Cowboys 2024 vs 2023

[noshame]

The difference will be the competition.
You'll find last years team was a 9-8 team thriving against absolute NFL garbage. This year .500 will be a real accomplishment.

 

[Grenic]

The difference will be the competition.
You'll find last years team was a 9-8 team thriving against absolute NFL garbage. This year .500 will be a real accomplishment.

1000% they were lucky they were in the Nfc east. Why people don't see that they really don't win much outside of the east is beyond me

 

[Hawkeye0202]

don't win much outside of the east is beyond me

Making this a little scary is the Commanders and Eagles are much better teams than last season.

 

[morasp]

I wouldn't mind seeing them draft some of these maulers on the IOL so they can impose their will on the defense and run the ball like they wanted to last season. Smith and one or two of these guys would be pretty formidable
Cooper Beebe
Jackson Powers John
Zach Frazier

 

[Creeper]

Did the team really get worse?

Obviously they didn't upgrade in free agency, but they seem about the same as last season to me.

Mike Zimmer replaces Quinn.
- Quinn was a great fit when hired but his overlly player friendly approach might have become a problem.
- The defense looked soft and undisciplined in the playoff loss.
- Zimmer is a known hard-arse.

Gilmore gone but Diggs returns. Lewis healthy in the off-season this year.

Move Tyler to LT, draft JPJ and play Bass at LG...or some similar scenario where the 1st round pick is an OLineman.

Draft a RB to replace Pollard.

Kendricks replaces LVE. Young players compete for the other off-ball LB spot (Overshown, Clark, etc).
- The biggest problem in the playoff game was the lack of a veteran "Green Dot" LB. The field general.

Armstrong/Fowler were backup DEs. Parsons rarely comes off the field. DLaw is the other starter.
- Sam Williams has talent but needs to step up.
- Surprisingly DE Tyrus Wheat was active for 12 games last season. Mostly ST snaps, but they seem to like his upside at DE.
- Seems as-if the plan when they drafted Viliami Fehoko was to stash him in 2023.

If Mazi can't be at least as good a Hankins was in 2023, then they're probably not going to win with or without Hankins unless they draft or develop another DT.

DT Gallimore sucked. Quinn played him too much. Addition by subtraction.

WR Gallup was not very good in 2023. If they can't develop a 3rd WR to replace his 2023 production, then they have a serious coaching problem.

The TEs should be at least as good as they were in 2023 with potential to get better.

RT Steele struggled in the first half or maybe first 3/4s of the season, but looked better by the end of the year.
- Having a full off-season to lift/train heavy is a big deal for Linemen. He has that this year.

There are a lot of "ifs" in this analysis. I just do not see how you let all those players go in free agency, sign one replacement and think we are as good as last year. I do think the OL will be okay, or a lot better than people think even if they do nothing. They do need a WR2 to replace Gallup, and obviously they need RBs. But they lack depth everywhere.

I think the DL is going to be a problem. I am encouraged to read that that they see Zimmer's philosophy of getting big inside on defense and they plan to address that somehow, but we'll have to see how that works out. I am not that encouraged with Mazi getting better especially since he had shoulder surgery and can't really do much until at least training camp. Hankins is a JAG but looked so much better inside than anyone Dallas had on the roster. That was a bad sign.

And like the offense, the defense lacks depth. We lost two DEs, and 2 DTs. We had no depth at LB last year and added one guy. All the talk is about drafting an OT or OC, how do you fill the defense if you do that? Quinten Bohanna 2.0 is not the answer.

It seems like we are counting on a lot of players to step up in 2024. Guys like Tolbert, Steele, maybe Bass and Hoffman, unknowns at RB, Mazi, Sam Williams, Fehoko (who we have never seen play), Carl Davis, Overshown, Damone Clark, and even Diggs coming off an injury. A lot has to go right for this team to be as good as last year, and last year was not good enough.

 

[blueblood70]

Did the team really get worse?

Obviously they didn't upgrade in free agency, but they seem about the same as last season to me.

Mike Zimmer replaces Quinn.
- Quinn was a great fit when hired but his overlly player friendly approach might have become a problem.
- The defense looked soft and undisciplined in the playoff loss.
- Zimmer is a known hard-arse.

Gilmore gone but Diggs returns. Lewis healthy in the off-season this year.

Move Tyler to LT, draft JPJ and play Bass at LG...or some similar scenario where the 1st round pick is an OLineman.

Draft a RB to replace Pollard.

Kendricks replaces LVE. Young players compete for the other off-ball LB spot (Overshown, Clark, etc).
- The biggest problem in the playoff game was the lack of a veteran "Green Dot" LB. The field general.

Armstrong/Fowler were backup DEs. Parsons rarely comes off the field. DLaw is the other starter.
- Sam Williams has talent but needs to step up.
- Surprisingly DE Tyrus Wheat was active for 12 games last season. Mostly ST snaps, but they seem to like his upside at DE.
- Seems as-if the plan when they drafted Viliami Fehoko was to stash him in 2023.

