CFZ Couple of post draft thoughts-we weren't physical enough

Cowboyny

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Maybe its just me, but I honestly believe the offseason offensive plan is to get this team's running game back to the top 5-10. Look no further than 2014 and 2016, when we led the league in rushing. Made Romo and Dak's jobs a lot easier......
This team has always been at it's best when they have had a strong ground attack. Remember, what people were saying early last season, pick your poison offense. Smith, Ferguson will help the run game, but they really need the OL to stay generally healthy to build chemistry. I sense if Tyron again misses extended time, he won't be back next season. There were whispers that the coaches saw Tyron's play start to decline.
 

Hawkeye0202

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This team has always been at it's best when they have had a strong ground attack. Remember, what people were saying early last season, pick your poison offense. Smith, Ferguson will help the run game, but they really need the OL to stay generally healthy to build chemistry. I sense if Tyron again misses extended time, he won't be back next season. There were whispers that the coaches saw Tyron's play start to decline.

It's time......what's interesting is they are not done trying to rebuild this unit. When/if Tyler moves to LT, we'll again be looking for a LG.
 

fivetwos

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Just review Tyler Smith and Waldo back to back and it is obvious the type of player the Cowboys wanted.
- Very physical and very aggressive but also uber athletic.

The TE is a 'gritty' player. He will sell out as a blocker, doing whatever it takes to get the defender blocked.
- He will fight for yards are the catch.

- On defense, watching some of UDFA pass rushers, my first thought was that they looked as if they were trying to exactly emulate Sam Williams style.
- SW ran a 4.46 but his style is not 'speed rusher', his style is more power/leverage then speed when needed.
- Basically the DLaw style but with 4.46 speed instead of DLaw's 4.8 speed.
- DLaw has to play that style but SW had to have been coached to play it because most passer rushers with his speed are finesse players like Robert Quinn.
- The only reason the draft media questioned his run defense is because he played a 4i technique on run downs.
- That technique is normally played by 300 pound DT types like Brent Urban.

The 5th round CB plays with his hair on fire and loves to hit. He was actually too physical in college.
Hey would you mind giving up a few words on a Woletzko vs Ball comparison?

Injury aside, I dont see how there's room for both.
 

Haimerej

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This insistence on "waiting and seeing" is interesting coming from people who can't wait to declare a player is or isn't this or that. I aint namin no names though. The fact of the matter is Smith is a guy who at age 20 had to diet and train like a sumb1tch to get DOWN to a playing weight of 325 while Williams was a guy who at age 25 needed rocks in his pocket to get UP to 305. Smith is already a bigger, and more powerful man who is also a pretty good athlete at his size. He is ready made to maul fools .. Williams was is and always will be a finesse player.. This kid is a power player. Both can be effective.. but power is what the Cowboys were lacking.. so IMHO this is an upgrade.

Connor did more bench reps at the combine than Tyler did at his pro day. For all the talk about Tyler being powerful, where's the proof?
 

75boyz

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Broken record or not, and BobHaze has beaten this into the ground...
Mental toughness as well as physical toughness is needed from this team.

While your OP covers the physical toughness being improved, I have a hard time seeing the mental toughness needed to beat the better teams.

Maybe it's just me, I dunno.

Translation: theyre just too soft.

jmo
 
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Ken

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I mean, Connor Williams might look good if he was going up against Old Dominion and Temple also.

Let's wait and see how Smith looks against NFL competition each week before we crown him. I hope he pans out, because we desperately need him too, but let's just wait and see him in action before we label him "better" at anything. Because he could just as easily be worse or the same. We just don't know yet.
Yes, there is no tape out there against Ohio St, Ok. St., Cincy, or the Senior Bowl.
 

visionary

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That may be true but to do this we needed

1. legitimate 1T DT
2. Bone crusher at MLB
3. Legitimate dominant OC and LOG

I don’t think we did near enough but let’s see
 
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Jfconrow

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I’m my opinion they lost because they had no healthy RBs. Also the OL wasn’t that great Connor Williams has to go and Biadasz hadn’t bulked up yet. The same thing for Steele he needed an off-season to bulk up. I think they addressed to OL with Smith and Waletzko. I’m thinking Smith will be an OG.

Personally I would have liked a 5th round RB, but maybe the LB will recover from neck surgery and be a star. I guess it’s hard to draft a RB early when your paying zeke 18m, so we have zeke for two more years. I hope zeke’s injury heals if not it’s on pollard and the two UDFA RBs.

They beefed up on the DL with Bohanna having an off-season and drafting another NT plus they have Gailmore and Hill with another off season. I would have liked to get a LB earlier but the Williams pick was all about passrush and they still have Vander Esche. I’m thinking the team is more physical now then last year. A SS would have been nice but I like the first two picks OG and DE/OLB.
 

john van brocklin

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Last yr we heard a common theme after several losses late in the yr and even in the playoff loss, "we weren't physical enough". Their strong ground attack totally disappeared. There was an early stretch in which the Cowboys went on a 5 game winning streak, in which they dominated on the ground that led to their success. We can point to many things why it faltered, but they needed to get more physical up front.

Tyler Smith's calling card coming into this league is that he is a dominate run blocker. He is a people mover who will create space in the run game. Yes, he needs work as a pass protector, but he is an immediate upgrade to our run game. He is a similar player to Collins at this stage, but appears to have that want to be great.

