Cowboys are Lifting the Floor not Raising Their Ceiling

[FuzzyLumpkins]

They had their best seasons when they would wait until week 4 or when comp picks are no longer a consideration to doing what they have done in week 1.

This is lifting the floor as opposed to raising the ceiling but in an attrition league that is hugely important. LB and RB injuries and roster neglect at those positions were particularly bad for us last year. We are unlikely to have it that bad again.

They still have plenty of issues all over the offense's starting group. OG takes a step back. OT is a trainwreck. Skill position outside of Lamb is devoid of playmakers.

We have 1 starting DT and questionable backups. We have issues at range at S. Hooker is one of my favorite players but he is losing his step. Cover 3 is going to be that much more demanding.

We have a ways to go. Way I see it we need guys like Mazi, Schoon, and Guyton to play up to their draft status and players come back strong from injury and 2+ draft picks hit at positions of need and these FA be able to improve special teams and injury replacements and the team take to the new coach strong in year 1.

Then we might compete with the Chiefs, Eagles and Lions in the playoffs.

 

[BHendri5]

They had their best seasons when they would wait until week 4 or when comp picks are no longer a consideration to doing what they have done in week 1.

This is lifting the floor as opposed to raising the ceiling but in an attrition league that is hugely important. LB and RB injuries and roster neglect at those positions were particularly bad for us last year. We are unlikely to have it that bad again.

They still have plenty of issues all over the offense's starting group. OG takes a step back. OT is a trainwreck. Skill position outside of Lamb is devoid of playmakers.

We have 1 starting DT and questionable backups. We have issues at range at S. Hooker is one of my favorite players but he is losing his step. Cover 3 is going to be that much more demanding.

We have a ways to go. Way I see it we need guys like Mazi, Schoon, and Guyton to play up to their draft status and players come back strong from injury and 2+ draft picks hit at positions of need and these FA be able to improve special teams and injury replacements and the team take to the new coach strong in year 1.

Then we might compete with the Chiefs, Eagles and Lions in the playoffs.

The Cowboys are raising the ceiling not lifting the floor. This team does not have what the media has everyone believing that we have all these holes to be filled, that is far from the truth

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

The Cowboys are raising the ceiling not lifting the floor. This team does not have what the media has everyone believing that we have all these holes to be filled, that is far from the truth

I am not sure what media or what it would have to do with anything. My talk about the roster was from watching the games. I guess that and watching guys breaking down film on the youtubes and such.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

This season is predestined to be a shiteshow. It's been telegraphed for literally years now that they were going to take some roster payroll medicine this off-season, and so far, there's nothing to discourage that conclusion. From where I sit, they are content with letting this season be a floor, a baseline, with a longer range purpose in mind to build on whatever positives can possibly be found at season's end. And there will be. Some anyways.

I actually think we got that medicine the last two seasons where they did half this player acquisition after waiting for weeks so they could get comp picks.

I think the larger problem is the extreme hit and miss of draft picks in the McCarthy era. There were some tremendous hits like Micah, Lamb, Diggs, and Bland, but success rate went down. More top 100 busts and fewer guys down the order working out.

They added all those comp picks and have gotten very little to show for it. They know they are not worth as much when they use them so they trade them away for low risk high reward shots like Mingo and Lance. They have been poorly managed. Reactionary and reacting poorly.

 

[Chasing6]

They had their best seasons when they would wait until week 4 or when comp picks are no longer a consideration to doing what they have done in week 1.

This is lifting the floor as opposed to raising the ceiling but in an attrition league that is hugely important. LB and RB injuries and roster neglect at those positions were particularly bad for us last year. We are unlikely to have it that bad again.

They still have plenty of issues all over the offense's starting group. OG takes a step back. OT is a trainwreck. Skill position outside of Lamb is devoid of playmakers.

We have 1 starting DT and questionable backups. We have issues at range at S. Hooker is one of my favorite players but he is losing his step. Cover 3 is going to be that much more demanding.

