Bewildered over Cowboy nation these days

[PJTHEDOORS]

What, the idea of overpaying or the idea of being concerned about cap?

Again, to you it's overpaying, to the people who run the team it isn't. Cap worries in the future won't be because of Elliott.

 

[DeaconMoss]

Right. Elliott is excellent but its how you spend your picks as a whole. You could have Ramsey and still get a young RB in the 2nd and 3rd that adds fresh legs to the older guys. I liked that the Texans got a speed guy in Tyler Ervin from SJSU in the 4th and they have Lamar Miller. To me it isn't disliking Elliott...think he is a stud...its a dislike of how we allocated resources to improve the team.

This draft was turrble in drafting resources

 

[erod]

Well written and entertaining but a bit too much syrup.

Most here acknowledged how good he was and the offense would be significantly better IF they used him in the passing game properly ala Faulk or even LT. He reminds me of Muncie. You don't win with the running game perse although I believe you can POSSIBLY get 1-3 wins a year IF you run the clock out.....which this team should be able to do. How much he would add to McFadden and/or Morris IDK. Some I suspect.

And you devalue Ramsey's effect on our passing defense. Not too many people here would disagree with my saying we are average at best at safety. Put Jones and Ramsey back there and eventually you have a much better pass defense. TOs are great but plain ole pass defense wins games. My guess is the team is better over the long haul with those two at safety esp once you add a superior pass rush to go with it.

Ramsey is going to be a corner though.

Teams don't draft safeties at 4 either.

Both will be really good, but Elliott could be transcendent.

 

[PJTHEDOORS]

I dont think anyone is mad about EE the player. I think most are disgusted the pick came too early for a RB. And then the rest of the draft netted us not much. Smith's knee allowing him to play, is the only way this draft is likely a success. And thats why folks are disgusted. 1 player and the rest are spitballs.

So if we hadn't take rb at #4, CB Ramsey then. 1 player and the rest spitballs. Because CBoys wanted JSmith, Pretty sure they'd still want him even with the drafting of Ramsey.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Again, to you it's overpaying, to the people who run the team it isn't. Cap worries in the future won't be because of Elliott.

You don't know this. The simple fact of the matter is that because you are paying more for the RB position then is typical in the NFL, it is effecting the cap. The price of a CB is not going to go down, simply because the team decided to pay more for a RB. The cap will be effected. You can deny it if you wish but there is no question that it will effect the cap.

 

[CATCH17]

Look at the players taken before Adrian Peterson. Think some teams would like a do-over? Teams make a lot of stupid first round picks.

Peterson is a rare freak of nature. Probably the best talent we've ever seen at that position.


Hopefully Elliot is somewhere close to that level of player because he pretty much has to be.

He better not be as good or worse than these guys going rounds later. There better be no comparison between Elliot and Henry or any of these other guys taken.

He has to be a superstar.

 

[CATCH17]

Ramsey is going to be a corner though.

Teams don't draft safeties at 4 either.

Both will be really good, but Elliott could be transcendent.

I hope he is transcendent.

He doesn't wow me so much as a runner that I'd spend a top 10 pick on him but to each his own.


Again, I like the player but I see him as horrible value. Hopefully he proves me wrong and produces like Peterson without the Peterson injuries.

He has to be a game changer.

 

[jnday]

All of these quarterbacks this year are going to bust, IMO.

If they bust, it will be because they are thrown in the starters position much too soon. It is often overlooked, but many great QB prospects are ruined by the rush to start them because a team wants immediate returns on the investment. The QB prospects this year looks to be better than any of the future draft classes. The QB position is being ruined at the college level.

 

[jobberone]

Ramsey is going to be a corner though.

Teams don't draft safeties at 4 either.

Both will be really good, but Elliott could be transcendent.

Safeties are just DBs the same as CBs. One in the box safety or good cover LB esp in SPs is all you need. The rest need be long rangy CBs. Been saying this a few years.

