Stephen Jones On Free Agency

[T-RO]

Did anybody commenting here read the article?

Idgit, The whiners want to whine despite the truth of what is going on w/facts. Quoting from the article:

Five of the six lightest-spending teams made the playoffs last year, and two of the three lightest spenders played in the Super Bowl. Ten of the 12 playoffs teams from last year are in the bottom 14 in spending thus far. And two of the four in that cluster that didn’t make the playoffs (Atlanta, Carolina) have been in the Super Bowl and made the playoffs multiple times over the last four years.
• That leaves two of the 18 heaviest spenders that made the playoffs. One was eighth (Philly), the other was 12th (Baltimore).
• It’s not unusual that it’d skew this way—good teams don’t spend because they’ve already paid a lot of their own guys and likely don’t feel as desperate. But a quick look at the recent past shows that this year the divide between the habits of the haves and have-nots was much more pronounced​

 

[Proof]

You assume that, again he was looking to be the highest paid safety and Dallas was not going to be in that neighborhood. Thomas had already indicated he was not giving Dallas any home town deal but you assume Dallas could have made an offer which you also assume was not made and Earl would have signed on the spot? There is not really a difference in the agent and the player after all it was the agent who was also talking to the Ravens and contacted Earl of what they were offering. Earl did not go to Balt until after he was contacted by his agent

You’re arguing points I’m not making.

As far as player vs agent I don’t feel like having a semantics posing contest. You said they had him in for a visit and they didn’t. I just pointed it out. You were mistaken, it happens.

 

[T-RO]

Jerry and Stephen regurgitate the same old BS every year about being determined to reach SB status, minus what it takes to do so. It takes better management than they are capable to provide to get to the required level to be a honest-to-God SB contender. Let's not fall for their con job.

The regurgitating is done by know-nothing fans who think it would have been smart to spend $55 mil on Earl Thomas. There is an epidemic of stupidity around here.

This has become the land of shrill and stupid

 

[Doomsday101]

You’re arguing points I’m not making.

As far as player vs agent I don’t feel like having a semantics posing contest. You said they had him in for a visit and they didn’t. I just pointed it out. You were mistaken, it happens.

Your right they talked with his agent.

 

[Sydla]

Idgit, The whiners want to whine despite the truth of what is going on w/facts. Quoting from the article:

Five of the six lightest-spending teams made the playoffs last year, and two of the three lightest spenders played in the Super Bowl. Ten of the 12 playoffs teams from last year are in the bottom 14 in spending thus far. And two of the four in that cluster that didn’t make the playoffs (Atlanta, Carolina) have been in the Super Bowl and made the playoffs multiple times over the last four years.
• That leaves two of the 18 heaviest spenders that made the playoffs. One was eighth (Philly), the other was 12th (Baltimore).
• It’s not unusual that it’d skew this way—good teams don’t spend because they’ve already paid a lot of their own guys and likely don’t feel as desperate. But a quick look at the recent past shows that this year the divide between the habits of the haves and have-nots was much more pronounced​

But note the article also points out that part of the reason why so few teams were active might be because this was considered a weak FA class. So the conclusion could simply be that the better teams stayed away because they didn't feel value was there THIS YEAR.

The SB winner the year before used FA and trades pretty extensively. The Patriots, who lost to the Eagles in that SB, signed Stephon Gilmore that preseason to one of the largest CB contracts ever.

So again, this idea that what the Cowboys do is exactly what the good to better teams do is a total myth. It's not. NE uses every tool at their disposal. They'll make big trades, they'll sign a big guy, they'll draft. The Rams played in the SB and made some big FA moves themselves. Philly won a SB with FAs. Denver won a SB with free agents.

I am not sure where this idea started that the best teams eschew FA like we do. It's bizarre.

 

[Bullflop]

The regurgitating is done by know-nothing fans who think it would have been smart to spend $55 mil on Earl Thomas. There is an epidemic of stupidity around here.

This has become the land of shrill and stupid

I've never been in favor of such stupidity and never will. I'm on record as opposing ET's acquisition. You're preaching to the choir, here, sir. I think there's a smart way to approach the veteran FA and a stupid way. Ours is far from ideal.

 

[Nightman]

Have you ever heard the term "the past is prologue".

I don't care if he skips the regular season and comes in for the playoffs

 

[Sydla]

I've never been in favor of such stupidity and never will. I'm on record as opposing ET's acquisition. You're preaching to the choir, here.

T-RO is like the Jones. He deals in extremes. If you are criticizing the front office for their FA plans year in and year out, that means you want the Cowboys to spend like drunken soldiers. There is no in between.

You either support the Cowboys frugal ways or you are a fan that is dumb and just wants the Cowboys to burn through millions and millions of cap space on high priced FAs.

 

[Nightman]

T-RO is like the Jones. He deals in extremes. If you are criticizing the front office for their FA plans year in and year out, that means you want the Cowboys to spend like drunken soldiers. There is no in between.

You either support the Cowboys frugal ways or you are a fan that is dumb and just wants the Cowboys to burn through millions and millions of cap space on high priced FAs.

Now we can't even spend the cap space we have to improve because the future

EThomas has a 7m cap hit this year or 1m more than SLee

 

[LittleD]

I don't care if he skips the regular season and comes in for the playoffs

He's gonna want loads of money and you only want him for 3 or 4 games...Tsk! Tsk!

 

[Doomsday101]

Now we can't even spend the cap space we have to improve because the future

EThomas has a 7m cap hit this year or 1m more than SLee

lee deal is a 1 year deal Thomas deal is not just 7 mill it is $32,000,000 guaranteed

 

[Idgit]

I read it after seeing your post. I thought Steven did a good job of defending his philosophy

Yeah. I don’t actually entirely agree with him, but I get where he’s coming from on it. It just always makes me clench when people rush to call somebody an idiot before trying to understand what he’s saying.