We have a ways to go. Way I see it we need guys like Mazi, Schoon, and Guyton to play up to their draft status and players come back strong from injury and 2+ draft picks hit at positions of need and these FA be able to improve special teams and injury replacements and the team take to the new coach strong in year 1.

Then we might compete with the Chiefs, Eagles and Lions in the playoffs.

Great analogy.

Instead waiting until week 4 and picking from the bottom of the floor, we were aggressive picking from the floor in week 1, before anyone else even considered doing so.

That is reading the tea leaves, GM Jethro kind of innovation right there, that only 35 years experience and wisdom could even fathom.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Great analogy.

Instead waiting until week 4 and picking from the bottom of the floor, we were aggressive picking from the floor in week 1, before anyone else even considered doing so.

That is reading the tea leaves, GM Jethro kind of innovation right there, that only 35 years experience and wisdom could even fathom.

Do you think the field of free agents is better in week 1 or in week 7?

Of course you are making it all about that likely due to our argument being along those lines.

What this is if you are insistent to define it was gap analysis. If the goal is the Lombardi then what do we need to close that gap. I said we have a long way to go if you need a simple thesis to go by.

 

[ATXSRT]

You new around here? This has been going on for decades. Do just enough to appease the delusional fans in offseason. Beat up on bad teams in regular season and stat pad. Get fans hopes up. Choke when it matters most. Rinse and repeat.

 

[kiheikiwi]

I do think the change in coaching staff will be beneficial to the team.
I'm really interested to see if they have a Steller draft - letting McClay do his job, or if it is same same.
I think we will be a better team this year.
I do not believe we have done enough to compete with any of the top teams, that's at least another year away.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

You new around here? This has been going on for decades. Do just enough to appease the delusional fans in offseason. Beat up on bad teams in regular season and stat pad. Get fans hopes up. Choke when it matters most. Rinse and repeat.

I am definitely not new around here.

Do you think I concluded that we were going to win in the playoffs or something? I am confused.

 

[_sturt_]

I actually think we got that medicine the last two seasons

2023? That was going to be a good season except... if you ask me and you didn't... the team inexplicably crapped the bed like never before in a home playoff game. How did that happen? Entire encyclopedias have been written at this point, so I have no real motivation to add much to it. But the theory that has been most persuasive to me is that one of the coordinators was interviewing for jobs, and the defense just wasn't prepared to punch back. Offensively? I agree with those who leave that, also, at the other coordinator's feet, but there's not even a plausible excuse for his unit's under performance, and that... I agree... is ultimately why he couldn't make a compelling argument for a longer extension this off-season, and thus, isn't here now.

Point being... there was no premeditated failure there.

2024? People just won't be able to persuade me the revisionist history as-if the 2024 season wasn't sideswiped by the total devastation for a substantial part of the season to the DE corps. Almost no team is going to survive having at best the 5th guy on the depth chart playing significant minutes there. Arguably, the most important position on the defensive side of the ball... arguably. There's no overestimating the significance of that. Then, you add to that the oil baron attitude toward the offensive line... oh by the way.... which, if we bother to go back and look in the Fan Zone archives, was an attitude shared by a significant majority of those posting here... thinking the Cowboys history of O-line draft success just automatically had to be expected... that's your double-whammy that, truly, made Dak's mid-season injury only the third most impactful body blow... it's true, the season was largely over already by the time that effectively sealed the deal, and no matter how quickly players got back from injury or the two rooks matured, it wasn't going to matter at that point.

Point being... there was no premeditated failure there, though there was a callous oil baron attitude that represented an unforced error nonetheless.

No. This is different. I can't quote him because I failed to copy the link to the interviews, plural, where it got mentioned, but I'm not the only one here who remembers ahead of the 2023 season, Stephen explicitly let it be known that 2025 had already been agreed upon as the season that they would consider a year of famine in order to clear the books to a large degree and re-set for 2026 and beyond. And. Again. There is nothing this off-season to suggest they changed their minds.