We are seriously rolling into the season with Heath again?

Streetwise said:

He's underrated. Not the greatest Safety on the planet, but he's made plays and he's solid on special teams.

It's easy to just point the finger at the Safties being that they are the last line of defense, but blame is spread among the CBs and LBers.

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How is he underrated? I guess if you think the prevailing opinion is that Heath is the worst safety in football, yes, I guess you could argue he's underrated since he clearly isn't the worst S in the NFL.

But he's not a very good starting safety in this league and if people believe otherwise, they are overrating him. It will be a true screw up by this franchise if Jeff Heath is the starting SS come Sept 2019.

Here is what Football Outsiders had to say about our secondary and the reasons why it wasn't a very good secondary. They largely blamed Heath and Awuzie.

Jeff Heath can not tackle. We noted last year in this space that Heath had more missed tackles (11) than defeats (six). The problem got worse in 2018, as Heath's 22 broken tackles were the second-most allowed in the league. Heath just isn't a starting-caliber strong safety; he's a quality special teams player who has been promoted beyond his skill set. Bringing in a new safety -- either strong or free, as Woods would do just fine moving into the strong safety position -- would help a defense that ranked 19th or worse when covering tight ends, running backs, or third wideouts. In addition, cornerback Chidobe Awuzie finished 81st out of 85 qualified cornerbacks in success rate. Replacing either Heath or Awuzie, or preferably both, would help a defense that hasn't finished in the top 10 against the pass since 2007.

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It is mindnumbing that this franchise is not doing everything in their power to improve the SS position. And the logic of "well they'll draft their starting SS" is bizarre because you have no idea how the draft will fall.

I love Jeff Heath. I don't mind having him back at all.

Sydla said:

How is he underrated? I guess if you think the prevailing opinion is that Heath is the worst safety in football, yes, I guess you could argue he's underrated since he clearly isn't the worst S in the NFL.

But he's not a very good starting safety in this league and if people believe otherwise, they are overrating him. It will be a true screw up by this franchise if Jeff Heath is the starting SS come Sept 2019.

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I clearly explained my take if you read past the first sentence.

Streetwise said:

I clearly explained my take if you read past the first sentence.

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I read it and it doesn't jive. Because most people here think he's an average safety that's better as a backup and a ST guy. You seem to think that's "underrating him".

The only way Heath is underrated is if you believe that most, the vast majority of people, think Heath is the worst safety in football.

Frankly, I think the majority of fans "rate" Heath properly. He should be on our roster as a backup but shouldn't be the starting SS in 2019 if this team is serious about improving the team.

Sydla said:

I read it and it doesn't jive. Because most people here think he's an average safety that's better as a backup and a ST guy. You seem to think that's "underrating him".

The only way Heath is underrated is if you believe that most, the vast majority of people, think Heath is the worst safety in football.

Frankly, I think the majority of fans "rate" Heath properly. He should be on our roster as a backup but shouldn't be the starting SS in 2019 if this team is serious about improving the team.

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I tend to form my own opinion and not the general consensus of a discussion forum. What "most think" here is far from 100% accurate.

Let me clear things up for you, he's not the greatest, but you can't sign elite players at every position. And he doesn't exactly have the greatest Safety help either. He is available, doesn't get injured, makes solid plays, creates turnovers is very good in special teams and hell, can even kick FGs.

Why the edit?

Streetwise said:

I tend to form my own opinion and not the general consensus of a discussion forum. What "most think" here is far from 100% accurate.

Let me clear things up for you, he's not the greatest, but you can't sign elite players at every position. And he doesn't exactly have the greatest Safety help either. He is available, doesn't get injured, makes solid plays, creates turnovers is very good in special teams and hell, can even kick FGs.

Why the edit?

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Not sure what I edited. I guess the post didn't read like I wanted or didn't like what I said.

There's a strawman in your 2nd paragraph with the elite player comment. No one has really suggested we should have elite players at every position. But Heath is a bottom half of the league starting SS that you could upgrade for a fair contract. It's also strange to try to blame Woods' play, in part, for Heath's poor play. Xavier Woods wasn't the reason that Heath was the 2nd worst tackling starting S in the NFL last year. It wasn't Woods' fault that Heath lacked play awareness against the Rams when he was staring at a TE who was blocking Crawford and let Goff run right by him for a crucial conversion.

When Stephen Jones talks about not being content with status quo and upgrading the team to get better, Heath has to be one of the guys you look to replace because he was also arguably one of the worst starters the Cowboys had last year.

Jeff Heath is not a bum.
Jeff Heath is not a star.
Jeff Heath is a JAG.
Jeff Heath is not the worst JAG.

How many games can you name where we lost directly because of Heath?

I feel certain we can all remember at least 2 games we won directly because of Heath.

I hope we get someone better in FA and/or the draft, but our defense/secondary doesn't fall apart if Heath has to play again.

Chuck 54 said:

Jeff Heath is not a bum.
Jeff Heath is not a star.
Jeff Heath is a JAG.
Jeff Heath is not the worst JAG.

How many games can you name where we lost directly because of Heath?

I feel certain we can all remember at least 2 games we won directly because of Heath.

I hope we get someone better in FA and/or the draft, but our defense/secondary doesn't fall apart if Heath has to play again.

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Define fall apart, because even with Jones playing a really good CB, do you know our pass defense was one of the bottom third in the NFL by many measures and middle of the pack in others?

