Albert Breer: On the Cowboys RB issues and draft tidbits

[Yakuza Rich]

I very much disagree with that.

Witten has been on a downward slide for a while now.

His blocking has gotten progressively worse, and it was never stellar. He's a penalty-waiting-to-happen and his run-after-catch skills (ahem).

The guy's an expert in finding soft spots in a zone defense and his hands are excellent. But those two rights are not making up for a whole bunch of wrongs at this point.

This season Witten is the 68th rated TE out of 72 rated on PFF.

That shouldn't be hard to improve on.

There seems to me to be a dearth of quality TE's lately. We're not even seeing that many good pass-catching TE's coming out.

I think in this offense, it's very imperative to have a Witten type of TE because you need the pass catching and you need the blocking for the running game. When the TE's are blocking well, the running game tends to really go smoothly.

The YAC stuff with Witten never bothered me too much other than the Cowboys using him on pivot patterns which he can't do. There's far more to important things that a player like Witten has to do such as time his route so he is in sync with the WR running and that forces the safety to choose to help on Witten or the WR. He does that very well along with finding spots in the zone. And when healthy, he's still one of the best run starting TE's when it comes to run blocking. He's just not healthy this year.

A few years ago, I would have agreed with you, but we just haven't seen that many good TE's come out other than Eifert and Kelce.






YR

 

[Alexander]

That is some priceless stuff right there.

What is so priceless about it?

What the YPG and YPC stats do not tell us is about the efficiency in terms of how the offense is run.

I don't think I have to remind anyone how we cannot get a 3rd and 1 this year to save our lives where last year we made a living at it.

Even Linehan admits something is "different". On paper, you can see the results are okay.

there is a missing end result of the running game and that is the overall reliability of it and it's ability to be a core function of what we are. If our running game was more reliable, we might have been able to weather the storm of losing Romo a little better. We just aren't getting the "dirty yards" from last year, but have a lot of chunk runs that are skewing the averages. Where we had a lot of 2nd and 4 plays last year, we have a lot of 2nd and 8 plays that now get erased by an explosive run. In other words, people wanted more of the big "meat on the bone" runs that Murray didn't get. Well they got that, minus the little things that kept drives alive and established tempo.

Is that a function of who is running the ball? I absolutely think it is.

 

[DandyDon1722]

There seems to me to be a dearth of quality TE's lately. We're not even seeing that many good pass-catching TE's coming out.

I think in this offense, it's very imperative to have a Witten type of TE because you need the pass catching and you need the blocking for the running game. When the TE's are blocking well, the running game tends to really go smoothly.

The YAC stuff with Witten never bothered me too much other than the Cowboys using him on pivot patterns which he can't do. There's far more to important things that a player like Witten has to do such as time his route so he is in sync with the WR running and that forces the safety to choose to help on Witten or the WR. He does that very well along with finding spots in the zone. And when healthy, he's still one of the best run starting TE's when it comes to run blocking. He's just not healthy this year.

A few years ago, I would have agreed with you, but we just haven't seen that many good TE's come out other than Eifert and Kelce.






YR

Agree Rich and its why Hanna is valuable. What's tricky is that Esobar and Witten are both exceptional at different skill sets. Escobar is a downfield receiver while Witten us a sit down receiver. I think Escobar could be a top tier receiving tight end in another system and a lot of teams would value him much more than we do.

As long as Romo and Witten are still playing not much will change in the offense at the TE position..

 

[Tusan_Homichi]

I very much disagree with that.

Witten has been on a downward slide for a while now.

His blocking has gotten progressively worse, and it was never stellar. He's a penalty-waiting-to-happen and his run-after-catch skills (ahem).

The guy's an expert in finding soft spots in a zone defense and his hands are excellent. But those two rights are not making up for a whole bunch of wrongs at this point.

This season Witten is the 68th rated TE out of 72 rated on PFF.

That shouldn't be hard to improve on.

 

[big dog cowboy]

What is so priceless about it?

Everything.