 

[erod]

Right. Elliott is excellent but its how you spend your picks as a whole. You could have Ramsey and still get a young RB in the 2nd and 3rd that adds fresh legs to the older guys. I liked that the Texans got a speed guy in Tyler Ervin from SJSU in the 4th and they have Lamar Miller. To me it isn't disliking Elliott...think he is a stud...its a dislike of how we allocated resources to improve the team.

The league is dripping with Lamar Millers and Tyler Ervins. Dime a dozen.

Adrian Peterson, not so much.

A play action fake to Elliott does things for Romo that a play action to other backs does not. Defenses have to play completely differently.

 

[DeaconMoss]

So if we hadn't take rb at #4, CB Ramsey then. 1 player and the rest spitballs. Because CBoys wanted JSmith, Pretty sure they'd still want him even with the drafting of Ramsey.

SS Ramsey. Dude is not a full time corner. I love JSmith. RKG. and everything. But there was some serious Able Bodied DLine talent there for the taking. Jones or Spence. And a non-injured LB Ragland.

 

[FiveTime]

Predictions of the top 5:

Jared Goff = Matt Schaub
Carson Wentz = Jay Cutler
Joey Bosa = Greg Ellis
Ezekiel Elliott = Ladanian Tomlinson
Jalen Ramsey = Tyrann Matthieu

I have a hard time with the Carson Wentz - Jay Cutler comparison just because Wentz seems like a good attitude good guy and well, Cutler, not so much...the rest I can see

 

[erod]

I've gone to a few rival message boards and it's more mixed than you let on. I've seen more than enough posts thinking we screwed up taking a TB that we probably didn't need.

Oh, bull. They are freaking out.

 

[Miller]

The league is dripping with Lamar Millers and Tyler Ervins. Dime a dozen.

Adrian Peterson, not so much.

A play action fake to Elliott does things for Romo that a play action to other backs does not. Defenses have to play completely differently.

That's where we will disagree. There is no evidence that Elliott is AP or anyone right now...and again I love the kid. Tyler Ervins or Henry or anyone taken could be better down the road. Lamar Miller his first 4 years in the league has averaged 4.9, 4.0, 5.1 and 4.5 yards per carry. Hardly a dime a dozen. His issue was coaching/touches. You are right that there are special backs that make things easier for everyone but Romo never had an issue with putting up numbers or play action, he had an issue with injuries. The point is we have holes to fill and you can still improve your D while having a young stud behind our line and a healthy Romo...his health is as much a factor as all these things. If anything DeMarcos slow fall has made that apparent. We used him right and he had a QB teams couldn't dismiss. But again, I didn't dislike the pick per se....love EE. I disliked the draft and the approach.

 

[KJJ]

Elliot is more tony dorsett than emmitt but he is a very good player that will do a lot of good things for the dallas cowboys. Zeke can score from any where on the field at any time.

Zeke has speed but he doesn't have Tony Dorsett speed. He reportedly ran a 4.47 at the combine that's not close to Tony Dorsett. I see a lot more Emmitt in Zeke a bigger, faster Emmitt.

 

[DenCWBY]

I do not think the fan base is as concerned about the Elliot pick as not being hoodwinked into the Jones sales pitch many have fallen for over the last 20 years. I think most veteran fans are hesitant to jump on any playoff bandwagons given their history no matter who has been picked. Perhaps it's a protection devise however I myself have a snake bit mentality about any moves this team makes and our success given the FO and Coaching staff. I'm not judging until I see some play on the field and personally I wanted more significant and immediate defensive help in the draft since we basically flew over FA and lost our 2 starting DE for the first 4 games. We'll see.

 

[jnday]

Look how many of the NFLs top RBs weren't selected top 10 or even in the first round though.


I love the player but it's about as bad as it gets from a value standpoint.

Throw in the fact that this is a position that spends a lot of the time on the sidelines due to injury and it just makes it that much worse.

He has to be great for this pick to be validated.

Think of all the great RBs that did get drafted in the first. RB is like any other position. The higher they are drafted usually indicates their talent level.

 

[viman96]

Great post. Way too many people get caught up with "value". Many moaned about Frederick and some still do even though he has become a Pro Bowler.

 

[Beast_from_East]

RBs like Zeke and Gurley are special, that is why they are top 10 picks in a league that devalues running backs.