The Cowboys were:

27th in opposing QB completion percentage - 67.7%
26th in interceptions
22nd in opposing QB rating
13th in Yards per Attempt
13th in Yards per game
16th in Football Outsiders pass defense ranking
19th according to Football Outsiders in covering TEs, WRs and slot WRs.

This team was an average to bad pass defense and a big factor in that was Heath (and Awuzie if you want to look at CB as well).

There is/was no reason to not upgrade one of the weakest links on your defense, especially when your GM claims they have to make the roster better and not settle for the status quo. There were/are cheap options in FA that would have helped us. Sure we have the draft too, but using a 4th or 5th round pick on a S wouldn't be my upgrade of a legit immediate upgrade.

Sydla said:

Not sure what I edited. I guess the post didn't read like I wanted or didn't like what I said.

There's a strawman in your 2nd paragraph with the elite player comment. No one has really suggested we should have elite players at every position. But Heath is a bottom half of the league starting SS that you could upgrade for a fair contract. It's also strange to try to blame Woods' play, in part, for Heath's poor play. Xavier Woods wasn't the reason that Heath was the 2nd worst tackling starting S in the NFL last year. It wasn't Woods' fault that Heath lacked play awareness against the Rams when he was staring at a TE who was blocking Crawford and let Goff run right by him for a crucial conversion.

When Stephen Jones talks about not being content with status quo and upgrading the team to get better, Heath has to be one of the guys you look to replace because he was also arguably one of the worst starters the Cowboys had last year.

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2nd worst tackler? I've not read that. Source?
What I did read was in 2018, Heath was 3rd best in top 10 ranked defenses in tackles. And you blaming Heath for the defensive unit collapse vs. Rams is telling, since the defensive line, then LBers are responsible for ultimately stopping the run - which they failed to do. Even those you only mentioned one play.
I'm all for improving positions, but it's completely idiotic to once again ignore the defensive line - specifically the DTs.

Streetwise said:

2nd worst tackler? I've not read that. Source?
What I did read was in 2018, Heath was 3rd best in top 10 ranked defenses in tackles. And you blaming Heath for the defensive unit collapse vs. Rams is telling, since the defensive line, then LBers are responsible for ultimately stopping the run - which they failed to do. Even those you only mentioned one play.
I'm all for improving positions, but it's completely idiotic to once again ignore the defensive line - specifically the DTs.

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I didn't blame Heath for the defense's collapse against the Rams but he absolutely played a part in it (coaches too). He was also the one, on a crucial fourth down play late in the game lacked awareness and let Goff run right past him for a first down because he got caught staring at a TE he thought he should be covering that was actually just blocking Crawford down the line.

Also, you'll find that I have been very bullish on upgrading the DL, specifically DT. Shoot, I'd see what Suh wants right now and see if you can get him on a one year deal like he played for in LA last year. But DT and S were the two most pressing issues on the defense last year and all they have done is bring in a solid backup DT.

And I linked the source in this thread earlier, but here it is again. This if from Football Outsiders, but this stat has also been tweeted by other beat writers as well:

Jeff Heath can not tackle. We noted last year in this space that Heath had more missed tackles (11) than defeats (six). The problem got worse in 2018, as Heath's 22 broken tackles were the second-most allowed in the league. Heath just isn't a starting-caliber strong safety; he's a quality special teams player who has been promoted beyond his skill set. Bringing in a new safety -- either strong or free, as Woods would do just fine moving into the strong safety position -- would help a defense that ranked 19th or worse when covering tight ends, running backs, or third wideouts. In addition, cornerback Chidobe Awuzie finished 81st out of 85 qualified cornerbacks in success rate. Replacing either Heath or Awuzie, or preferably both, would help a defense that hasn't finished in the top 10 against the pass since 2007.

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Sydla said:

Here is what Football Outsiders had to say about our secondary and the reasons why it wasn't a very good secondary. They largely blamed Heath and Awuzie.



It is mindnumbing that this franchise is not doing everything in their power to improve the SS position. And the logic of "well they'll draft their starting SS" is bizarre because you have no idea how the draft will fall.

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Well at least we low balled some safties..lol

I’m more concerned about the state of our DL. Safety is something that can take a backseat to DL. We are dangerously thin at DE with Gregory gone. Lawrence should be here, but if the FO decides to play hardball, we are in trouble.

Fix the DL, then worry about Heath.

Bizwah said:

I’m more concerned about the state of our DL. Safety is something that can take a backseat to DL. We are dangerously thin at DE with Gregory gone. Lawrence should be here, but if the FO decides to play hardball, we are in trouble.

Fix the DL, then worry about Heath.

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Hopefully, the Quinn trade gets done in the next couple of days and that will be a huge boost to the d-line. That assumes little Stevie doesn't piss him off with lowball offers.

Without Quinn, this d-line has some major problems.

Heaths rep

Sydla said:

I read it and it doesn't jive. Because most people here think he's an average safety that's better as a backup and a ST guy. You seem to think that's "underrating him".

The only way Heath is underrated is if you believe that most, the vast majority of people, think Heath is the worst safety in football.

Frankly, I think the majority of fans "rate" Heath properly. He should be on our roster as a backup but shouldn't be the starting SS in 2019 if this team is serious about improving the team.

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Heaths future replacement probably will be at 58, if your looking at this up coming draft with eyes wide open.