Valid points here but losing McCoy, Maclin, and having Bradford as their QB going forward poses more question marks as to how they are going to score points in the 1st place.
I know you wanted to keep Murray at all costs, but the facts say that he wasn't going to produce another 1800+ yd season and $8M+ / yr is an expensive way to find out.
Of all the people on this board I would think you'd understand this was 48% of the offensive production. Murray ran the ball over 370 times and Romo threw the ball 420 times. The offense produced 29 PPG with this running attack.
There are no facts Murray would have a drop off. The likelihood is great, but that doesn't make them facts. But what is a fact is Murray, more than Romo, is what caused the defense to sit while the offense ate the clock.
Now factor in this team is going nowhere without Romo and his skill set, yet also needs for Romo to not have to carry the entire load, and this comes down to the running game being a major part of this offense going forward in the window of opportunity available.
Romo has three years of top quality play.
Grooming a rookie to learn to block takes time. So drop one of the three years. Maybe two.
So you have a choice to make. Maintain the offense, and try and improve the defense enough to get to the NFC Championship game.
Or lose Murray and his production, and bring in McFadden, which isn't an answer and a rookie - which now means drafting a RB high instead of defense.
There was an article about losing Murray where the author tried to make the case this was a good deal because now the team can draft for defensive depth.
Depth? So toss out the top running back of 2014 for defensive depth.
That is like spending twelve draft picks on what is termed a special teams draft.
The window is now. Not two years from now. The cap can be damned because this was push your chips in the middle of the table. And if that isn't enough, you just gave the Eagles a component they didn't have before. Their offense needs someone better than Sanchez and Bradford could very well manage a game enough for Murray to come in as the closer once a lead is captured.
This was a foolish move in many ways, and it was precipitated because of foolish moves made in the past for guys like Claiborn, Carr, Spenser, and other players who were not top flight but paid like it.
This team lost Murray because they didn't have the cap space because the team has been mismanaged for so long. And now when they should risk, they elect to not risk because they have been burned by bad decisions.
Romo is way overpaid, but you do that because he is central for any hope. Murray is the same type player in this exact circumstance. And perhaps even more than Dez.
Stoopid is as stoopid does and the acorn (Stephen) hasn't fallen far from the tree (Jerry.)
