Cowboys going old school?

[Verdict]

It seems to me that the Cowboys are waiting until after the draft to add free agents, if any are added. It serves no purpose to add players to your team and be forced to pay an over crowded position because you drafted another player at that position, or cut the player and use up part of your salary cap on "insurance" placers.

Maybe our team has actually acquired enough talent that the Cowboys feel like what is available for the price won't really improve our team. Either way the frugality and restraint is a breath of fresh air.

The one downside to this way of approaching things, is it can really put pressure on an organization to stray from its draft board and draft for need. I really hope that doesn't happen to us. We need to stick to our draft board and choose players who can play. Better to have 7 guys who can play and make your team that reach for 3 or 4 who can't play and piss off those picks. If we go pure BPA over time we will miss on a lot fewer draft picks.

 

[Verdict]

I'll give him 2-3 more years before he becomes just a guy. His speed is gone, he runs unpredictable and terrible routes, and his body is failing.

If he sees another contract here, it'll be a discount deal.

The prior poster may have been doing some light trolling. Either that or maybe he is just such a Dez fan that he can't see that Dez isn't a top 5 guy.

Dez' best days may be behind him, but even at his best now he isn't sniffing the top 5 and probably isn't top 10. Maybe somewhere between 10 and 30 depending on who you ask. I hope if we resign him, we look at his real value and limitations, and give him a number that is air to Dez and the organization too. The last Dez contract was fair to Dez but an *** raping to the Cowboys' organization.

 

[cowboyblue22]

there is a reason they are not willing to restructure Dez and Crawford for extra cap space

 

[robjay04]

I'll give him 2-3 more years before he becomes just a guy. His speed is gone, he runs unpredictable and terrible routes, and his body is failing.

If he sees another contract here, it'll be a discount deal.

Maybe so.

I guess it just depends if we want to make another investment in receiver because we have no one on the roster and likely won't going into the season with anyone that can be a receiver that can fill his shoes for an extended period of time.

I do think you are underestimating his speed. He is still plenty fast enough. If you rewatch the highlights from last season, you may be shocked at how many deep passes he was on the other end of.

 

[Verdict]

Maybe so.

I guess it just depends if we want to make another investment in receiver because we have no one on the roster and likely won't going into the season with anyone that can be a receiver that can fill his shoes for an extended period of time.

I do think you are underestimating his speed. He is still plenty fast enough. If you rewatch the highlights from last season, you may be shocked at how many deep passes he was on the other end of.

Dez is probably still faster than the average receiver, but he will not be confused with a burner. The problem is that the average corner is as fast, if not faster than his offensive equivalent. Dez can't get much separation consistently because he isn't a great route runner. He isn't crisp or clean coming out of his breaks and if he tries a double move the DB is usually more fluid than he is.

Dez' bag of tricks is really two things. One he is bigger and can out jump most DBs and the other is he is stronger than the average receiver, and substantially stronger than most DBs. This is a substantial advantage and a mismatch against so many DBs which is why his TD total is so high relative to the number of catches he has.

There are a lot of guys you could use at receiver who can do what Dez does for a fraction of the cost. Gathers may turn out to be one of them. You don't pay a receiver top 5 money unless they are a complete receiver dominant at everything a receiver can do. Dez isdominant at one aspect of his game, which makes him valuable, but not top 5 valuable. He really should be the best #2 receiver in the league, and ideally you would want a Julio Jones in front of him on the depth chart.

 

[Alexander]

there is a reason they are not willing to restructure Dez and Crawford for extra cap space

I hope they leave those two contracts alone. Not just because of general principle, but rather the players themselves.

Crawford needs to take a pay cut to be honest. And I don't think Bryant will earn himself a third contract the way things are going for him.

 

[erod]

Dez is probably still faster than the average receiver, but he will not be confused with a burner. The problem is that the average corner is as fast, if not faster than his offensive equivalent. Dez can't get much separation consistently because he isn't a great route runner. He isn't crisp or clean coming out of his breaks and if he tries a double move the DB is usually more fluid than he is.

Dez' bag of tricks is really two things. One he is bigger and can out jump most DBs and the other is he is stronger than the average receiver, and substantially stronger than most DBs. This is a substantial advantage and a mismatch against so many DBs which is why his TD total is so high relative to the number of catches he has.

There are a lot of guys you could use at receiver who can do what Dez does for a fraction of the cost. Gathers may turn out to be one of them. You don't pay a receiver top 5 money unless they are a complete receiver dominant at everything a receiver can do. Dez isdominant at one aspect of his game, which makes him valuable, but not top 5 valuable. He really should be the best #2 receiver in the league, and ideally you would want a Julio Jones in front of him on the depth chart.

If he's there, Mike Williams of Clemson......?

