Recap: JJT: Whispers from the Star (4/3)

KingintheNorth said:

1. I love the Aldon Smith move, especially with Tomsula here. Glazer had talked about Smith's comeback on the Fox pre-game show about halfway through the season and of course Jerry and Dallas was the first thing I thought of. Super low risk, super high reward. I hate this FO, but hats off to them here.

2. Back to my hatred of the FO. It just seems like they are being stubborn about Crawford because of the public criticism they received over this contract. There is no way he is worth his 2020 contract and to not even push a pay cut just shows what I have been telling you all for years; This FO cares way more about being right than being good. That money is better used elsewhere and despite all the intangible (and mostly imagined) "little things" Crawford allegedly does, none of the Fan Boys here or Cowboy apologists on Twitter can point out actual contributions that Crawford has made that justify his contract. He is a zero at RDE and can be an effective 3Tech on pass downs. Not worth his cap #.

3. Maybe they are saving the Dak contract announcement for a certain date to make sure they own the media buzz that week. No criticism from me here if true, almost all teams do it and very few are better at this particular aspect than the Cowboys.

4. Good for Cooper if true. Loyalty and comfort/familiarity are important, underrated qualities in great athletes. I also appreciate Rex Ryan calling him out, because now he's going to play angry.

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stasheroo said:

1. I totally agree on all points about Smith. This is an opportunity to get his life and career back on track, nothing more. As long as the Cowboys don;t base other decisions off of this? They'll be fine. When you count on him, you then turn it into more of a risk.
2. Stubborn on top of dumb doesn't make things right. And I have been right about this player and situation for years. I'm fine with my position. If they're seriously thinking about paying this player his current salary they're doing something stupid. Not even the biggest of Cowboys homers can justify that.
3. 4-years, $140 million, maybe the entire thing guaranteed is my guess.
4. $20 million a year is "big money" itself.

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mattjames2010 said:

Giving a QB a long term deal right now when we are not even sure when the next football season will be. Smart.

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visionary said:

the only thing I don’t like about the Smith deal is no second year team option

if we’re giving this dude a chance to rebuild his career he needs to give us a second year team friendly option

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Sydla said:

restructure they likely would have to spread some money into a future season or two.

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Sydla said:

The only thing I can think of with Crawford is that they simply want to cut him free after this year and have no dead money beyond this year. If they restructure they likely would have to spread some money into a future season or two.

It also tells me they have no intention of making anymore signings in FA. If they were planning on going after a Griffen, they'd probably want to give themselves some cap space.

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KingintheNorth said:

1. I love the Aldon Smith move, especially with Tomsula here. Glazer had talked about Smith's comeback on the Fox pre-game show about halfway through the season and of course Jerry and Dallas was the first thing I thought of. Super low risk, super high reward. I hate this FO, but hats off to them here.

2. Back to my hatred of the FO. It just seems like they are being stubborn about Crawford because of the public criticism they received over this contract. There is no way he is worth his 2020 contract and to not even push a pay cut just shows what I have been telling you all for years; This FO cares way more about being right than being good. That money is better used elsewhere and despite all the intangible (and mostly imagined) "little things" Crawford allegedly does, none of the Fan Boys here or Cowboy apologists on Twitter can point out actual contributions that Crawford has made that justify his contract. He is a zero at RDE and can be an effective 3Tech on pass downs. Not worth his cap #.

3. Maybe they are saving the Dak contract announcement for a certain date to make sure they own the media buzz that week. No criticism from me here if true, almost all teams do it and very few are better at this particular aspect than the Cowboys.

4. Good for Cooper if true. Loyalty and comfort/familiarity are important, underrated qualities in great athletes. I also appreciate Rex Ryan calling him out, because now he's going to play angry.

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America's Cowboy said:

Nothing about Dez catching passes from Dak recently?

Boo....

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Verdict said:

Why would they clear up more cap space before Dak’s contract is done? It sounds like it would only make Dak’s negotiations more difficult.

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America's Cowboy said:

Nothing about Dez catching passes from Dak recently?

Boo....

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KingintheNorth said:

1. I love the Aldon Smith move, especially with Tomsula here. Glazer had talked about Smith's comeback on the Fox pre-game show about halfway through the season and of course Jerry and Dallas was the first thing I thought of. Super low risk, super high reward. I hate this FO, but hats off to them here.

