Galian Beast
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The Cowboys identity is becoming more and more clear. We just invested in 5 years as a power running football team, that covers the duration of the rest of Romo's career. We've invested in big uglies across the offensive line and we secured Dez Bryant for the Romo window as well.
Garrett is an offensive coach and the team's identity is based around offense, clear as day. Our offense costs 91 million this year whereas the defense costs 61 million. Next year the offense costs 109 million versus the defense which will cost 43 million.
We aren't asking the defense to be elite. The idea of having an elite offense and defense is a bit of a pipe dream. Not to say it isn't impossible but you really have to hit on draft picks and quality affordable free agents.
What are the cowboys trying to do? Well we're gambling on defense. We look especially in the second round and we try to get players who for some reason or another fell out of the first round, and in some cases from the very top of the first round.
Let's look at this
Sean Lee (55)
Orlando Scandrick (143)
Tyrone Crawford (81)
Demarcus Lawrence (34)
Randy Gregory (60)
Jaylon Smith (34)
Byron Jones (27)
That's 7 of 11 would be starters who you would think could be special or very good players. Now because we've focused our resources into investments on offense, a lot of these defensive players come with major caveats. We didn't buy them off the top of the heap. We're trying to find diamonds in the rough. We won't even have Jaylon Smith this year, but it is clear what they're trying to do. Maximize their resources by hitting it big with these defensive players at more affordable draft spots. The biggest risks they've taken were on Smith and Gregory. If we can hit on both of these players, it would pay dividends.
There are two ways you can go forward here. You could say it is now time to start putting serious resources into our defense or you could also say that a 1st round wide receiver to replace Williams might best impact our ability to win games in the future, if they can take us to another level of offense. Kurt Warner was only the primary starter in St. Louis for 3 years, but we'll always remember the greatest show on turf. They were able to make it to 2 super bowls, winning one.
If we're looking at a stud defensive player next year at our pick in the first round, we definitely should take him, otherwise an offensive player STILL might be the way to go.
The biggest gamble we made on defense was trading up to draft Claiborne... quite frankly that blew up in our faces. It is so much more difficult to project defensive players translating to the nfl and fitting in your scheme, and it certainly doesn't help to change schemes after drafting them.
The Claiborne debacle puts us in a difficult position. I think most of us would rather see the Cowboys put more resources towards the defensive line, but honestly, they need to put them in the secondary, and these draft picks in the secondary are likely to have the least impact on the defense, especially in the short term...
Randy Gregory hasn't helped us in getting suspended, because this year should have been about him becoming the starter and us not worry about defensive end as much, but even if he plays well, we still can't trust him...
The defense may be in an even more precarious place next year than this year with Carr and Claiborne both being free agents and maybe that makes the case for not replacing Williams with a draft pick early and maybe getting by with someone like Brice Butler for year playing opposite of Bryant.
Garrett is an offensive coach and the team's identity is based around offense, clear as day. Our offense costs 91 million this year whereas the defense costs 61 million. Next year the offense costs 109 million versus the defense which will cost 43 million.
We aren't asking the defense to be elite. The idea of having an elite offense and defense is a bit of a pipe dream. Not to say it isn't impossible but you really have to hit on draft picks and quality affordable free agents.
What are the cowboys trying to do? Well we're gambling on defense. We look especially in the second round and we try to get players who for some reason or another fell out of the first round, and in some cases from the very top of the first round.
Let's look at this
Sean Lee (55)
Orlando Scandrick (143)
Tyrone Crawford (81)
Demarcus Lawrence (34)
Randy Gregory (60)
Jaylon Smith (34)
Byron Jones (27)
That's 7 of 11 would be starters who you would think could be special or very good players. Now because we've focused our resources into investments on offense, a lot of these defensive players come with major caveats. We didn't buy them off the top of the heap. We're trying to find diamonds in the rough. We won't even have Jaylon Smith this year, but it is clear what they're trying to do. Maximize their resources by hitting it big with these defensive players at more affordable draft spots. The biggest risks they've taken were on Smith and Gregory. If we can hit on both of these players, it would pay dividends.
There are two ways you can go forward here. You could say it is now time to start putting serious resources into our defense or you could also say that a 1st round wide receiver to replace Williams might best impact our ability to win games in the future, if they can take us to another level of offense. Kurt Warner was only the primary starter in St. Louis for 3 years, but we'll always remember the greatest show on turf. They were able to make it to 2 super bowls, winning one.
If we're looking at a stud defensive player next year at our pick in the first round, we definitely should take him, otherwise an offensive player STILL might be the way to go.
The biggest gamble we made on defense was trading up to draft Claiborne... quite frankly that blew up in our faces. It is so much more difficult to project defensive players translating to the nfl and fitting in your scheme, and it certainly doesn't help to change schemes after drafting them.
The Claiborne debacle puts us in a difficult position. I think most of us would rather see the Cowboys put more resources towards the defensive line, but honestly, they need to put them in the secondary, and these draft picks in the secondary are likely to have the least impact on the defense, especially in the short term...
Randy Gregory hasn't helped us in getting suspended, because this year should have been about him becoming the starter and us not worry about defensive end as much, but even if he plays well, we still can't trust him...
The defense may be in an even more precarious place next year than this year with Carr and Claiborne both being free agents and maybe that makes the case for not replacing Williams with a draft pick early and maybe getting by with someone like Brice Butler for year playing opposite of Bryant.