 

[zrinkill]

Anyone who knows T-Ro's history of crying and quitting the Cowboys over Jerry Jones would know better than to take anything he says on this subject with anything but ridicule.

 

[T-RO]

T-RO is like the Jones. He deals in extremes. If you are criticizing the front office for their FA plans year in and year out, that means you want the Cowboys to spend like drunken soldiers. There is no in between.

You either support the Cowboys frugal ways or you are a fan that is dumb and just wants the Cowboys to burn through millions and millions of cap space on high priced FAs.

The early stages of free agency is all about a world of extremes. No way of getting around it. You WILL overpay. So to say we should play in early/premium free agency but do so 'smartly' or in 'budget fashion' is self-contradictory.

There are rare instances where the bitter pill of over-paying makes sense, but I don't see any instances where it would have made sense this off-season.

 

[Sydla]

The early stages of free agency is all about a world of extremes. No way of getting around it. You WILL overpay. So to say we should play in early/premium free agency but do so 'smartly' or in 'budget fashion' is self-contradictory.

There are rare instances where the bitter pill of over-paying makes sense, but I don't see any instances where it would have made sense this off-season.

We are roughly a week into FA. There were mid-level deals available the first few days into FA.

So this idea that the first few days only results in high priced overpaid FA is another myth.

 

[Nightman]

He's gonna want loads of money and you only want him for 3 or 4 games...Tsk! Tsk!

No one said loads of money.....KC cut him because they owed 12m a year

 

[Nightman]

The early stages of free agency is all about a world of extremes. No way of getting around it. You WILL overpay. So to say we should play in early/premium free agency but do so 'smartly' or in 'budget fashion' is self-contradictory.

There are rare instances where the bitter pill of over-paying makes sense, but I don't see any instances where it would have made sense this off-season.

So what if you overpay ... that is the nature of Free Agency...... it is an auction.... there is competition

The Draft works the same way.......if you want the top guys you have to pay a premium in Draft picks.......but FA is just cap space and money it isn't about Draft picks

When you pay 1/2 the team 10% of the cap you can splurge a little elsewhere

 

[Nightman]

lee deal is a 1 year deal Thomas deal is not just 7 mill it is $32,000,000 guaranteed

and we have 125m in cap space next year

 

[Alexander]

Idgit, The whiners want to whine despite the truth of what is going on w/facts. Quoting from the article:

Five of the six lightest-spending teams made the playoffs last year, and two of the three lightest spenders played in the Super Bowl. Ten of the 12 playoffs teams from last year are in the bottom 14 in spending thus far.

And this should not be shocking.

Usually good teams think they are pretty good and can avoid the frenzy.

But the simple facts are that Dallas should have learned a solid lesson by now.

They aren't good enough. They have failed to reach the championship round since the early 1990s.

They have squandered homefield advantage twice with one and dones.

The organizational optimism drives what we do.

And we tend to think we need some tweaking here and there rather than just going for the gusto.

 

[jterrell]

Why 2018’s Power Teams Are Sitting Out 2019 Free Agency
The Cowboys—loaded with young talent that they want to be able to take care off down road—are an example of why last season’s playoff teams have mostly avoided making a free agency splash so far. Why spend big (read: overpay) in what’s seen as a weak year for free agents?
By Albert Breer
March 18, 2019

all the craziness.

It is, quite honestly, what the Jones family has learned, through success and failure, about running a team in the NFL’s salary cap era, now in its 26th year.

“The biggest thing is just that free agency, I just don’t think you can make a living there,” Dallas COO Stephen Jones said over the phone around lunchtime on Sunday. “That’s what we’ve always said. I think you’re overpaying in free agency most of the time. [Free agents] are overvalued, because you’re competing in a market where you’ve got teams that don’t have as many players they have to spend on, have to use cap space on.

“And the other thing is, I don’t think you’re ever one player away. It’s a building process. You’ve got to have some really good quarterbacking to win championships, but you’ve got to put a good team around him. That whole theory that you’re one player away, it’s one that we don’t buy into like you might’ve in the past.”

Here’s the genesis of my conversation with Jones and a handful of other teams over the weekend: I spent some time looking at which teams have and haven’t spent since the market opened in earnest last Monday (and earlier than that on street free agents). What I found was staggering. And it’s so simple that you can really explain it in five words.

Most good teams didn’t spend.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/03/18/f...l&utm_campaign=themmqb&utm_source=twitter.com
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My big question is why is this argument dumbed down to thinking if you don't go crazy in free agency that you are somehow smart?

There is a thing called a happy medium.

Once you have built the foundation, there can always be a roof added to the top to finish quickly.

People should not get upset that the Cowboys didn't get three or four expensive free agents.

But a well-placed precision strike is not the end of the world either.

The claim made in the article that good teams don't spend is not exactly true.


Teams like New England (Gilmore) and the Rams (Suh) added impact players that aided their cause.

Just call this what it is. Being cheap and thinking you are smarter than everyone else and you can just outwit everyone in April.

The Gilmore signing was 2 years ago.
It is the one time they paid large money for a FA.
They did so because they missed on their own CB draft selections.

The Rams and NE have not signed anyone of note THIS YEAR.
The Pats didn't last year either.
You are literally talking about 3 FA cycles ago now for the Pats.

It is just this:
What I found was staggering. And it’s so simple that you can really explain it in five words.

Most good teams didn’t spend.