If Mazi can't be at least as good a Hankins was in 2023, then they're probably not going to win with or without Hankins unless they draft or develop another DT.

DT Gallimore sucked. Quinn played him too much. Addition by subtraction.

WR Gallup was not very good in 2023. If they can't develop a 3rd WR to replace his 2023 production, then they have a serious coaching problem.

The TEs should be at least as good as they were in 2023 with potential to get better.

RT Steele struggled in the first half or maybe first 3/4s of the season, but looked better by the end of the year.
- Having a full off-season to lift/train heavy is a big deal for Linemen. He has that this year.

That's a nice post agree with a lot of it..

but the problem here is you're comparing 2023 which had a completed roster to a team right now that were only 15 days into free agency with six months left to build this team before you can start judging rosters we actually need to have a roster and start playing some games.. How is it you're using all of 2023 and only 15 days into the offseason of roster building of 2024 to make a comparison how could you even make that comparison when there's so many free agents to be added or you can make a trade and then we have the entire draft still ahead it's six months before game one and you're already making a comp...

Yes as it sits today that's what it would look like but I don't believe that that's how this roster is gonna fill out and we could end up being better but guess what we have to do first get to the games the actual real games then we'll know what this roster looks like and start seeing how they play together that's the only judgment so really we should be having this conversation in February like 2025 post season not pre pre pre season...

All these posts are so ridiculously early I don't even understand it if you think this is what the rock is gonna look like with all these things ahead and it a rather large free agent pool that will grow after the draft and the cut downs and again you can make trades undrafted free agents they will build a team that doesn't look like the one you just posted up there..

 

[blueblood70]

Isn’t the point to improve? Your post is mostly just a bunch of “what if’s” that result in the team being hopefully as good as last year.

D Line is a huge problem. DLaw only played 57% of the snaps last year and isn’t getting any younger. Armstrong and Fowler actually played more snaps combined than he did, losing them leaves a big hole that needs to be replaced.
Same with DT. The DT play was bad last year, losing Hankins and hoping for slight improvements doesn’t get us to acceptable level. Mazi/Carl Davis and Osa/Fohoko/Golston is objectively terrible.

We have no internal options that are legit WR 3 candidates next year.

Not sure who the 4th CB is that can play if/when 1 of Diggs, Bland, or Lewis get hurt.

So we have 3 top 100 picks and need to fill day 1 starters/key contributors at RB, OG/OC, WR3, DE, DT, and CB.

And we still have free agents to pick there's a free agent pool out there that's still pretty large and it will grow post draft when teams cut more players it will grow at cut down and there's this crazy thing called trades they made those trades last year for hankins Gilmore and cooks.... Then they're pretty good at undrafted free agents as well or undrafted players however you wanna call them they literally have put quality players on this team it's not just a draft we're not filling all those by just the draft there's a lot of players still available people it's only 15 days into the process and we're still complaining as if the 2024 season starting tomorrow it is so far from tomorrow it's six months away...

 

[blueblood70]

Did the team really get worse?

Obviously they didn't upgrade in free agency, but they seem about the same as last season to me.

Mike Zimmer replaces Quinn.
- Quinn was a great fit when hired but his overlly player friendly approach might have become a problem.
- The defense looked soft and undisciplined in the playoff loss.
- Zimmer is a known hard-arse.

Gilmore gone but Diggs returns. Lewis healthy in the off-season this year.

Move Tyler to LT, draft JPJ and play Bass at LG...or some similar scenario where the 1st round pick is an OLineman.

Draft a RB to replace Pollard.

Kendricks replaces LVE. Young players compete for the other off-ball LB spot (Overshown, Clark, etc).
- The biggest problem in the playoff game was the lack of a veteran "Green Dot" LB. The field general.

Armstrong/Fowler were backup DEs. Parsons rarely comes off the field. DLaw is the other starter.
- Sam Williams has talent but needs to step up.
- Surprisingly DE Tyrus Wheat was active for 12 games last season. Mostly ST snaps, but they seem to like his upside at DE.
- Seems as-if the plan when they drafted Viliami Fehoko was to stash him in 2023.

If Mazi can't be at least as good a Hankins was in 2023, then they're probably not going to win with or without Hankins unless they draft or develop another DT.

DT Gallimore sucked. Quinn played him too much. Addition by subtraction.

WR Gallup was not very good in 2023. If they can't develop a 3rd WR to replace his 2023 production, then they have a serious coaching problem.

The TEs should be at least as good as they were in 2023 with potential to get better.

RT Steele struggled in the first half or maybe first 3/4s of the season, but looked better by the end of the year.
- Having a full off-season to lift/train heavy is a big deal for Linemen. He has that this year.

I know everyone has Jackson powers as their top center but from reading a lot of what happened at the combine some experts say that this list the first three almost equally graded and the number one guy which I don't know if the grades are in order, Barton can play guard or center supposed to be the best athlete,

so everyone keeps focusing on Jackson powers there are other good players at the same position that can be had whether they all go in the first or not it's pretty deep at center...

