Archer Predicts Wilcox to miss the 53

[jrumann59]

I am sorry I am tired of the unguided missile that is Wilcox. To many blow-up shots without wrapping. If I wanted that I would try and talk RW31/38 out of retirement.

 

[Bluefin]

QUARTERBACKS (3): Tony Romo, Kellen Moore, Dak Prescott
The Cowboys could look for a more veteran backup if Moore does not progress. Jameill Showers faces an uphill battle to stick simply because Prescott was a fourth-round pick.

Agreed.

Jameill Showers played more WR and DB last year on the scout team than QB. He's back playing under center full-time now, but it would take an enormous jump in year two to get in the QB mix. Even making the Practice Squad again may not be in the cards.

RUNNING BACKS (3): Ezekiel Elliott, Darren McFadden, Alfred Morris
McFadden’s broken elbow could keep him off the practice field for most of training camp and scuttles any potential trade possibilities. Rookie Darius Jackson, a sixth-round pick, has some skills that might be worth developing, so he could stick as well. Lance Dunbar will open the season on the physically-unable-to-perform list as he comes back from a knee injury

Right now, I'm keeping four RBs with rookie Darius Jackson getting the nod. Darren McFadden is on the bubble and could be in trouble come final cuts.

If Jackson takes to special teams, will Run DMC be worth a spot on the 53 if he's going to be inactive sometimes?

FULLBACK (1): Rod Smith
Smith makes the team because the Cowboys are light at tailback, where he can fill in, and he can play every special-teams group. He is battling with Keith Smith for the fullback role and it is entirely possible the Cowboys don’t carry one on the 53-man roster going into the season.

One of these guys really needs to shine in order to make the cut.

Rod Smith has the offensive background, Keith Smith is more physical, both bring special teams value. I'm fine putting either on the Practice Squad.

WIDE RECEIVER (5): Dez Bryant, Terrance Williams, Cole Beasley, Brice Butler, Lucky Whitehead
I contemplated a sixth receiver (Andy Jones) here, especially with Williams and Butler set to be free agents after the season, but opted against it. Derek Dooley said the core of receivers is as strong as they’ve been since he’s been the coach, so five should be enough.

Agreed.

A couple of the releases can join the Practice Squad.

TIGHT END (4): Jason Witten, James Hanna, Gavin Escobar, Geoff Swaim
Where’s Rico Gathers? He simply has too far to go. I think he’ll be on the practice squad. Why keep four tight ends? Escobar, who deserves praise for his rehab from a torn Achilles, is entering the final year of his deal and Swaim can play multiple spots.

I expect Gavin Escobar to open training camp on PUP.

Esc can come off PUP at any time during camp when he passes a physical, but the team will have the option of using Reserve/PUP if needed.

Rico Gathers could be exposed to waivers with the hope of going unclaimed and rejoining the team on the Practice Squad.

Right now, I'm keeping Gathers instead of Escobar (PUP, trade, waive, whatever).

OFFENSIVE LINE (9): Tyron Smith, La'el Collins, Travis Frederick, Zack Martin, Doug Free, Joe Looney, Chaz Green, Ronald Leary, Charles Brown
Leary could become trade bait as well, but the Cowboys won’t give him away. He’s a starter and if the Cowboys suffer an injury they would love to have Leary ready to go. I opted to go with Brown as the ninth linemen right now because Green still has a long way to go.

I'm only keeping 8 as things stand.

Charles Brown will get shown the door, he'll probably go unsigned and be waiting for a call if we need him during the season.

OT Ryan Mack and C Jake Brendel might be Practice Squad players.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

He breaks down in space just fine. He does fine in deep zones. When breaking on balls from short zones, he takes bad angles is the main issue which leads whiffs and the like but your universal condemnation is false IMO.

I don't think so. Watch him on intermediate and short zone coverage. His route recognition and feel for the receiver is poor. Usually, he never comes close to getting deep enough and narrowing that passing window.





YR

 

[Derinyar]

Wilcox isn't a starter. His money isn't insignificant, but at this point is it needed? He's a useful ST player and not an unreasonable guy to be the 3rd to 5th S. I'm betting we keep 5 S and 5 CB.