Besides, we know now that the Ravens were trying to trade with us to take Zeke themselves.

So even the great Ozzie Newsome wanted Zeke in the top 5

 

[Cas2800]

It's truly stunning.

A year ago, people around here were disgusted about signing Darren McFadden. Too old, too injury-prone, too slow, no production, 4th string on the Raiders, just a guy to give Joseph Randle a break. Nothing but a flyer and damage control.

Dallas was being disloyal to the greatness of Demarco Murray, and stupid to let him get away to an arch rival for $8 million a year. Dallas should have given this 27-year-old running back what he had earned the prior year, even though he'd never really done anything like that before (and probably wouldn't again).

The angst was rightly palpable, especially after a draft that yielded no answers.

Fast forward a year...

Many of these same people now claim McFadden is all the Cowboys needed behind this offensive line. Suddenly, he's a spring chicken with 300 carries easy in his body, and he would have delivered this time in the clutch, not just in meaningless games and garbage time. Alfred Morris would have added to the greatness, despite the fact Washington said "no thanks" just like Oakland did to McFadden. Other teams trash is suddenly our stolen treasure.

Drafting a 20-year-old phenom likened to Ladanian Tomlinson was a wasted pick. That's the gobbledygook being slopped around local radio and these boards.

The amazingly ridiculous suggestion is that Elliott won't be measurably more successful behind this offensive line than the two journeymen cast-offs. Never mind that Elliott is much faster, more powerful, vastly laterally quicker, better built, a better blocker, and a significantly better receiver than both of both of the vets combined. All that with a new set of Michelins, and a lesser price tag than Murray.

With a healthy Romo, this will now be the best offense in football. But never mind that. Wasted pick.

The stat dorks will point to McFadden's meaningless yards. They'll ignore the situational aspects of what it means to defend plays against a superstar back versus a scrap-heap guy. They'll ignore Elliott's propensity to score touchdowns, which McFadden has seldom done. They'll ignore the great likelihood that McFadden would have gotten hurt again, for the umpteenth time, any day now.

Fans around the division wanted to throw bricks through their TVs. The whole league is shaking their heads in disgust about what Elliott adds to this offense. Cowboy haters are none to happy because it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to do the math.

Apparently, we're running low on rocket surgeons these days. I expect it from local media, who are clawing and scratching for relevance and audience these days. But from the common Cowboys fans, especially those who watched what Dorsett and Emmitt did here, it's befuddling to put it kindly.

Six months from now, you'll nary here a whisper about it again. Elliott will be the brightest rookie star, and nobody except Jacksonville fans will be uttering the name of Jalen Ramsey. The NFC East will see the Cowboys in first place, and be dreading the next many years of facing Elliott and this monster line.

In the meantime, I think I need to invest in ear muffs. (Cue the Old School memes.)

Great post. But you cant blame everyone for a few who are unhappy with the pick who choose to make a lot of noise. They believe "their guy" has zero bust potential and would have made this team better immediately. Please tell me who that player is?

For me its building for the future while cashing in on earlier investments. We invested heavily on a great Oline now we get to use them to their full potential. We all know that protecting Romo is a must if we want him here a couple more years. This pick did just that. Plus its going to open up the offense. Beasley, Witten, Dez, Romo will all benefit greatly because its pick your poison. Who are you going to stop? If will keep the defenses off the field and hopefully have the D playing with a lead forcing teams to play catch up.

Many wanted Defense. But where would we be with Ramsey and a broken Romo and Mc Fadden on his last year and last gas? We would be stuck with Morris and a broken QB. Next years drafty we would have glaring hole on Offense needing both a QB and RB and possibly TE. Sure Romo may still get hurt. But if that happens at least we take our chances with a young Zeke and a great oline to take pressure off a young QB for many years to come. And THATS how you build for the future. You can win games unless you score but you can outscore team and still win. For those who say defense wins championships, I agree. But this draft was not going to make us an elite defense. The pick made us an elite offense and after week 4 the defense will be fine and everyone will be a Zeke lover. Book it!