 

[mahoneybill]

I had and still have no problem letting Murray walk. RB is not worth his asking price. The problem was the Cowboys solution. McFadden, Randle, Dunbar wasn't close to an answer.

They can put out the Gurley, Yeldon, Rawls conjecture, but they failed to pull the trigger on any. Heck they traded back in to the 7th, to take the inactive for nearly every game Swaim. Rawls was there, but nope, they felt fine at RB.


Further, Langford and the kid from USC the Ravens took where available mid draft and they didn't bite. DUMB.

Our RB issues are compounded by the fact that teams bunch defend us at the point of attack and we haven't found a way to make them pay for it by some deception/quick hitter passes like other teams .

 

[ElGatoGrande]

an upgrade to our RBBC would be nice, but this team needs upgrades at a half-dozen other positions and it may need to seize this rare opportunity to draft a top QB. This team could have another great off-season and still not end up with a star RB when it's over.

 

[wileedog]

Man, I can't express with English words how tired I am over the angst over the Dallas Cowboys RB position. It's almost completely a non-issue. Yes, they could have drafted a player who'd be an upgrade to the current DMC lead back. Yes, there are things they could and should be doing better on third-and-ones. But RB is so far down the list of problems for this team this year, it's not even funny. And it would be even further down the list if a guy they'd tabbed early to carry a large part of the load--Dunbar--hadn't been lost after 3 games.

The Murray Situation in PHI, though, is hilarious. I love that he's been marginalized about half way through his first season, and I love that he's handling that by going over the coach and to the owner. I hope that situation becomes a huge disaster for both parties, and I'm going to love it when it does.

I disagree. Handing the starting job to Randle, a flake who was clearly best suited as a change of pace back was a mistake. Period. Not spending a pick on a RB in a draft full of RB talent that has shown itself around the league this season was a mistake. Period.

Did it cause all of the heartache this season? Of course not. And I'm as happy as anyone to see the karma biting Murray in the arse in Philly, But the fact that we are going to end this lousy season with nothing better than a year-older McFadden in that spot for next year is just bad planning for the future. A Matt Jones, Langford, Buck Williams, Karlos Williams or Rawls would all make this team significantly better going into next year than anyone we picked after Gregory.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Rawls in the 7th would have been nice. A lot of Cowboys reporters didn't like Demarco for the same reasons mentioned by Breer.

Seeing that Garrett's dad didn't hire him and he is not related Jerry I question if you know what nepotism really means.. Nepotismmeans you hire within and show preference to your biological family.

Now if you had shown his brother who he fired or any of Jerry's kids then sure but Jason isn't a good example of nepotism much less epitomize it.

 

[Jarv]

Rawls in the 7th would have been nice. A lot of Cowboys reporters didn't like Demarco for the same reasons mentioned by Breer.

Yeah he would have been quite a steal over Nzeocha or Gibson. Of course i myself had no idea who Rawls was at the time.

 

[MagicMan]

The joke here was the FO..........screwed up big time in evaluating the RB position AND the backup QB position in pre season. And then not having the brain matter to come up with creative and distinct game plans when we got smacked in the face with the injuries to Romo and Dez. .............. Yeah, the Philly thing is hilarious but it's like Dallas is the smallest midget in the NFCE and I guess anything for a laugh nowadays.

And I don't know what's worse-------------------nepotism or just plain idiocy.

 

[percyhoward]

We just aren't getting the "dirty yards" from last year, but have a lot of chunk runs that are skewing the averages.

We had more of those average-skewing long runs last year. This year's rushing average (4.4) is indicative of what we're able to do on a down-by-down basis, which isn't quite as good as what we did last year (4.6). We've had more runs of the 1-5 yard variety than 6-10, which you would expect when running against stacked boxes.