 

[stilltheguru88]

I'll say it now and take the heat for it if it doesn't come to fruition but I'll bet that Heath starts opposite Jones and plays infinitely better than Wilcox.

Flame suit on................

You know I'm all about that Heath life!

 

[Toruk_Makto]

I cut Church first. Can't afford to pay him that 4 plus million.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

I don't think so. Watch him on intermediate and short zone coverage. His route recognition and feel for the receiver is poor. Usually, he never comes close to getting deep enough and narrowing that passing window.

YR

Seeing that as FS he spent most of his snaps playing deep middle or halves and that when he took over FS the throws over the top went away I disagree with your assertion about finding depth.

I do agree however that the closer he gets to the LOS the worse he gets. Maybe the game is too fast for him but given him playing through plantar fasciitis that he never took time off to recover from last season I am fine with giving him one more year.

I think our two best S are Heath and Jones FWIW.

 

[Tabascocat]

Is the Cowboys secondary really deep enough to cut him?? Church should go first IMO

 

[Idgit]

I saw Wilcox on TCL playing with Jones and the 1s. It looked to me like the SS spot was being rotated cause Heath saw time out there as well. Jones being a better FS than Wilcox doesn't make Church one whit better; had Church been able to play FS -he cannot- then he would have been 'demoted' too. Wilcox plays all the ST.

The point you're avoiding is money where Church makes $4.25m to Wilcox's $1.66. It also appears to me that Church is losing some of that short area quickness. He started whiffing last year too for all the confirmation bias.

Wilber is one of the few people that can play SAM competently and he can play DE in an emergency. He also plays all the teams. Unless Wilson and someone else emerges at SAM Wilber has a spot as a backup.

We'll see. Church is still a considerably better player than Wilcox is, on top of being a captain and a team leader in the locker room. He may be limited physically, but he's still a good tackler and he's where he's supposed to be when he can get there. And he pairs better with Jones who can handle some of the coverage responsibilities Barry can't.

The thing about Church that I think the coaches like is he's predictable, and more often than not, he makes the plays he's in position to make. Coaches like that dependability. He gets beat, but normally that happens when he's outmatched physically in coverage. Even if his tackling suffered some last season, overall, it's still a positive part of his game overall.

Had we signed Weddle in the offseason, it'd be Church and his salary that were cut (I didn't avoid the topic, I mentioned it in a post prior to this one. I just don't think it's all that relevant because I don't think it's a reason to go with Wilcox over Church). Weddle followed the money, and Barry's dropping weight and preparing for a contract push somewhere next season. We're not cutting a defensive leader on a team with too many defensive holes to begin with to save a roster spot for a young player who's not proven to be good enough to start with and who's not going to be around after next season anyway.

 

[Idgit]

I don't think so. Watch him on intermediate and short zone coverage. His route recognition and feel for the receiver is poor. Usually, he never comes close to getting deep enough and narrowing that passing window.

YR

I agree, assuming we're still talking about Wilcox. If the ball's delivered in front of him, he does a nice job of tackling in space, and he can bring a whallop. But he's slow to recognize and still takes too many bad angles. He's reactive. And I haven't seen signs of him getting better over the last 12 months or so.

Jones is already a more gifted defender. He's got to get better with recognition and change of direction skills in his own right, but that's to be expected from a rookie heading into his 2nd camp. He frees Church to play up, which is what he needs to be doing as much as possible at this point. Given Heath's continued development and what the young Ss probably give us on STs, I don't see a place for Wilcox unless one of the starters gets hurt prior to the start of the season.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Seeing that as FS he spent most of his snaps playing deep middle or halves and that when he took over FS the throws over the top went away I disagree with your assertion about finding depth.

I do agree however that the closer he gets to the LOS the worse he gets. Maybe the game is too fast for him but given him playing through plantar fasciitis that he never took time off to recover from last season I am fine with giving him one more year.

I think our two best S are Heath and Jones FWIW.

