Priority: Finishing defense or retooling offense?

big dog cowboy

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Name me one draft where we got five starters, much less five dynamic, playmaking, ballhawking starters.
Can be done in FA also. Maybe there are those players already on the team. Gallimore? Steele?
 

PAPPYDOG

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If you really knew football you wouldn't be laughing....
I'm laughing because the strategy of drafting off lineman with our no 1 and no 2 picks has gotten us NOWHERE!!!
Now you keep on keeping on and folks who know the game will continue laughing.....
 

Pentagruel

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I don’t think it really has to be one or the other, and the front office should not enter the draft and free agency with that mindset. As you say, both sides need some work but neither is so far away as to to be hopeless. You need to evaluate the draft specifically for what kind of selections are available at our picks. There is a wide variety of needs that could be chosen in my opinion so best pick available seems like a no brained this year. The one area I would try to focus on is offensive line but even there, I would not reach too much if nothing good is available.
 

Ranching

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I'm laughing because the strategy of drafting off lineman with our no 1 and no 2 picks has gotten us NOWHERE!!!
Now you keep on keeping on and folks who know the game will continue laughing.....
I'm glad you are having fun....
 

phildadon86

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Not opposed, but you can't do both when you don't do free agency. We've spent second- and third-round picks on both lines ... and we're still looking to build them. I would prefer using our first on a DT or FS, but I could live with an OL there. I just think we're never going to get that monster in the middle on defense if we don't invest a first in it, unless we just happen to get lucky with a later pick.
People also said we couldnt fix the defense in one draft. Looked a lot better last season.
 

kskboys

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I don’t think it really has to be one or the other, and the front office should not enter the draft and free agency with that mindset. As you say, both sides need some work but neither is so far away as to to be hopeless. You need to evaluate the draft specifically for what kind of selections are available at our picks. There is a wide variety of needs that could be chosen in my opinion so best pick available seems like a no brained this year. The one area I would try to focus on is offensive line but even there, I would not reach too much if nothing good is available.
You think we should take another WR? I think your draft strategy stinks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

visionary

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There seem to be some on here who would like for us to scrap half the team and start over. That doesn't mesh with reality for building a contending team. What you can do is somewhat limited. If it came down to using our resources to try to finish what we've built on defense or retooling the offense (cutting and replacing players like Cooper and Collins, letting Schultz go and replacing him, etc.), which would you prefer?

I used to be on the side of finishing out the offense to make it a great unit instead of a pretty great one ... partially because our defenses always seemed so far away from being good. Now, I'm kind of in favor of seeing what Quinn can do if we give him all the pieces he needs to make the defense great. We may be only a stud DT and FS away from that. I'd probably throw in a second LB to pair with Parsons. That's if we re-sign Gregory and Kearse. Of course, there's always the issue of finding those players, but I would probably make it the priority.

Can do both with the right plan. all of these are doable and will make the team much better as a whole

1. Sign Ryan Jensen, C Bucs
2. Trade Cooper for what we can get, a 2 or even less
3. Restructure DLaw
4. Re-sign Kearse, Anger, Hooker, Gregory. Wilson (WR)
5. Resign Neal and Wilson (SS) if they’re cheap
6. Draft: Green rd, Travis Jones rd 2, LB and TE rd 3. There is good value and alternatives available in those rounds

the problem is that we need either a new QB (can’t happen) or new HC/OC (won’t happen) who is more innovative but who Dak will actually listen to because he has very real deficiencies that the current staff are not in a position to address . Without this none of the above will matter
 

gimmesix

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People also said we couldnt fix the defense in one draft. Looked a lot better last season.

We didn't. We made it better, but there were still obvious holes that kept it from being great, particularly at DT and S. Drafting a third-round DT gave us a contributor, but not a difference-maker. Signing cheap FA DTs gave us contributors, not difference makers. You want to have a great unit instead of just a good one you've got to put resources toward it. Look at how many we put toward the defense last year in the draft (a first, second and three thirds) and that couldn't cause a jump to great, even with a much better defensive coordinator.

We know the Joneses aren't going to go strong in free agency, only bringing in the caliber players we got last year. Maybe we can get lucky on another Kearse, but it's likely that if we want the defense to be great, we'll have to hit it as hard as we did last year in the draft.