• Graham Barton, Duke.
• Jackson Powers-Johnson, Oregon.
• Zach Frazier, West Virginia.
• Sedrick Van Pran, Georgia.
• Tanor Bortolini, Wisconsin

 

[McKDaddy]

No. Why so many (including the media) think the Cowboys "lost so much" is beyond me.

Considering it's still March and training camp doesn't start for 3 1/2 months, a lot can still happen.

Sure, things could look different by the end of August. But losing that many starters & others who were getting lots of snaps with no reasonable expectation that even if they sign some FA's that they will be better than what left and having limited draft capital doesn't support that we have gained anything on the field. We'd have to get quite lucky just to maintain par IMO.

 

[DuncanIso]

The core nucleus of players are still here. The players that left will be replaced by FAs or the draft, they weren't impact players. I suspect there will be one more FA signing depending on how the draft goes. Probably a vet WR or OL. On paper, we should be able to win at least 10 games again and get to the playoffs.

everyone gets replaced.

but LT1, C1, LB1, and RB1? all of those players were AP and/or PB.

Plus we need DT1 and WR2.

 

[gimmesix]

Did the team really get worse?

Obviously they didn't upgrade in free agency, but they seem about the same as last season to me.

Mike Zimmer replaces Quinn.
- Quinn was a great fit when hired but his overlly player friendly approach might have become a problem.
- The defense looked soft and undisciplined in the playoff loss.
- Zimmer is a known hard-arse.

Gilmore gone but Diggs returns. Lewis healthy in the off-season this year.

Move Tyler to LT, draft JPJ and play Bass at LG...or some similar scenario where the 1st round pick is an OLineman.

Draft a RB to replace Pollard.

Kendricks replaces LVE. Young players compete for the other off-ball LB spot (Overshown, Clark, etc).
- The biggest problem in the playoff game was the lack of a veteran "Green Dot" LB. The field general.

Armstrong/Fowler were backup DEs. Parsons rarely comes off the field. DLaw is the other starter.
- Sam Williams has talent but needs to step up.
- Surprisingly DE Tyrus Wheat was active for 12 games last season. Mostly ST snaps, but they seem to like his upside at DE.
- Seems as-if the plan when they drafted Viliami Fehoko was to stash him in 2023.

If Mazi can't be at least as good a Hankins was in 2023, then they're probably not going to win with or without Hankins unless they draft or develop another DT.

DT Gallimore sucked. Quinn played him too much. Addition by subtraction.

WR Gallup was not very good in 2023. If they can't develop a 3rd WR to replace his 2023 production, then they have a serious coaching problem.

The TEs should be at least as good as they were in 2023 with potential to get better.

RT Steele struggled in the first half or maybe first 3/4s of the season, but looked better by the end of the year.
- Having a full off-season to lift/train heavy is a big deal for Linemen. He has that this year.

The biggest concern to me is that you can't focus on improving the team when you have to fill holes. There are areas we could improve if we'd filled some of our "needs," like OL and RB. In other words, we are spinning our wheels. This isn't what teams that get to the Super Bowl do. They use the draft to build on what they do in free agency instead of replace it.

 

[Parcells4Life]

Mike Zimmer had been with the Cowboys for a long time in the past and is a no-nonsense type of DC. He won't tolerate laziness, nor poor attitudes. I see him as more of a disciplinarian than what his predecessor, Dan Quinn, was. He might be more of what the doctor ordered. We'll see about that.

Zimmer did a fine job with the Minnesota Vikings. Maybe the draft will see a good DT being acquired in the early rounds. If so, that should help our run defense to improve. We'll also see if Mazi Smith improves with further development. He's been getting his previously lost weight back.

Mazi can’t get better at football for 4-6 months. And there’s no one behind him.

 

[TwistedL0g1k]

CB might be improved. Diggs > Gilmore.

That's about the only possible improvement pre-draft.

OL is worse.
WR is worse. (Gallup was not great, but certainly had value)
RB is worse. (this will be fixed in the draft with a 2nd or 3rd round pick)
DL is worse. Valuable depth is lost.

Quinn was a very good coach too. He instantly improved Dallas's defense, making it one of the top units in the NFL.

As it stands today on paper, this team is definitely worse. The schedule is tougher too.
Think the draft will save them? Look at how much last draft helped. They will be lucky to get 2-3 starters.
It would be shocking if they equaled their win total from last season.

 

[Bullflop]

Mazi can’t get better at football for 4-6 months. And there’s no one behind him.

There's no getting around that for now, although, there's cause to think it could be attended to in the draft. Actually, I think it will be. We'll see if it offers any degree of hope, even though a rookie would have a period of adjustment. A good DL draft pick with far better upside could possibly help, also.

 

[perrykemp]

I think there is a better than a 50% chance they are better this year.