2. Back to my hatred of the FO. It just seems like they are being stubborn about Crawford because of the public criticism they received over this contract. There is no way he is worth his 2020 contract and to not even push a pay cut just shows what I have been telling you all for years; This FO cares way more about being right than being good. That money is better used elsewhere and despite all the intangible (and mostly imagined) "little things" Crawford allegedly does, none of the Fan Boys here or Cowboy apologists on Twitter can point out actual contributions that Crawford has made that justify his contract. He is a zero at RDE and can be an effective 3Tech on pass downs. Not worth his cap #.

3. Maybe they are saving the Dak contract announcement for a certain date to make sure they own the media buzz that week. No criticism from me here if true, almost all teams do it and very few are better at this particular aspect than the Cowboys.

4. Good for Cooper if true. Loyalty and comfort/familiarity are important, underrated qualities in great athletes. I also appreciate Rex Ryan calling him out, because now he's going to play angry.

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ClappingCarrot said:

Hope everyone is staying safe! Still working from home myself. Below is a recap from today's segment, which I just listened to live. As always, the link will come later once ESPN posts it to the Jam Session page.

And away we go:

1. Aldon Smith. This was one of the more rambling segments I've heard from JJT in awhile. We all heard from Smith's agent about McCarthy traveling to LA and meeting with Aldon Smith and Tonsula signing off on the signing and all of that. There was a lot of conversation around the Star in the past week about Aldon Smith, but for whatever reason the PR team and the Front Office instructed folks to be hush hush about it. In order to help with their decision on Aldon, the FO did an assessment and basically asked is this a good dude that made some mistakes or a bad dude that made some mistakes? JJT was quick to point out that the police report and the track record and the DV charges all point to him being a bad dude. Not only that, even if he was a bad dude, that doesn't necessarily mean that Jerry wouldn't sign him anyway! Basically, Dallas thinks he's a good dude and they think he's in an environment now that could help him flourish. Compared him to Leon Lett and even Randy Gregory when they went/currently going through suspensions. That's why with Gregory, you still have high character guys like Jeff Heath and Sean Lee writing letters to the Commissioner. Because Randy is a good dude. He just has some issues. With Aldon, he recognizes that he has a disease in alcoholism and the alcohol makes him obviously act differently than if we was sober. He understands his issues now and knows that he must fight them if he wants his life to get back to where it needs to be. Sometimes folks need to hit rock bottom before they get sick and tired of being sick and tired. The Cowboys were willing to take a flier on Smith because he had generational talent in his prime. He had that quickness in the first step, the speed, and could bend like no other. Will he be the same athlete that he was at 25? Hell no. But JJT was quick to point out that when MJ came back to basketball he went from averaging like 36 points a game to averaging 26. So in summation, Smith can be a really good player on this defense, maybe a difference maker. The jury is still out.

2. Much to @stasheroo dismay, there have still been no talks about a pay cut for Tyrone Crawford. We definitely do not know what to expect from him since he's coming off double hip surgery and in the midst of a defensive scheme change, but the Cowboys brass are confident that he will be a good and contributing player for the defense in 2020. Says he missed four games between 2014-2018, and has been a solid, durable, contributing player. Says he isn't going anywhere, so quit asking him.

3. We are about a week removed from the tweets speculating that Dak's deal is close to being done. A source close to the situation tells JJT that the deal is so close, it's "silly" it isn't done yet. The source said that if this were back in the day, Dak could waltz into Jerry's office, pour a drink, put his feet up, and the deal would be done in about an hour. In this day and age, where everything is rolling along at a snail's pace, it can sometimes hold some things up. Dak is getting his money though. Bank on it.

4. So we discovered a week or two ago that Amari turned down big money from both Washington and another "mystery team" to stay in Dallas. Why did he want to stay in Dallas so bad? Source says there are a lot of areas around the Metroplex that remind Amari a lot of where he grew up in the Miami area. Said he was driving in Dallas one afternoon and stumbled upon some kids playing basketball. Amari pulled over and hooped with them for about an hour. Says it just feels like home to him. JJT did note that there is "another key person" that deals with negotiations in Dallas and that Amari's agent got heated with him and cursed him out during negotiations and demanded that he speak to Stephen directly from here on out. Stephen, obviously, was able to get the deal done. Whether that was a good signing or not remains to be seen.

And there you have it! Hope everyone has a great weekend.

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ClappingCarrot said:

Hope everyone is staying safe! Still working from home myself. Below is a recap from today's segment, which I just listened to live. As always, the link will come later once ESPN posts it to the Jam Session page.

