Typhus;5029870 said:
Funny to me that the notion of signing a FA OL is even a relevant option to this fan base.
Not like this team has the cap room to go out and sign a better OL than is already on roster, and if they did get whats available within their budgeted cap this year, would it be any better than the current players on the OL?
Why create a log jam of the same level players with minimal cap dollars? Whatever cap spending this team has, and IF they choose to even sign a FA, it will be at another position of need,, not OL.
IF we sign a FA, I would imagine they spend what they have on a RB.
Note: if Derrick Dockery took some snaps for your team last season, then there's room to upgrade your OL with a veteran FA. And if you're looking to possibly cut Doug Free in favor of starting Jeremy Parnell, then you also want a value FA veteran who's at least started some games in the league available in case of injury because you're going to spend a lot of practice snaps getting your young starter up to speed.
More than anything, if you can pickup a guy who's worked with Callahan and who gives you some position flexibility, you can look to backup more than one position on gameday with fewer players, letting you, for example, maybe shuffle Bernadeau to C if Costa goes down in the first quarter without hurting yourself so much at RG. Or keep a rookie at his more comfortable position if the player next to him goes down because you've got a guy on the bench with starting experience at both OG and RT.
Basically, in the NFL, you need quality OTs, position flexibility across the line, at least one swing tackle, and 5 or so interior OLs all capable of playing NFL-caliber football to make it through a whole season. Last year, we developed a hole at RT, and then lost Costa, Nagy, Kowalski, and had injuries to Bernadeau and Livings that hampered their play at least semi-significantly for long stretches of the year. All of those 5 guys are questionable starters to begin with. When you lose them outright and have to juggle them into and out of the lineup, you're not going to get anywhere.
Even moderate upgrades in the form of a flexible second-tier veteran and the right 1st-3rd round pick or picks would provide competition across the board and have a big impact in terms of the options the team would have available to it during the season when it comes time to plug someone else into the starting lineup.
I'd love to add another 'ace' to the front. We should try to do that if it's at all possible. But there's also plenty of room to get better with relatively minor upgrades to that position group. And this is a great offseason to do that if we ever manage to get any cap space to maneuver with. There are a lot of good players available, and demand is way down with the cap being so much lower than most teams had budgeted for. In that environment, Dallas is a great place to play for a one-year deal.
