What happened to promising Cowboys rookie Bradlee Anae in 2020?

BigTimeBlues

BigTimeBlues

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Tangle_Foot said:
He just wasn't as good as we all wanted him to be, he's not the first and won't be the last player to not live up to the fan hype.
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rocyaice said:
The hype for him came from the fans. There was no reason to expect this guy to get meaningful playing time and for as bad as you guys thought Dorance Armstrong was......Anae was worse. Maybe year 2 will be different.
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The hype may have been kept alive by us fans, but let's not act like the media and Senior Bowl coaching staff didn't start the fire.

It's hard not to get excited about a guy that had decent college production and then subsequently put on a show in the Senior Bowl.
 
Doomsday101

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CouchCoach said:
Is he the new Tapper? Remember him? His coaching staff at OU was frustrated with his effort on a consistent basis and look how he turned out. This FO was so unaffected by that wasted pick, they did the very same thing with Hill.

I dunno but I think if a player is a problem for his college coaching staff, that ain't changing when he goes pro.

I don't know much about Anae, except that he's a vowel hog, but if he can't break into playing time on that pathetic excuse for a D, I don't know how promising he is.
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Being behind Gregory and Smith is not an overly easy task and while the defense as a whole was bad DE was not an area of weakness as much as it was DT and the play of the LB
 
TheMarathonContinues

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BigTimeBlues said:
The hype may have been kept alive by us fans, but let's not act like the media and Senior Bowl coaching staff didn't start the fire.

It's hard not to get excited about a guy that had decent college production and then subsequently put on a show in the Senior Bowl.
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I understand but he was a 5th round pick. The chances were slim.

Let's also be honest about this whole draft. This place overhyped every single one of them. I still love the draft don't get me wrong but this place had everyone being a starter last season here lol.
 
Majic

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quickccc said:
the strange under-use of Gregory played a huge part in DL coach Jim Tomsula getting the axe, as Gregory has
become a big fan of Jerry Jones, and spots where he's only getting 10% snaps and only 11 reps vs Ravens, was the
final piece that wasnt gonna be tolerated by the Jones.
How can you even come close to learning better run defense and gaining valuable experience with your vet DL coach
virtually red shirting you all season ?
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I'd love to hear Tomsula's take on this. Gregory was clearly the better player so why incur the wrath of Jones. Doesn't make a lot of sense. I suspect there is another piece to the story we are not aware of
 
Majic

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Doomsday101 said:
Gregory was not on the roster until Oct. he had 0 camp and 0 training camp to speak of as he waited on the commissioner to give his approval. Yes his snaps were pretty much limited but when you have not played in a couple years and then are eligible towards the middle of the season then it was not a shock that his snaps were limited.. Gregory with a full off season and camp, hopefully pre season should be ready to take on a bigger role.
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Makes sense, surely Jerry would understand that?
 
Omegasupreme

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Risen Star said:
Can't really comment. Maybe he sucked in practice or maybe our coaches suck.

I just know the dude had an innate ability to pressure QBs in college. I drafted him in our site mock and was campaigning for him from the 3rd round on in the actual draft.

I have a very hard time believing Dorance Armstrong is a better option.
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He doesn’t really have anything that is dynamic or impressive. Dorance is faster, bends much better and is a better open field tackler.


best trait: effort?
Worst trait: length?

He’s an excellent Boy Scout but a terrible anaconda.

https://thedraftnetwork.com/player/bradlee-anae/LnyDKfLTtU
 
fivetwos

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rocyaice said:
I understand but he was a 5th round pick. The chances were slim.

Let's also be honest about this whole draft. This place overhyped every single one of them. I still love the draft don't get me wrong but this place had everyone being a starter last season here lol.
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The overhype was because many of the picks were later than the media mocks had them...except for maybe Robinson.

I don't understand how a team that uses the draft exclusively in order to get better can just blow off 4th and 5th round picks.
 
Aven8

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Risen Star said:
Keep in mind that Miles Austin only got his chance to explode on the scene because of injury. Different coaches but still. Sometimes a good player wastes away on the bench.
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Just throw in a player from last year in Wilson. He gets three picks in PS only to never be seen from again with the old staff. Then the new DC starts that awful Safety last year and only because he got burned over and over Wilson starts and creates like 5 TO’s. Coaches are dumb people too.
 
quickccc

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Doomsday101 said:
Gregory was not on the roster until Oct. he had 0 camp and 0 training camp to speak of as he waited on the commissioner to give his approval. Yes his snaps were pretty much limited but when you have not played in a couple years and then are eligible towards the middle of the season then it was not a shock that his snaps were limited.. Gregory with a full off season and camp, hopefully pre season should be ready to take on a bigger role.
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The Jones (and probably the Scout team too) already knew what Randy was very capable of , training camp or not
six games or not, and it seems apparently though obviously privately they were peeved that he wasn't getting
on the field in what they thought he should.