And away we go:

1. Aldon Smith. This was one of the more rambling segments I've heard from JJT in awhile. We all heard from Smith's agent about McCarthy traveling to LA and meeting with Aldon Smith and Tonsula signing off on the signing and all of that. There was a lot of conversation around the Star in the past week about Aldon Smith, but for whatever reason the PR team and the Front Office instructed folks to be hush hush about it. In order to help with their decision on Aldon, the FO did an assessment and basically asked is this a good dude that made some mistakes or a bad dude that made some mistakes? JJT was quick to point out that the police report and the track record and the DV charges all point to him being a bad dude. Not only that, even if he was a bad dude, that doesn't necessarily mean that Jerry wouldn't sign him anyway! Basically, Dallas thinks he's a good dude and they think he's in an environment now that could help him flourish. Compared him to Leon Lett and even Randy Gregory when they went/currently going through suspensions. That's why with Gregory, you still have high character guys like Jeff Heath and Sean Lee writing letters to the Commissioner. Because Randy is a good dude. He just has some issues. With Aldon, he recognizes that he has a disease in alcoholism and the alcohol makes him obviously act differently than if we was sober. He understands his issues now and knows that he must fight them if he wants his life to get back to where it needs to be. Sometimes folks need to hit rock bottom before they get sick and tired of being sick and tired. The Cowboys were willing to take a flier on Smith because he had generational talent in his prime. He had that quickness in the first step, the speed, and could bend like no other. Will he be the same athlete that he was at 25? Hell no. But JJT was quick to point out that when MJ came back to basketball he went from averaging like 36 points a game to averaging 26. So in summation, Smith can be a really good player on this defense, maybe a difference maker. The jury is still out.

2. Much to @stasheroo dismay, there have still been no talks about a pay cut for Tyrone Crawford. We definitely do not know what to expect from him since he's coming off double hip surgery and in the midst of a defensive scheme change, but the Cowboys brass are confident that he will be a good and contributing player for the defense in 2020. Says he missed four games between 2014-2018, and has been a solid, durable, contributing player. Says he isn't going anywhere, so quit asking him.

3. We are about a week removed from the tweets speculating that Dak's deal is close to being done. A source close to the situation tells JJT that the deal is so close, it's "silly" it isn't done yet. The source said that if this were back in the day, Dak could waltz into Jerry's office, pour a drink, put his feet up, and the deal would be done in about an hour. In this day and age, where everything is rolling along at a snail's pace, it can sometimes hold some things up. Dak is getting his money though. Bank on it.

4. So we discovered a week or two ago that Amari turned down big money from both Washington and another "mystery team" to stay in Dallas. Why did he want to stay in Dallas so bad? Source says there are a lot of areas around the Metroplex that remind Amari a lot of where he grew up in the Miami area. Said he was driving in Dallas one afternoon and stumbled upon some kids playing basketball. Amari pulled over and hooped with them for about an hour. Says it just feels like home to him. JJT did note that there is "another key person" that deals with negotiations in Dallas and that Amari's agent got heated with him and cursed him out during negotiations and demanded that he speak to Stephen directly from here on out. Stephen, obviously, was able to get the deal done. Whether that was a good signing or not remains to be seen.

And there you have it! Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Click to expand...

KingintheNorth said:

1. I love the Aldon Smith move, especially with Tomsula here. Glazer had talked about Smith's comeback on the Fox pre-game show about halfway through the season and of course Jerry and Dallas was the first thing I thought of. Super low risk, super high reward. I hate this FO, but hats off to them here.

2. Back to my hatred of the FO. It just seems like they are being stubborn about Crawford because of the public criticism they received over this contract. There is no way he is worth his 2020 contract and to not even push a pay cut just shows what I have been telling you all for years; This FO cares way more about being right than being good. That money is better used elsewhere and despite all the intangible (and mostly imagined) "little things" Crawford allegedly does, none of the Fan Boys here or Cowboy apologists on Twitter can point out actual contributions that Crawford has made that justify his contract. He is a zero at RDE and can be an effective 3Tech on pass downs. Not worth his cap #.

3. Maybe they are saving the Dak contract announcement for a certain date to make sure they own the media buzz that week. No criticism from me here if true, almost all teams do it and very few are better at this particular aspect than the Cowboys.

4. Good for Cooper if true. Loyalty and comfort/familiarity are important, underrated qualities in great athletes. I also appreciate Rex Ryan calling him out, because now he's going to play angry.

Click to expand...

America's Cowboy said:

Nothing about Dez catching passes from Dak recently?

Boo....

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Aven8 said:

Amari seems like a real class act.

And it’s interesting that Mike flew out to meet with Aldon. I like it!

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