If we let all the offensive players go that many seem to want to let go and have to get an OL or two, TE, WR and possibly RB, there's no way we can do both. Those who think we can just hit on mid- and late-round players as far as finding quality starters goes are not being realistic. We had one player (Odighizuwa) out of our picks from the third round on start for us this year, and he probably wouldn't have if Gallimore and Hill weren't both hurt to start the year. In fact, the first year was fairly typical for a draft with only one player being a quality starter and two starting overall.

In other words, you've got at most two positions to address with quality starters from this draft, what do you want to address? I want DT and FS, all things being equal. Beyond that, we can expect Dallas to get some cheap fill-in FAs for positions where it loses a starter or needs a contributor. Most will turn out like Kazee, Neal, Watkins or Urban, if we're lucky and they don't turn out like Poe, Griffin, Worley and Clinton-Dix. When you're going cheap, what you get is a mystery.
 

Flamma

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I'm fine with BPA to a point. But we can't be drafting RBs or WRs in the first round.
 

gimmesix

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Can do both with the right plan. all of these are doable and will make the team much better as a whole

1. Sign Ryan Jensen, C Bucs
2. Trade Cooper for what we can get, a 2 or even less
3. Restructure DLaw
4. Re-sign Kearse, Anger, Hooker, Gregory. Wilson (WR)
5. Resign Neal and Wilson (SS) if they’re cheap
6. Draft: Green rd, Travis Jones rd 2, LB and TE rd 3. There is good value and alternatives available in those rounds

the problem is that we need either a new QB (can’t happen) or new HC/OC (won’t happen) who is more innovative but who Dak will actually listen to because he has very real deficiencies that the current staff are not in a position to address . Without this none of the above will matter

1. It isn't likely to happen. Jensen will cost more than what the Joneses like to spend on outside FAs.
2. How are you replacing him if you can trade him?
3. Agreed. We should do that along with restructuring Prescott and IMO Cooper to do No. 4.
4. I'm on board with all of those, but what about Schultz? You are counting on us hitting on a third-round TE? Schultz was the first one we've hit on since Witten.
5. Not against that, but I think Wilson (SS) is still under contract or a RFA.
6. I'd rather move Collins to LG and get a DT and FS in those first two rounds because we won't find (or be willing to pay for) what we need at those positions in FA. I'm for adding an LB in the third, then concentrating on offense after that, knowing that most of those players won't contribute much their first year. Again, this is all things being equal. I'm not saying Dallas should pass on clearly better values at other positions.
 

gimmesix

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I'm fine with BPA to a point. But we can't be drafting RBs or WRs in the first round.

BPA is kind of a myth. There are times when there's clearly one player rated ahead of the rest available (such as with Lamb), but most of the time there are several players when you are picking who are bunched together with not much difference between their rating, especially after you get past the early picks.

Last year, we would have taken a corner over Parsons because even though Parsons was higher rated, it wasn't to the point where the move didn't make sense. Both corners went ahead of Parsons because the teams valued them more and didn't think Parsons was head and shoulders better. Parsons proved his value, but that doesn't mean the strategy was wrong. Need trumps value if there's not a clear difference in the value.
 

Pentagruel

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You think we should take another WR? I think your draft strategy stinks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t know where you got that from. I said evaluate the roster and the available draft picks and be flexible with your choices. If Cooper is cut and Gallup, Wilson not resigned we probably would need a WR, so yeah, evaluate.
 

Zekeats

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How about the GM and Coaches. This guy hasn't won anything in 25+yrs and is still the GM. Most Gms dont make it to year 4 without winning.
 

buybuydandavis

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Where we are drafting, best player is probably a toss-up. We'll have three or four to choose from unless someone falls like Lamb did. One site I just took a look at has Georgia DT Jordan Davis (6-7, 340) No. 19 on its board followed by Michigan S Daxton Hill at 20. There's a guard, Kenyon Green of Texas A&M at 22 at Georgia DT Travon Walker at 26. Who knows where these players will be rated when the draft rolls around, but there could be some players there who fit our needs as well as being the best or among the best available.

Good fit for our needs. DTs, interior oline, and S.

Giggity.
 

Ranched

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Neither! Our offensive line is old. Without a good strong front five, you won't see that running game you're all begging for & Dak will continue being flushed out of the pocket trying to mak plays.
 

morasp

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The offensive line was terrible. It wouldn't bother me a bit if they used three high picks on that unit. It would upgrade both the run and pass games. The draft last year was mostly defense and the biggest jump for NFL players is usually in their second year. You have to see how that plays out.
 

Portnoy1

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Offensive Line and Defensive Line. Aside from QB those are the most important positions in football.
 
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