Cowboys closer to 6-10 or 10-6?

[Parcells4Life]

With rapid decline of star players health like Ware and Romo I fear the 5-11 years are close at hand.

Some think the arrow is trending up and we can be elite with just one or two more players. Which side are you on?

 

[Dhragon]

With rapid decline of star players health like Ware and Romo I fear the 5-11 years are close at hand.

Some think the arrow is trending up and we can be elite with just one or two more players. Which side are you on?

Depends on Romo. If he can come back fully healthy and functioning, then the 10-6. If not, 6-10.

 

[perrykemp]

It all hinges on Romo.

 

[Future]

10-6 for sure. Even a slight improvement and this team probably wins 11 last year.

 

[Idgit]

We're equally close to both. What's going on with the math in Texas?

 

[TTexasTT]

Who really knows, but Id like to think that 10-6 is more likely.

Romo has a injury that really isnt that career threatening, young line and WRs.

Defense... well....

We all went to Jameis Winston High.

 

[JoeyBoy718]

I think we're closer to 8-8.

 

[DBOY3141]

I know each year is different in regards to teams. Injuries are huge especially to the QB position. Based on our schedule next year, I think we are closer to 6-10.

Seattle
San Fran
New Orleans
Arizona
Chicago
Indy

I think are better than we are. Philly will be tough and the Giants played us tough this year.

I see us beating:

Jax
Tenn
Houston
Wash x 2
NYG x 1
Philly x 1

at best we finish 7-9. I don't see how the defense can improve that much in one year. I think Ware is done, even though he could be brought back, I don't see him being that much better than this year. So who plays the DL? Lee can only be counted on for 11 games max. Will Carter, Mo, Carr, Wilcox improve from last year? Way too many questions on defense to expect a 10 win team.

 

[Eddie]

10-6 for sure. Even a slight improvement and this team probably wins 11 last year.

ha ha ha.

We're not even a good 8-8 team, let alone 11-5.

 

[Bullflop]

Not being one to take a radical view, I believe neither a 6-10 nor a 10-6 record is likely to be what's in store for the Cowboys next year. From what seems to me to be apparent considering the rut our poor management has gotten us into, I'm seeing a likelihood for another 8-8 season or something very close to it in our future for 2014. We'll have better players through the draft but the more difficult schedule next year should negate any additional improvement in talent.

 

[xwalker]

With rapid decline of star players health like Ware and Romo I fear the 5-11 years are close at hand.

Some think the arrow is trending up and we can be elite with just one or two more players. Which side are you on?

They were 8-8 with Ware doing nothing.

Obviously, if Romo can't play they would be lucky to be 5-11. It's impossible to say if Romo is on the decline or not. Payton Manning appeared to be on the decline a few years ago. Many players have had the procedure that Romo had with no recurring while it didn't resolve the issue for other players. Some players have returned to play after much more drastic back surgeries. It helps that Romo is a QB and does not take as much physical abuse as most other positions.

 

[Future]

ha ha ha.

We're not even a good 8-8 team, let alone 11-5.

Didn't say we're good, said we could have been 11-5.

Simple mistakes caused us to blow leads against Det and GB, there's 10. Not throwing the pick against Den or getting a stop against KC late, and there's a good chance we win at least one of those games. There's your 11. Hardly unrealistic.

Dallas only lost 2 games to non-playoff teams, and both were in contention right up until the end.

 

[Miller]

Trying to be objective...even with a healthy D, etc we were still prone to win/lose the last 2 years. Add to that the fact that we have an aging core and I see closer to 6-10.

I keep seeing that Romo has a non career threatening back issue. As a guy with lower back issues, any back issue can be career threatening. You become prone to using other muscles to make up some motion and then become weak elsewhere. It got to Aikman and it gets to many guys. You have to hope Romo is a guy who recovers quickly in his 30s and that it doesn't come up again.

Didn't say we're good, said we could have been 11-5.

Simple mistakes caused us to blow leads against Det and GB, there's 10. Not throwing the pick against Den or getting a stop against KC late, and there's a good chance we win at least one of those games. There's your 11. Hardly unrealistic.

Dallas only lost 2 games to non-playoff teams, and both were in contention right up until the end.

We also barely squeezed out some wins so the "what if" game goes both ways where we could have been 5-11.

