely won't the entire FA period. But I guess I am a sucker and hold out hope they bring in a guy like Iloka or Boston to put Heath on the bench. But as I said, I am probably a sucker.

- Offensive, we seem to be in better shape. Simply because we appear to be getting Frederick back and then that makes Looney a very good swing guy for OG and C (maybe even a starter at OG if Williams struggles - I'd still entertain swapping Williams and Collins but that's just me).

- I got no issues at QB (other than making sure we don't pay our non-elite QB an elite contract).

- I have no issues at TB because I think you can find a backup TB pretty easily.

- TE is ehh. Witten does little. The other guys have ceilings. I guess they are looking to the draft to find that starting caliber type TE.

- OL should be fine as long as they are healthy. You have a solid starting group and now have Fleming back as a swing OT and Looney as a back interior OL.

- WR is ehh. Cooper is a good #1. Gallup showed he can be a pretty good #2. But after that? I think banking on Hurns is a mistake. Frankly, I would have considered cutting him and using his cap space to sign a better slot WR or scrapping together a couple of million and making a run at Golden Tate. Cooper, Gallup and Tate would be one of the best three headed monsters at WR in the league and would take some pressure off the fact we have little dynamic playmakers at TE. Brown? Ehhh. Wilson? We know zero about him. I guess Austin could be back, which wouldn't bother me too much.

I try to look at this pragmatically without the Cowboys homerism.

We have a good roster. Not a great roster. With premium coaching, maybe, this roster could make a SB run. With the coaching we have now, I think they need a more talented roster to win. This was the time to spend just a little bit of cash in FA to fix a need, whether that be a big time DT or a good SS (or FS to move Woods to SS) or add a pass rushing end to help what was still a fairly average pass rush even with Lawrence.

The owner's son came out and basically said we had to get better and that what we saw wasn't good enough. But apparently it is based on the fact they have shown zero desire to get involved in FA while there were some players on the board that could have helped this team. I guess what this tells us, is yet again, don't believe anything the Jones boys say.
Don’t you realize that the offseason is not over yet and team hasn’t even been built? Jeez our fans are so quick to judge based on imcomplete facts.
 
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