Runs of >20 yards
2014: 18 of 493 (3.7%)
2015: 10 of 339 (3.0%) -18.9%

Runs of 11-20 yards
2014: 38 of 493 (7.6%)
2015: 25 of 339 (7.4%) -2.6%

Runs of 6-10 yards
2014: 129 of 493 (26.2%)
2015: 80 of 339 (23.6%) -9.9%

Runs of 1-5 yards
2014: 212 of 493 (43.0%)
2015: 166 of 339 (49.0%)+12.2%

No gain or loss
2014: 96 of 493 (19.5%)
2015: 58 of 339 (17.0%)-12.8%

In any case, yards per carry doesn't correlate to winning anyway. As you said, it's the overall reliability of the running game that matters, and its ability to be the core function of what we are. The identity we established last year was ball control mixed with quick strike ability and a run-pass threat in the red zone. We're #1 in TOP this year, but the ball control isn't enough without the quick strikes and a red zone passing threat. Our short-yardage run game that ranked 6th in the league two weeks ago has fallen to 18th because teams know we're justifiably scared to pass in that situation.

 

[Nightman]

What is so priceless about it?

What the YPG and YPC stats do not tell us is about the efficiency in terms of how the offense is run.

I don't think I have to remind anyone how we cannot get a 3rd and 1 this year to save our lives where last year we made a living at it.

Even Linehan admits something is "different". On paper, you can see the results are okay.

there is a missing end result of the running game and that is the overall reliability of it and it's ability to be a core function of what we are. If our running game was more reliable, we might have been able to weather the storm of losing Romo a little better. We just aren't getting the "dirty yards" from last year, but have a lot of chunk runs that are skewing the averages. Where we had a lot of 2nd and 4 plays last year, we have a lot of 2nd and 8 plays that now get erased by an explosive run. In other words, people wanted more of the big "meat on the bone" runs that Murray didn't get. Well they got that, minus the little things that kept drives alive and established tempo.

Is that a function of who is running the ball? I absolutely think it is.

There are a bunch of posters here that are glad we went from 2nd in rushing to middle of the pack(as high as 9th and low as 16th) for some reason. Going from a strength to a huge question mark is seen as a win because we saved some cap dollars.

Randle proved to be Randle, a waste and McFadden has reached his absolute mediocre ceiling. People are actually pimping a possible 1000 yards as impressive. To each his own.

 

[Toruk_Makto]

Man, I can't express with English words how tired I am over the angst over the Dallas Cowboys RB position. It's almost completely a non-issue. Yes, they could have drafted a player who'd be an upgrade to the current DMC lead back. Yes, there are things they could and should be doing better on third-and-ones. But RB is so far down the list of problems for this team this year, it's not even funny. And it would be even further down the list if a guy they'd tabbed early to carry a large part of the load--Dunbar--hadn't been lost after 3 games.

The Murray Situation in PHI, though, is hilarious. I love that he's been marginalized about half way through his first season, and I love that he's handling that by going over the coach and to the owner. I hope that situation becomes a huge disaster for both parties, and I'm going to love it when it does.

And scene.

 

[Alexander]

Seeing that Garrett's dad didn't hire him and he is not related Jerry I question if you know what nepotism really means.. Nepotismmeans you hire within and show preference to your biological family.

Cronyism is just about the same thing.

 

[Hoofbite]

Damn. Rawls in the 7th would have been outstanding.

 

[Alexander]

Damn. Rawls in the 7th would have been outstanding.

I am not sacrificing the talent that is Geoff Swaim for that. No way, no sir.

 

[percyhoward]

There are a bunch of posters here that are glad we went from 2nd in rushing to middle of the pack(as high as 9th and low as 16th) for some reason. Going from a strength to a huge question mark is seen as a win because we saved some cap dollars.

Since McFadden became the main back, he's 5th in the league in rushing yards. Pick up a guy in the middle rounds who fits the scheme and can pass protect, and forget the Murray drama.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Our RB issues are compounded by the fact that teams bunch defend us at the point of attack and we haven't found a way to make them pay for it by some deception/quick hitter passes like other teams .

Yep.

On top of that this team hardly ever plays with a lead.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Since McFadden became the main back, he's 5th in the league in rushing yards. Pick up a guy in the middle rounds who fits the scheme and can pass protect, and forget the Murray drama.

Exactly right.

McFadden is not the problem.