 

[OhSnap]

With rapid decline of star players health like Ware and Romo I fear the 5-11 years are close at hand.

Some think the arrow is trending up and we can be elite with just one or two more players. Which side are you on?

I don't think you can predict future records based on Ware. The team was 6-10 when he has 15.5 sacks and 8-8 when he had 19.5 sacks and you know the record for this year when he had 6 sacks. Lose Romo and the arrow will point down. Get 16 games outta Murray, Lee, Claiborne and find another TD threat to go with Bryant(Escobar, Williams). Get 16 games out of those guys and the arrow will be pointing up. Who knows what Romo is gonna be after back surgery? He could loose 10 pounds and be more elusive than ever and it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't make it outta training camp. A bad back aint no joke. I'd like to see about four games next year before I decide which way the arrow is going.

 

[ElGatoGrande]

It has been a comedy of errors leading to a point where there is no short term solution. "Captain Hindsight" will try to address the DL/LB/OL/DB while the other positions rapidly decline and if this team ever returns to contention it will be after Ware and Romo have left.

Next year? 8-8

 

[Deep_South]

Right now, with the status of our QB unknown and our #32 defense unchanged, we're closer to 6-10. With a little luck, a couple of free agents, and a good draft, we can move towards 10-6.

 

[Alexander]

ha ha ha.

We're not even a good 8-8 team, let alone 11-5.

I do not think that "good 11-5 team" exists by and large.

The key is winning at the very end. The key is to hover around five hundred.

Just wait to get lucky and strike it hot at the right time you can be a champion.

Or so Jerry Jones has been saying.

 

[CowboyFan4Eva]

I know each year is different in regards to teams. Injuries are huge especially to the QB position. Based on our schedule next year, I think we are closer to 6-10.

Seattle
San Fran
New Orleans
Arizona
Chicago
Indy

I think are better than we are. Philly will be tough and the Giants played us tough this year.

I see us beating:

Jax
Tenn
Houston
Wash x 2
NYG x 1
Philly x 1

at best we finish 7-9. I don't see how the defense can improve that much in one year. I think Ware is done, even though he could be brought back, I don't see him being that much better than this year. So who plays the DL? Lee can only be counted on for 11 games max. Will Carter, Mo, Carr, Wilcox improve from last year? Way too many questions on defense to expect a 10 win team.

I did not know we played that division next year............... Ouch!!!!!

We should start the rebuilding and 5-11 seasons right now!!! But we wont. One more year..........right?

 

[Direwolf63]

If Romo is healthy, we are closer to 10-6 personnel-wise.

But.................

you have to dial in the annual 2 losses because of Jason Garrett's incompetence at game day management. And that gets us back to................8-8.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

I hope I'm wrong, but I think we'll be about 7 and 9 next season. We only managed 8 and 8 in the worst NFC East division in years. It was a division that practically handed us the title on a silver platter, but we still couldn't get it it done. I fully expect the Eagles and the Giants to improve. I'm not sure about the Commanders. Meanwhile our stars will have aged another year.

Our O-line is improved over last year, but our D-line is in shambles. I'm sure they'll address the D-line in this year's draft/free agency, but we're hampered by the salary cap. We can't afford big-name free agents, only projects that come with baggage. The D-line might be better, maybe. It's a big question mark. How well Romo plays after his back surgery is also a question mark. And whether this team adjusts its scheme to utilize its corners better is also a big question mark. Yet another question mark is whether the coaching will finally figure out clock management. We snatched defeat from the jaws of victory several times thanks to the combination of poor clock management and a lousy D. Will this coaching staff figure out what many of us already know -- that we're not well suited to being a pass happy team. We perform best when we establish a quality running game and have a good balance between run and pass. We've shown we can run well when Murray is healthy and we bother to do it. And Murray's health is yet another question mark. He did miss 2 games this season, his lowest number, so we'll see. We'll also see if we draft someone better than Randle/Tanner to back him up, and if Dunbar is still the same change of pace guy after his recovery.

On this team I see question mark after question mark. That's why I won't be running to Vegas and betting on us to be a playoff caliber team, or even to win the NFC East. I would be absolutely delighted to be proven wrong, but that's how I see things at this point. I suspect we'll be about 7 and 9 next season.