Aldon Smith has been out more than a couple of years and only had training camp to better adjust himself
before he faded fast after those first 3 games, he never seem to get back on track after his dynamic

and you're not gonna get a guy re-adjusted to the NFL with only 11 snaps vs Ravens in a 2nd half season when
this was just begging for some slight sense of a pass rusher.
 
805BoysInBlue

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Cumart21 said:
So he's a 5th round pick and wasn't an impact player in his rookie year because of "inept coaching"? I mean, he was a 5th round pick for a reason, no?
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He dominated at the senior bowl, and was defensive player in the Pac 12. He fell cause of his measurable.
 
Miller

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I get the comments that he was a 5th round rookie but our D sucked. More than sucked. Let them play in game day situations
 

buybuydandavis

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rocyaice said:
The hype for him came from the fans. There was no reason to expect this guy to get meaningful playing time and for as bad as you guys thought Dorance Armstrong was......Anae was worse. Maybe year 2 will be different.
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Anae was active for 7 games, and only got 6 defensive snaps.
IMO, if a guy is active, give him a few snaps a game. Especially on defense where there is general rotation anyway. Knowing that you'll play a few snaps is a big deal for preparation all week and evaluation after the game, IMO.
 
CT Dal Fan

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I hope Anae turns into a find, but I don't understand all the hand-wringing over the 179th player taken in the draft. We don't know how he looked in practice. We don't know how well he learned the scheme (which thankfully is no longer Mike Nolan's). And we didn't even have preseason games to see if he passed the test of our (largely) untrained eyes.

Randy Gregory and Dorance Armstrong were both more capable and more established players than Anae. Now, even I thought Anae should have gotten some chances to play as the season was seemingly slipping away and there was nothing to lose. But the main problem was the NFC East was so bad the Cowboys never truly were out of contention; so Gregory and Armstrong played.
 

buybuydandavis

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Aven8 said:
The Dallas Cowboys selected Bradlee Anae in the fifth round of the 2020 NFL draft and while many wondered why he had dropped, he was viewed as a good pickup by the Cowboys. Anae had proven capable of handling talent, having had success against a top OT prospect in Austin Jackson and future Cowboys’ rookie starter Terence Steele while in college.

https://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/20...oblems-no-playing-time/?ref=NEWSandRUMORS.com

I still think it had more to do with Aldon and the love for Armstrong for whatever reason. Glad Nolan is gone!
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In 7 games active, Anae had 6 defensive snaps, a knockdown, a pressure, and an 85 PFF.

Anae satisfies two of my criteria for getting snaps:
1) If a defensive player is active, give him a few snaps for development purposes. Big difference for prep and mindset all week. Winning the war means developing players.
2) If even in extremely limited snaps, he's showing great production, keep giving him chances until he *stops* showing that great production.
 

buybuydandavis

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Bobhaze said:
What I didn’t understand about BAs lack of playing time last year centers on the idea that if we already had an historically bad D, which we did, and no one was tearing it up, why wouldn’t we have thrown Anae in there to see how he handled it?
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Similar problem we've had lots of years. In 2019, Garrett was playing for his job, so player development went out the window. Similarly in 2020, Nolan is trying to keep his job, or at least look better in the job market, so he isn't going to use snaps for player development on young guys.
In Ryan's last year, they let him spend the draft and free agency to get his guys and maybe save his job. He picked the best available players for him to keep his job, not for the Cowboys to have long term success.
Short timers have shortened time horizons, and mortgage *your* future for *their* near terms chances.
 

Sheepherder

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Tangle_Foot said:
He just wasn't as good as we all wanted him to be, he's not the first and won't be the last player to not live up to the fan hype.
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How would you know. They never gave him a chance. They should have let some of these young guys play once they were toast anyway.
 
fansince68

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Some guys are gamers but don't shine in practice. Our coaching staff in the recent and distant past have proven to be short sighted when it comes to unearthing talent. This past season we were delusional in thinking we could win our division. We should have been playing the bottom of our roster to find our own hidden gems. Bradley will explode next season......
 
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