The safety position on this team is fairly interchangeable. SS and FS play the same responsibilities. We rarely played Cover 2, played Cover 1 and some Cover 3 and would switch the responsibilities of Wilcox and either Church or Heath. Wilcox doesn't have the feel for zone coverage. Very good in man coverage because he can run and it's a very basic coverage.

I'm trying to remember the game, but there were two plays where Wilcox played zone about as poorly as you can. He got fooled badly on one play, as he fell for a crossing WR that wasn't his responsibility...shallowed out his coverage and the QB threw right over the top of him with ease. Then a couple of plays later he was so poorly positioned in zone coverage that he was not only too shallow, but nowhere near the passing lane and it was an easy long completion. They yanked him after that play because they had seen enough.

I'm fine with giving him a chance to prove himself, I just don't see him getting any better. He was an offensive player in college and it's no small wonder that he's a poor form tackler that can't play zone coverage worth a lick. If you lack experience as a defensive player in football, those are likely to be your weaknesses.





YR

 

[big dog cowboy]

Had we signed Weddle in the offseason, it'd be Church and his salary that were cut

I would have made the decision to sign Weddle and cut Church the next day so fast........

 

[stilltheguru88]

Wilcoxs play week 17 against the Commanders when garbage Cousins throws up a prayer to Pierre freaking Garçon and Wilcox take the worst angle imaginable. No way that should've been completed. Even though Otolaye lost the ball, Wilcox was right there. Pitiful

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

The safety position on this team is fairly interchangeable. SS and FS play the same responsibilities. We rarely played Cover 2, played Cover 1 and some Cover 3 and would switch the responsibilities of Wilcox and either Church or Heath. Wilcox doesn't have the feel for zone coverage. Very good in man coverage because he can run and it's a very basic coverage.

I'm trying to remember the game, but there were two plays where Wilcox played zone about as poorly as you can. He got fooled badly on one play, as he fell for a crossing WR that wasn't his responsibility...shallowed out his coverage and the QB threw right over the top of him with ease. Then a couple of plays later he was so poorly positioned in zone coverage that he was not only too shallow, but nowhere near the passing lane and it was an easy long completion. They yanked him after that play because they had seen enough.

I'm fine with giving him a chance to prove himself, I just don't see him getting any better. He was an offensive player in college and it's no small wonder that he's a poor form tackler that can't play zone coverage worth a lick. If you lack experience as a defensive player in football, those are likely to be your weaknesses.

YR

Church almost never played deep middle in cover 1/3 while it can have either S play either role, the roles themselves are extremely distinct and require a specific skillset and only a truly dynamic player to succeed at both. When he was given deep responsibilities it was almost always in a deep half. It stood out like a sore thumb when he did it too and opposing QBs feasted on it.

Church because of his lack of footspeed is an extreme liability in man coverage and because of that, he got put in the robber role up the hash down after down in that man robber scheme we ran last year. His goose egg in turnovers tells the tale of how that went.

As for your anecdotes do you have any idea even what year that was? Regardless I'm not going to defend Wilcox approaching the LOS and those scenarios seem as such. In a deep third or single high he was fairly maniacal in staying over the top like he had been browbeaten with it by the coaching staff.

I also don't get how you reach your conclusion. You say that lack of experience leads to the issues that he has yet you discount the notion that he might improve with another years experience? Seems a non sequitur to me.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Wilcoxs play week 17 against the Commanders when garbage Cousins throws up a prayer to Pierre freaking Garçon and Wilcox take the worst angle imaginable. No way that should've been completed. Even though Otolaye lost the ball, Wilcox was right there. Pitiful

You talking about the ~20 yard TD up the right sideline where Claiborne blew his coverage when it was supposed to be a cover 3 look with him up playing press and whiffing? He admitted it after the game.

 

[stilltheguru88]

You talking about the ~20 yard TD up the right sideline where Claiborne blew his coverage when it was supposed to be a cover 3 look with him up playing press and whiffing? He admitted it after the game.

No. Second Commander game.

40 seconds in. Terrible player. And I watched it on all 22 so I don't want to hear about that not being his responsibility

 

[Idgit]

I would have made the decision to sign Weddle and cut Church the next day so fast........