We saw how Dalton Shultz really struggled inline as a blocker. Reportedly, he put on a few pounds of muscle this offseason to become better in this area. Jarwin was more of a hybrid big receiver who was a terrible blocker. Enter Jake Ferguson. He is similar to Dalton as a receiver, but a far better blocker at this stage. This will allow more double te sets and have Shultz play more off the line.

Defensively, we know Dan Quinn covets length, but he certainly is targeting elite speed. Parsons is a freak that runs 4.3 at the linebacker position, Sam Williams is a 4.4 player, Devin Harper, Bland were elite speed prospects.
Agreed we were not physical or tough enough.
 

AyeAtey

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Broken record or not, and BobHaze has beaten this into the ground...
Mental toughness as well as physical toughness is needed from this team.

While your OP covers the physical toughness being improved, I have a hard time seeing the mental toughness needed to beat the better teams.

Maybe it's just me, I dunno.

Translation: theyre just too soft.

jmo
Spot on, regarding the mental toughness. The Boys could use some of that across the board.
 

BAT

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That may be true but to do this we needed

1. legitimate 1T DT
2. Bone crusher at MLB
3. Legitimate dominant OC and LOG

I don’t think we did near enough but let’s see

I agree.

Cowboys desperately need a monster in the middle vs run.

Even better if that guy was a green dot too.

Reason why I wanted Leo Chenal.
 

MountaineerCowboy

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Yes, there is no tape out there against Ohio St, Ok. St., Cincy, or the Senior Bowl.
Him playing against other players that may or may not pan out in the NFL? His entire college career he might have played against 1 or 2 guys that will start on an NFL team. He will be playing against that every single week now.

Your bias over shadows logic too much.

You can crown him. I don't care. I chose to wait and see. That shouldn't bother you.
 

visionary

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I agree.

Cowboys desperately need a monster in the middle vs run.

Even better if that guy was a green dot too.

Reason why I wanted Leo Chenal.

Travis Jones was sitting there at 56 but they bypassed him
 
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youngjerryjones

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I find it hard to buy into the "get more physical" matra. Sure Tyler Smith makes us more physical than Connor Williams........what else did we do? Ferguson in the 4th and Ridgeway in the 5th really isn't a significant investment..... and how about free agency. If we were dead serious about getting more physical we would have signed a tone-setter in place of LVE to play LB and someone more physical than Watkins. I also don't think Biadasz as the presumed starter at OC fits the get more physical messaging.
you got rid of Amari Cooper who promotes not practicing, you got rid of RG who is undisciplined and has availability issues, you also got rid of another penalty machine in CWill. Amari replaced by an inferior younger guy who can be molded, RG replaced by a faster and better prospect at a younger age for cheaper, CWill replaced by another college penalty machine, but should solve our issues of soft serve icecream up the middle
 

Ken

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Him playing against other players that may or may not pan out in the NFL? His entire college career he might have played against 1 or 2 guys that will start on an NFL team. He will be playing against that every single week now.

Your bias over shadows logic too much.

You can crown him. I don't care. I chose to wait and see. That shouldn't bother you.
Nah, I haven't crowned him. You think i have bias bc he is cowboy, I assure you I don't.

I also haven't completely rained on everyone's parade either.
 

MountaineerCowboy

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Nah, I haven't crowned him. You think i have bias bc he is cowboy, I assure you I don't.

I also haven't completely rained on everyone's parade either.
Why would anyone have a parade for a guy that hasn't played a snap in the NFL?

If you're having a parade for that then it needs rained on and you need a reality check.
 

baltcowboy

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Last yr we heard a common theme after several losses late in the yr and even in the playoff loss, "we weren't physical enough". Their strong ground attack totally disappeared. There was an early stretch in which the Cowboys went on a 5 game winning streak, in which they dominated on the ground that led to their success. We can point to many things why it faltered, but they needed to get more physical up front.

Tyler Smith's calling card coming into this league is that he is a dominate run blocker. He is a people mover who will create space in the run game. Yes, he needs work as a pass protector, but he is an immediate upgrade to our run game. He is a similar player to Collins at this stage, but appears to have that want to be great.

We saw how Dalton Shultz really struggled inline as a blocker. Reportedly, he put on a few pounds of muscle this offseason to become better in this area. Jarwin was more of a hybrid big receiver who was a terrible blocker. Enter Jake Ferguson. He is similar to Dalton as a receiver, but a far better blocker at this stage. This will allow more double te sets and have Shultz play more off the line.

Defensively, we know Dan Quinn covets length, but he certainly is targeting elite speed. Parsons is a freak that runs 4.3 at the linebacker position, Sam Williams is a 4.4 player, Devin Harper, Bland were elite speed prospects.
Nothing against La’el but he also came in with a diva attitude and was not very good at guard. Saying that this was going be an all time great offensive line was very arrogant. La’el hurting his foot was a blessing in disguise for the 2016 season as Leary came back in. Tyler is bigger more athletic Ron Leary. He is big and mean.
Ferguson was my least favorite pick of the draft but the Wisconsin background should help him in the power running game.

This will be the best Cowboys defense since the 2009 season. The team is fast and talented at all three levels.
 

baltcowboy

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We do not know if Tyler Smith is an upgrade or not until he shows it on the field against NFL competition week in and week out.

Saying any of these draft picks, without seeing them against NFL level competition yet, is an "upgrade" is foolish and wishful thinking.
Do you feel the same way about the Eagles draft picks?
 
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