News: BTB: Philadelphia serves as example that free agency can work, will Cowboys try in 2018?

It would be nice to try moves that get you to the Super Bowl.

Two years ago when the Denver Broncos won Super Bowl 50 many thought that the revolution of free agency was going to take off.

John Elway had built his team primarily off of spending big. He acquired Peyton Manning, DeMarcus Ware (whimpers), Aqib Talib, T.J. Ward, and Emmanuel Sanders among others that helped earn them a title. Of course they did draft Von Miller.

The Dallas Cowboys haven’t traditionally been a team that takes those types of shots (we’re talking current day, not your 90s teams). They believe in building through the draft and developing your own.

This is a great idea, and it’s worked for teams, see the Green Bay Packers. Breaking news here though, the Cowboys aren’t the Packers. The second round has seen plenty of failure. You can’t solely depend on the draft if you whiff on big picks.

On Sunday we saw the Philadelphia Eagles punch their ticket to Super Bowl LII. They did this with a starting quarterback (Nick Foles), starting receivers (Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith), and a big-contributing running back (LeGarrette Blount) that they brought in via free agency last offseason. This doesn’t even include pass rusher Chris Long or running back Jay Ajayi who they traded for mid-season.


The Eagles basically re-tooled their skill positions on offense, and tricked out their defense, in one fell swoop of an offseason. Is this a flawless strategy that 31 other teams should adopt? Of course not, but free agency certainly has benefits, and the Cowboys are reluctant to try and capitalize on them.

To say the Cowboys shopped in the bargain bin last offseason would be to put it kindly. Dallas brought in players like Stephen Paea, Nolan Carroll, Damontre Moore, and Byron Bell. The first three, the biggest, wouldn’t even survive the season with the team, and one was because the player retired (Paea).

Stephen Jones once infamously referred to free agency as not a great way to build a football team, the 2017 Eagles (among others) serve as contradictions to that philosophy.


In no way is it wise to suggest the Cowboys completely shift philosophies 180 degrees and adopt an all-in approach to free agency as the method to build their football team, but embracing some of free agency could be a wise move.

It’s understandable for anyone in an NFL front office to favor the draft over paying players big-time contracts, but to be so close-minded to the latter leads to free agency disasters like the Cowboys are having while other teams reap the benefit of rolling the dice.

And that’s the other thing. You can have a cold approach to free agency if you’re constantly churning out gold stars with your draft picks. The Cowboys have done well for the most part in drafting recently, but the second round has been a huge issue. The second round is a very important pick, if you missed there it can put your team behind.

Philadelphia isn’t the first team to reach the Super Bowl off of big free agency moves. They aren’t innovators, they’re merely open to all ideas, the mark of legitimate front offices. They saw opportunities, rolled the dice, and they hit on their investments.

The Eagles won’t be the last team to hit on this particular philosophy, but it does feel like the Cowboys need to join the club or they won’t hit on any.

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Good read.

While the statement about building through the draft is authentic and sensible, the 'Boys do have a history of filling obvious deficits through FA, so that they can feel more free to draft the BPA. Considering that, we might see them get DL, OL, WR, or LB as FA's.

Need to hit on Gathers and Jaylen this year. Hate to say it, but Witten needs to go - he's stopping progress.

good article, but we can just do a madlibs

_____ team did ______ successfully, why don't the cowboys do that?

save everyone a lot of energy

The biggest issue for me is Stephen refusal to sign 30+ age players. There are some good players we/ve left on the table (the early 30s ).

• DALLAS COWBOYS GENERAL

Philadelphia serves as example that free agency can work, will Cowboys try in 2018?
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It would be nice to try moves that get you to the Super Bowl.
Two years ago when the Denver Broncos won Super Bowl 50 many thought that the revolution of free agency was going to take off.

John Elway had built his team primarily off of spending big. He acquired Peyton Manning, DeMarcus Ware (whimpers), Aqib Talib, T.J. Ward, and Emmanuel Sanders among others that helped earn them a title. Of course they did draft Von Miller.

The Dallas Cowboys haven’t traditionally been a team that takes those types of shots (we’re talking current day, not your 90s teams). They believe in building through the draft and developing your own.

This is a great idea, and it’s worked for teams, see the Green Bay Packers. Breaking news here though, the Cowboys aren’t the Packers. The second round has seen plenty of failure. You can’t solely depend on the draft if you whiff on big picks.

On Sunday we saw the Philadelphia Eagles punch their ticket to Super Bowl LII. They did this with a starting quarterback (Nick Foles), starting receivers (Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith), and a big-contributing running back (LeGarrette Blount) that they brought in via free agency last offseason. This doesn’t even include pass rusher Chris Long or running back Jay Ajayi who they traded for mid-season

for this to work the front office has to have a plan and know what they are doing and also would help if the head coach had a little insight into what is going on

the days of spending big in free agency for the most part are done in dallas. i could see them making a splash for like a player that would fill a position of need and be a stud right away IE Earl Thomas but i think for most part what we've seen the last 3 or so years is the new FA philosophy.

and yeah as much as i want to get FA that would come in and help us right away why pay for guys that this coaching staff wont know how to use.