Me too. We almost got him, too. Would have been a nice upgrade for a year or two.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Church almost never played deep middle in cover 1/3 while it can have either S play either role, the roles themselves are extremely distinct and require a specific skillset and only a truly dynamic player to succeed at both. When he was given deep responsibilities it was almost always in a deep half. It stood out like a sore thumb when he did it too and opposing QBs feasted on it.

Church because of his lack of footspeed is an extreme liability in man coverage and because of that, he got put in the robber role up the hash down after down in that man robber scheme we ran last year. His goose egg in turnovers tells the tale of how that went.

As for your anecdotes do you have any idea even what year that was? Regardless I'm not going to defend Wilcox approaching the LOS and those scenarios seem as such. In a deep third or single high he was fairly maniacal in staying over the top like he had been browbeaten with it by the coaching staff.

I also don't get how you reach your conclusion. You say that lack of experience leads to the issues that he has yet you discount the notion that he might improve with another years experience? Seems a non sequitur to me.

I'm not a Church fan either, but Wilcox was worse than Church last year. I'm not using anecdotal evidence with Wilcox, he consistently did not play zone well regardless of where he was. And the big thing I saw is he doesn't recognize routes well and usually doesn't get deep enough. If you have a receiver running a route past Wilcox, Wilcox would get too shallow and the throwing lane was now larger and it was an easier throw for the QB. He gets fooled routinely by other receivers running routes that are not his responsibility which is how coaches design plays against zone coverage.

As far as experience goes, Wilcox has not shown any ability to be a good defensive safety to this point. Why? Because he lacks experience.

That's not hard to figure out.

And I have my doubts that 1 more year of experience that he will finally get it. This unlike somebody such as Heath who played DB every year in college (and probably HS) and every year as a pro. Heath isn't as athletic as Wilcox, but he can tackle better and knows the position because he wasn't an offensive player in his career in college. And it's been Wilcox who has routinely said that he's only been playing the safety position for a year or so when he's struggling...an indication that his lack of experience playing defense has been an issue for him.




YR

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

I'm not a Church fan either, but Wilcox was worse than Church last year. I'm not using anecdotal evidence with Wilcox, he consistently did not play zone well regardless of where he was. And the big thing I saw is he doesn't recognize routes well and usually doesn't get deep enough. If you have a receiver running a route past Wilcox, Wilcox would get too shallow and the throwing lane was now larger and it was an easier throw for the QB. He gets fooled routinely by other receivers running routes that are not his responsibility which is how coaches design plays against zone coverage.

As far as experience goes, Wilcox has not shown any ability to be a good defensive safety to this point. Why? Because he lacks experience.

That's not hard to figure out.

And I have my doubts that 1 more year of experience that he will finally get it. This unlike somebody such as Heath who played DB every year in college (and probably HS) and every year as a pro. Heath isn't as athletic as Wilcox, but he can tackle better and knows the position because he wasn't an offensive player in his career in college. And it's been Wilcox who has routinely said that he's only been playing the safety position for a year or so when he's struggling...an indication that his lack of experience playing defense has been an issue for him.




YR

Seeing that Heath runs and jumps better than Wilcox objectively I cannot agree with you. People always make that assumption about white athletes it seems.

I don't see what you see when he was running the deep middle. IF anything I thought he got too deep playing it. He hardly played that robber role where the alleys and things you describe become an issue.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Seeing that Heath runs and jumps better than Wilcox objectively I cannot agree with you. People always make that assumption about white athletes it seems.

I don't see what you see when he was running the deep middle. IF anything I thought he got too deep playing it. He hardly played that robber role where the alleys and things you describe become an issue.

Heath is much smaller than Wilcox. Heath ran a 4.65 40-time compared to Wilcox's 4.57 40-time. Heath has a 37" vertical to Wilcox's 35" vertical. So, it has nothing to do with the color of their skin. I think Heath is a good athlete, but he's a smaller guy. He's far better of an athlete than Barry Church, Keith Davis, and the other slugs we've had at safety over the years.

I'm not down on Heath and I'm glad we re-signed him. However, I put a lot of emphasis on the safety position and I don't think him being a starter would put us in the upper echelon of safety duos in the league.





YR