 

[okstateCowboy]

If he's there, Mike Williams of Clemson......?

Yes.

 

[Kaiser]

Dez is probably still faster than the average receiver, but he will not be confused with a burner. The problem is that the average corner is as fast, if not faster than his offensive equivalent. Dez can't get much separation consistently because he isn't a great route runner. He isn't crisp or clean coming out of his breaks and if he tries a double move the DB is usually more fluid than he is.

Dez Bryant's game was never speed, he had the same speed in 2014 when he had 16 TDs and 1300 yards receiving. His game is catching everything and being able to take it away from a DB or at a minimum prevent the INT.

His stats are down because in 2015 Weeden went into checkdown mode and Cassell was a waste. Last year his stats were down because Dak and Dez haven't had time to build the type of chemistry Dez had with Romo. Also the game plan changed to be much more about Zeke and Dak hitting the open man. Dez will be better next year because he will have the chemistry with Prescott and Dak will improve on his deep throws next year.

 

[Kaiser]

There is no doubt that the Cowboys have been avoiding the upper tier over priced free agents ever since the Brandon Carr signing several years ago.

I don't think its so much about deciding not to overpay the upper tier FAs as just not having to do so. They started drafting well and have the coaches to develop younger players better than they have in the past.

We signed Brandon Carr because TNew and Jenkins were complete disasters the year before and the team was forced into start guys like Alan Ball. Hence the desperation in signing a plug and play Cornerback.

Last year the Giants paid 85 Million to Olliver Vernon while the Cowboys paid very little for DLaw, Mayowa, David Irving, Tapper and Ryan Russell. We paid a combined total of a #2, #4, #5 and a small FA deal to Mayowa for that. Who came out ahead?

The Giants did in the short term, the Cowboys clearly will over the long term.

 

[Verdict]

Dez Bryant's game was never speed, he had the same speed in 2014 when he had 16 TDs and 1300 yards receiving. His game is catching everything and being able to take it away from a DB or at a minimum prevent the INT.

His stats are down because in 2015 Weeden went into checkdown mode and Cassell was a waste. Last year his stats were down because Dak and Dez haven't had time to build the type of chemistry Dez had with Romo. Also the game plan changed to be much more about Zeke and Dak hitting the open man. Dez will be better next year because he will have the chemistry with Prescott and Dak will improve on his deep throws next year.

His stats went down last year because Dak threw to the open receiver and protected the football. That is why Dak had great success, lots of wins, and a higher QB rating. Only an idiot would willfully change that recipe for success and encourage him to throw it to a covered Dez Bryant. Tony Romo drew great criticism for throwing interceptions, and many of those were intended for Dez.

If Dak learned anything from Romo, he should have learned that Romo lost his job in part because the guy below him on the depth chart took better care of the ball than he did.

 

[Verdict]

I don't think its so much about deciding not to overpay the upper tier FAs as just not having to do so. They started drafting well and have the coaches to develop younger players better than they have in the past.

We signed Brandon Carr because TNew and Jenkins were complete disasters the year before and the team was forced into start guys like Alan Ball. Hence the desperation in signing a plug and play Cornerback.

Last year the Giants paid 85 Million to Olliver Vernon while the Cowboys paid very little for DLaw, Mayowa, David Irving, Tapper and Ryan Russell. We paid a combined total of a #2, #4, #5 and a small FA deal to Mayowa for that. Who came out ahead?

The Giants did in the short term, the Cowboys clearly will over the long term.

You never HAVE to overpay. It is always a choice. There may be pain and suffering incurred by failure to pay a player, but they don't last quite as long as overpaying on a long contract hurts the franchise.

 

[Kaiser]

His stats went down last year because Dak threw to the open receiver and protected the football. That is why Dak had great success, lots of wins, and a higher QB rating. Only an idiot would willfully change that recipe for success and encourage him to throw it to a covered Dez Bryant. Tony Romo drew great criticism for throwing interceptions, and many of those were intended for Dez. .

Only an idiot would say Prescott can't improve his game and part of that is better deep throws to Dez. Dak had an INT in the second Giants game where he missed Bryant by ten yards.

 

[Kaiser]

If Dak learned anything from Romo, he should have learned that Romo lost his job in part because the guy below him on the depth chart took better care of the ball than he did.

This is just fanboyism. Romo had a fluke injury and then got Wally Pipp'ed, it laughable to say that a four time Pro Bowler lost his job because of INTs.

 

[DFWJC]

 

[Kaiser]

You never HAVE to overpay. It is always a choice. There may be pain and suffering incurred by failure to pay a player, but they don't last quite as long as overpaying on a long contract hurts the franchise.

No, you never have to overpay but if you don't want Alan Ball starting you have to overpay a FA to fill that void. The trick to keep drafting Anthony Browns so you are never backed into the corner of having to choose between those two options.