We should also point out their method in using FA.

They didn't sign anyone to any long term deals in FA. Jernigan was a trade and on the last year of his deal. Jeffrey was a one year deal. Blount was a one year deal. I believe Chris Long is a one year deal. Robinson was a one year deal.

Now they did extend Jeffrey during the season, but the Eagles worked that mid-level FA level finding competent players that were immediate helps to the team without immediately locking themselves into any potential long term pain. Now it remains to be seen if they will see the return on investment in Jeffrey but at the time, they didn't lock themselves in on anyone.

Doc50 said:

Good read.

While the statement about building through the draft is authentic and sensible, the 'Boys do have a history of filling obvious deficits through FA, so that they can feel more free to draft the BPA. Considering that, we might see them get DL, OL, WR, or LB as FA's.

Need to hit on Gathers and Jaylen this year. Hate to say it, but Witten needs to go - he's stopping progress.

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I guess we (fans) fail to realize the draft has been good the past several years. So, instead of signing free agents from other teams, Dallas is focused on re-sgining their own. Anyone okay with Martin and Lawrence, or even Hitchens, walking?

we have no money to spend in free agency. and we haven't addressed the need for a good hc and a good gm. philly has both. we have neither. patriots have both. jaguars have both. Vikings have both.

I get why they brought TWill back because it was such a bargain, but Dallas would be in the playoffs if they had signed Alshon Jeffrey. And the bonus would be that it would have taken him away from the Eagles.

Over the long haul the Dallas strategy of building through the draft is better than trying to get the right FAs at the right price (example - DeMarco Murray) but it is painful to see Philly in the Super Bowl.

we need our coaches to put our players into their strengths. its not always the players.

cern said:

we have no money to spend in free agency.

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Except for 30 - 50 Million dollars, the cubbard is bare. There isn't two nickels to rub together, except for tens of millions of dollars. Or something.

Kaiser said:

I get why they brought TWill back because it was such a bargain, but Dallas would be in the playoffs if they had signed Alshon Jeffrey. And the bonus would be that it would have taken him away from the Eagles.

Over the long haul the Dallas strategy of building through the draft is better than trying to get the right FAs at the right price (example - DeMarco Murray) but it is painful to see Philly in the Super Bowl.

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It is painful but I'm comforted knowing there is a limited window of sustainability. 2017 was a great year for Philly but the likelihood of them repeating that success in 2018 is slim.

Kaiser said:

Except for 30 - 50 Million dollars, the cubbard is bare. There isn't two nickels to rub together, except for tens of millions of dollars. Or something.

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Lots of times it didn't take a lot of $$$$. Look out much the Packs squeezed out Julius Peppers.

Zimmy Lives said:

I guess we (fans) fail to realize the draft has been good the past several years. So, instead of signing free agents from other teams, Dallas is focused on re-sgining their own. Anyone okay with Martin and Lawrence, or even Hitchens, walking?

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I have no issue with Hitchens walking.

I think he's overrated by some here and I think because our LBs are so bad, he is made to look better than he really is in comparison. I would not pay him top starting ILB money, in that $5-7MM range unless it was very low on guaranteed money.

Sydla said:

I have no issue with Hitchens walking.

I think he's overrated by some here and I think because our LBs are so bad, he is made to look better than he really is in comparison. I would not pay him top starting ILB money, in that $5-7MM range unless it was very low on guaranteed money.

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I agree. I would work to keep top players and, if middling players want to get paid, I'd let them walk and try to replace them with something comparable at a lesser price. I like Hitch but if he wants big bucks, I'd say good-bye.

Zimmy Lives said:

It is painful but I'm comforted knowing there is a limited window of sustainability. 2017 was a great year for Philly but the likelihood of them repeating that success in 2018 is slim.

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Repeating as a 13 game winner? Probably not. But they return their entire core, will get Wentz back and apparently have a really good staff. I would expect them to be right in the thick of it for the division, if not the leader, unless we see a very productive offseason ourselves.

Zimmy Lives said:

I agree. I would work to keep top players and, if middling players want to get paid, I'd let them walk and try to replace them with something comparable at a lesser price. I like Hitch but if he wants big bucks, I'd say good-bye.

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Ideally I'd like to keep him. But I suspect someone might get stupid in FA and I am not getting in a bidding war for a guy like him.

Zimmy Lives said:

It is painful but I'm comforted knowing there is a limited window of sustainability. 2017 was a great year for Philly but the likelihood of them repeating that success in 2018 is slim.

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The Eagles also don't have 2nd and 3rd round picks this year so some of this year's performance was frontloading those picks with the Wentz trade.