First of all, you made the claims, it is you who needs to post whatever you think it is that I said. Secondly, I didn't want to "Sacrifice" anything. This is not and was not a Satanic Ritual and I am not deranged so nothing so dramatic as that I'm afraid. However, based on your Sacrifice Claim, I can see why you are in the dark here. I never wanted to give up anybody but I never made the decisions to overpay players and put us in a position that we could not manage, cap wise. That came as a result of contract decisions like the one we made with Tony, much earlier. Decisions like those are why we could resign the players we wanted in the first place. It's pretty easy to blame the team for not resigning Murray but in truth, the minute Tony was extended, it meant that either Dez or Murray or Ware were not coming back, just like I explained, in those threads years ago. Those are the facts.
The Poor performance by Tony is here nor there. I didn't start the thread so it really has nothing to do with me to be honest and it has nothing to do with this conversation. You can say that the reason that all started was Tony's poor performance and that might or might not be true, I don't know. That was not the primary reason I didn't want to sign Tony to a long term deal. That's really a circular argument. "The thread was only started because of Tony's poor performane" or "Well yeah, if he would not have played poorly, there would be no reason to discuss it". I mean, when you really think about it, the entire idea of what you said is silly. Of course the thread existed because Tony played poorly. Had he played well, that thread never exists but more to the point, had he not repeatedly played poorly in big games, this would not persist. This is not a shot at Tony, it's just the truth of the matter. I don't agree about the injuries. There were concerns and they proved true. That's just being dishonest. There were plenty of concerns and clearly, they were warranted. Of course realize what it sounds like when you say, "Tony had no injuries (which is not true) but Ware had multiple injuries that season so it was the right move to release him" yes? Same thing with Murray, I mean, I don't necessarily disagree because the book on Murray, coming out of OU was that he was injury prone and the Cowboys new that when they drafted him so it is what it is. I will say this, I believe that once Tony was signed, the Cowboys were never going to give him big money and that's why they had no problem giving him over 400 carries in a season. They new what that meant long term and they could have managed that but they didn't. The Sean Lee contract is not relevant to Dez or any other player. His contract and how it was set up is actually more friendly to the team and allows for flexibility, as well as protection against injuries. The contract is actually cheap through this season and doesn't get expensive till next season. This is probably why we drafted the injured Smith in the 2nd round. The 80% pay for play clause protects the team against injuries on Lee so the Dez vs Lee contract is a none starter. The Dez contract is what it is and honestly, all that really shows is that the concerns over his future contractual demands were valid.
By your logic, Jerry will ride Tony through a bad contract until he retires and we will be saddled with a poor option (like Carter) for years to come. We will suffer through 10 years of failed management poor football before we right the ship and have nothing to show for it because Jerry will repeat his mistakes from the 90s. Is that about it? Just remember that in your scenario, all of the decisions made to prop up Troy were poor and they failed miserably. You can't just take some of the story and use it to support your position without taking all of it. What does that say about the Tony decision? Fortunately, I do not hold with that. There is no reason to think that we would have taken Smith or Manual. We might have but then again, we might not have. We know that Jerry loved Lynch but is he on the team? As I recall, Manning was also an FA then so who is to say that we wouldn't have signed him or some other FA option? Obviously, we would have had the cap to do it. Lets say we went with Smith or Manual, the option would have still been there to take Derek Carr in 2014 and we really like him. I can't imagine we would not have taken him if Smith or Manual would have been the picks but to be honest, it's probably more likely that we would have taken a QB in 2012. It could have been Wilson or Osweiler or Cousins or Foles. I honestly doubt it would have been Manual or Smith.
The Cowboys have created the "Can't Function" situation with Tony themselves. This offense is created to facilitate him and that makes it a problem. However, if Tony is gone, then that problem is gone and you run a more traditional Offense. I don't really buy the whole, "Can't Win Without Tony" theory. At some point, we will have to and then we will see if that is true.
Let's not forget this quote of mine.