 

[DFWJC]

Love that movie

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I think it was pretty clear that Jerry felt snake bitten when he gave Jay Ratliff a new contract, he basically refused to play and he got paid big $$$ for it anyway. Combine that with the big $$$ we gave Marion Barber and Ware and they didn't come anywhere close to the value that he paid for, that was when he finally turned on free agency. Barber and Ware just happened, but it really got stuck in Jerry's craw about the Ratliff deal. And that's when we saw us generally negotiate much tougher on deals with our own players and shy away from FA pickups.

I'm sure Stephen has had an influence as well. I think the entire 'Jerry was picking up the draft card to get Manziel' was merely Jerry and Stephen joking around and Peter King was either too stupid to catch on or too busy throwing his 6th hot dog down his gullet to comprehend.

However, the point was clear that Jerry started to believe more in Stephen's theory on the team.

Yup, we did sign Greg Hardy in FA...but that was more of a 'pay-for-play' type of deal and we could get out of it quickly.


Another thing that happened was the entire Sharrif Floyd mess. The scouts wanted Floyd because they had him graded the highest. However, Marinelli didn't want Floyd (and neither did Garrett, don't listen to the nonsense...Garrett wanted who Rod wanted and Garrett also badly wanted a center). This caused a riff between the scouts and Jerry, but it really was an embarrassing moment for the organization. Tom Ciskowski had taken over for Jeff Ireland and while Ireland got all of this praise while in Dallas (again, showing how overrated the GM position is in the NFL)...Ireland's job was to basically coordinate the efforts between the scouts, assistant coaches, Garrett and the Jones'. For Ciskowski to miss such a glaring point about Floyd, it was a poorly done job.

Fortunately, we made the right move and getting arguably the best center in the game. But afterward, that is when Will McClay took over Ciskowski's job and we put Ciskowski more where he belongs in charge of the scouts.

And I think Jerry has over time bought into Garrett's philosophy of developing a 'program' much like a college football 'program.' A few NFL teams have a 'program' in place. You know what you're going to get with the Patriots...a well coached, boring team that cheats. You know with the Steelers you're going to get a tough defense and players that block and tackle well. Soft WR's don't make it on the Steelers. Defensive players that don't tackle well don't last long in Pittsburgh. There's also a great consistency in their coaching staffs as far as staffs go.

Garrett has been very much about the role that assistant coaches play and their ability to coach players up...from the UDFA rookie to the 10+ year veteran that is a multi-time All Pro performer. They will be coached if they are with the team.

For all of Garrett's faults (and he has quite a few of them), he has a very valuable strength...he has created an environment that has consistently developed talent.

The problem with FA's is that they may have already been predisposed to a different coach's style of coaching and techniques and it may be too hard to break them of those habits. I'm sure Garrett feels he is generally better off drafting a player and molding them the way the organization wants to mold the player.

Our entire starting offense was home grown last season. Our defense OTOH had numerous FA's. You're always going to need some FA's, but more often than not you don't get the production that you're paying for in the end. And Day 1 or Day 2 FA's are notorious for being poor value signings.


I think if you're relying on FA's...then you're just not doing a good job of coaching in whatever area you're bringing in those FA's. We've brought in and struggled with defensive back FA's and the fact was it was long overdue to get rid of Jerome Henderson because he wasn't doing the job. We tried our hand at O-Line FA's and they constantly failed and the reality is that Hudson Houck didn't have it anymore as Bill Callahan got more out of Doug Free and Ron Leary than any Houck O-Lineman we brought in.

Of course, you have to give the coaches a chance and bring in the occasional high draft pick for them to work with, but by the same token a coach should be able to pull some production out of low draft picks or UDFA's as well.

So, it's really as simple as that...build primarily thru the draft and if one area of the team is consistently weak...find a new assistant because the current coach isn't getting the job done.





YR

 

[Verdict]

Only an idiot would say Prescott can't improve his game and part of that is better deep throws to Dez. Dak had an INT in the second Giants game where he missed Bryant by ten yards.

No one has said that. Nor did I refer to you as an idiot. Maybe you misunderstood my post. I do not believe that forcing the ball to Dez when he is covered is a good idea as a general rule. I don't think that should be changed to help Dez feel like a part of the offense. Maybe if Dak remains judicious with ball placement and throwing to the open receiver Dez will learn to run better routes. We all know he needs to be doing that anyway.

 

[Verdict]

This is just fanboyism. Romo had a fluke injury and then got Wally Pipp'ed, it laughable to say that a four time Pro Bowler lost his job because of INTs.

If you don't think that Dak's ball security helped him hold on to the job over Romo I really don't think you are looking at reality.