Cowboys 2024 vs 2023

[xwalker]

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.

 

[Ranching]

Great post....maybe they know better than most fans. It's a young man's game, those that left weren't young men.

 

[Coogiguy03]

We're so bad that we're excited that a coach who looks low key is really a ARSE lol unreal

 

[Ranching]

We're so bad that we're excited that a coach who looks low key is really a ARSE lol unreal

Lol! Talk about being an ARSE!

 

[FLWarpigrpig]

A whole lot of gotta go right in the OP.

 

[xwalker]

Great post....maybe they know better than most fans. It's a young man's game, those that left weren't young men.

Thanks.

I don't really know the answer. Just asking the question.

My gut feeling is that they've had a few too many mid-tier veterans like Kearse, Dante Fowler, etc. the past few years.

I prefer to pay the Super Stars and fill in with rookie-contract players.
- Some rookie contract players will become stars; whereas, a player like Fowler is unlikely to improve beyond his 2023 season.

 

[Ranching]

Thanks.

I don't really know the answer. Just asking the question.

My gut feeling is that they've had a few too many mid-tier veterans like Kearse, Dante Fowler, etc. the past few years.

I prefer to pay the Super Stars and fill in with rookie-contract players.
- Some rookie contract players will become stars; whereas, a player like Fowler is unlikely to improve beyond his 2023 season.

I appreciate posters like you...most, including myself are just full of it. Salud!

 

[Ranching]

We're so bad that we're excited that a coach who looks low key is really a ARSE lol unreal

What? Get checked out, man...

 

[Parcells4Life]

What they’ve done is left themselves NO room for error in the event of an injury.

Even if Smith moves to LT, Bass won’t be as good as Tyler was at LG. And there’s rumors JPJ may have a medical issue.

Mazi is having shoulder surgery and won’t be cleared until training camp. So his most needed time to take the 1st to 2nd year jump is gone.

Losing Gallimore means again there’s no depth at all. How will this team even field preseason games for some of these positions?

 

[Vinnie2u]

Who was it that said that Dallas has DB's playing LB...

 

[VaqueroTD]

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.

Good post.

Agree and posted something very similar last week. Although I gave them a harder time on the defensive line. Armstrong and Fowler made a lot of key plays on our pass rush the last few years. Have undersized Micah who wears out, and old man Tank as starters. Depth will be critical at DE. Sam is the wild card because we've seen his talent, but just a dumb player I don't trust. Not sure I trust either Hankins or Mazi so I still put DL as a downgrade. Osa can't do it all by himself. I'm assuming Bass and Hoffman make up for the OL losses, or even move Tyler to OT even though they said they wanted to avoid it. So still think DL needs more or it could get pushed around again.

Hoping that Kendricks has something left in the tank. Linebackers lost it quickly at that age. Zimmer is better than people give him credit for, but size, not scheme is what we need more of to replace DQ's issues last year. The other half is like you say, undisciplined tackling. DQ kept mentioning it in his Press Conferences all year.. Dude! Do something about it! So Zimm will do his thing, but the Jones Boys need to help out some with more than just Kendricks on that front seven.

Something you didn't mention is we lost Kearse who went downhill anyways, and we get a new safety Bell who I hope will be playing much less LB with Kendricks and Overshown in the rotation. Bell was a playmaker, can't forget that. Not his fault they asked him to be a 250 lb LB. Just like not Ware's fault they asked him to be a 270 lb DE.

Biggest issue is I think our depth. Probably a lot of teams that can say that I guess. But allowing so many to leave and replacing them with what was there just makes us one man less in most positions. Prime example is corner. Gillmore saved the season in some games like Seattle. Who is there now if Diggs/Bland/Lewis were to go down? Anyone as good? Probably not.

 

[Whyjerry]

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 big X factors are Mazi and that OL. If that works out they will be fine. The division will be much tougher though.

 

[Ranching]

A whole lot of gotta go right in the OP.

Beats the gotta go wrong crowd.

 

[Bullflop]

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.

 

[tm1119]

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.

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.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Did the team really get worse?

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.

 

[DeaconMoss]

Lose in the first round of playoffs or not be in the dance? That has to be the winning solution

 

[DeaconMoss]

Who was it that said that Dallas has DB's playing LB...

RN nobody playing LB

 

[DeaconMoss]

Thanks.

I don't really know the answer. Just asking the question.

My gut feeling is that they've had a few too many mid-tier veterans like Kearse, Dante Fowler, etc. the past few years.

I prefer to pay the Super Stars and fill in with rookie-contract players.
- Some rookie contract players will become stars; whereas, a player like Fowler is unlikely to improve beyond his 2023 season.

When a JAG QB has the bag mid tier is the rest of roster.

 

[ATXSRT]

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.