Cowboys losing Ground? For the Record . reinforces how 2016 was a missed opportunity ***MERGED***

Bottom line, the Cowboys haven't lost anyone that couldn't be replaced. Those that has left got overpaid and the Cowboys were smart to let them walk.

Of course but that's not the point. Anyone can be replaced.

The question is they haven't replaced some with anyone and are counting on just hitting in the draft again at a high rate to improve.

No, Nolan Carroll is not a replacement or upgrade at CB. He's worse than Carr and Claiborne.
 
Last year's free agent "haul" consisted of Cedric Thornton, Benson Mayowa and Alfred Morris. So I'm not worried.

Teams can be successful being active in free agency (Patriots); or being largely inactive; depending on how they're built. The Patriots basically rent out guys (Chris Long and Martellus Bennett last year), discard them, and replace them with more fits. Which is good, since New England does not draft as well as a lot of people think they do (Dominique Easley, Cyrus Jones, etc. in recent years).

The Cowboys, on the other hand, are following the Packers blueprint of being a draft-and-develop team. They use free agency not to build the roster, but to patch holes. Once we hit on picks, we keep them (Dez Bryant, Sean Lee, Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick) instead of buying other teams' players.
 
Of course but that's not the point. Anyone can be replaced.

The question is they haven't replaced some with anyone and are counting on just hitting in the draft again at a high rate to improve.

No, Nolan Carroll is not a replacement or upgrade at CB. He's worse than Carr and Claiborne.

I agree. Saying that the corners in Philly have sucked for awhile now. Look at Maxwell , does good in Seattle crashes in Philly , goes to Miami half way through the season plays very well. I believe they think Nolan will be a better fit in our scheme which I believe he will be better.
 
Last year's free agent "haul" consisted of Cedric Thornton, Benson Mayowa and Alfred Morris. So I'm not worried.

Teams can be successful being active in free agency (Patriots); or being largely inactive; depending on how they're built. The Patriots basically rent out guys (Chris Long and Martellus Bennett last year), discard them, and replace them with more fits. Which is good, since New England does not draft as well as a lot of people think they do (Dominique Easley, Cyrus Jones, etc. in recent years).

The Cowboys, on the other hand, are following the Packers blueprint of being a draft-and-develop team. They use free agency not to build the roster, but to patch holes. Once we hit on picks, we keep them (Dez Bryant, Sean Lee, Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick) instead of buying other teams' players.

Yep.

You'd think the Cowboys lost Sean Lee, Fred Beard, Dak and Dez in free agency and had 1/3 of their cap tied up in dead money like in the early 2000's.
 
Just to recap this offseason:

1. Jerry runs his mouth off and says he'll "do right" by Romo... there is NO trade market for Romo. We will release him for nothing.
2. We lose LG who started most of year
3. We lose our starting RT, and have signed no one to replace yet
4. We lose first and second string SS, and have signed no one yet
5. We are poised to lost both starting CBs, and have signed only Nolan Carroll
6. Our star RB likely will be suspended for unauthorized touching caught on video (no need for a cooperative witness)
7. Report that Jaylon Smith's nerve has not regenerated and he'll have to play with a brace
8. We are picking at 28, not at 4, so the draft is not a panacea

Do we really need to question whether we have taken a step back?

It is not that bad.
1. - we may still get something because texans screwed up.
2. collins may be as good
3. mistake - agreed and they could have easily got a veteran RT better than Free - but they may think Cleary is ok. green is entirely unreliable
4. heath can play SS - you will need depth along with frazier
5. i would have prefer a better FA CB - and we did have the $ to do it
6. he is being a child and a suspension may do him good in the long term
7. jaylon is recovering - how well no one knows. we will have to wait and see
8. true, but we will at least get 1 player may be 2 from the draft to fill needs. question is if it will DE, CB, SS or RT

the front office knowingly risked 2017 (and 2018) with the strategy they took.
they want to be cheap well we are stuck with it.

personal preference:
instead of going to war half-pregnant, just sign a competent RT and dont sign any defense/WR FAs at all.
suck this year and get a war daddy in the draft after 2017.
only sign a decent RT to protect our young franchise QB.
this way, we could be 6-10 instead of 12-4 but with no chance to beat the patriots.
 
According to this graph, over the past three seasons as far as FA Spending = Wins goes, the Cowboys are right there with the best in the NFL

mLEF1VU.jpg
 
According to this graph, over the past three seasons as far as FA Spending = Wins goes, the Cowboys are right there with the best in the NFL

mLEF1VU.jpg

the key here is not spending above av wins.
it is the broncos up on the top right corner demonstrating that you can buy a superbowl.
furthermore, if their QB was so darn old, they could have bought several more.
 
I agree. Saying that the corners in Philly have sucked for awhile now. Look at Maxwell , does good in Seattle crashes in Philly , goes to Miami half way through the season plays very well. I believe they think Nolan will be a better fit in our scheme which I believe he will be better.

lets hope you are right.
from the video shown, he is usually with the receiver but does not turn his head.

that was the amazing thing about brown, who seemed to turn his head instinctually
 
the one team that won the super bowl didn't seem to have any problems making there team better with trades during free agency
 
CB, SS, DE.

The expectation that this draft will hit and fill all three of those holes is quite a stretch.

I think this has been a shoddy job by the FO this offseason. IMO, we'll be heading into the 2017 season with a roster that very possibly could be worse than the one we had at the end of the 2016 season.

Seems they are playing the fingers crossed game - Smith is healthy, Tapper is as good as they hope, etc.
I agree all three needs will be a hard pitch to make. The first round should fill one of those positions if the cards fall right.
Im hoping for Jabrill or maybe Buda there but of course there's no telling. Maybe we can hit on another position somewhere in the draft.
I see one position being problematic.That position might be handled a number of ways even a trade during training camp or after.
We had this problem last year and we survived. i don't see the answer at O/line that s a big headache unless Cooper is the answer
 
Anyone who was expecting to improve on last season hasn't been paying attention.

How you view it will define you as a fan:

1) The team is building slowly, carefully, intelligently in hopes of forming a dynasty starting in a year or so.

2) The Jones know business and know the rubes will buy whatever is in the display case whether they risk more money or not.
 
Our two biggest needs heading into the offseason was the fact we still needed a better pass rush and that we needed to upgrade the secondary.

Thus far, we've done nothing to upgrade the pass rush. And we've signed one CB who is probably not as good as Carr or Claiborne. And what's left on the market isn't likely to improve our needs. So it's all about the draft.

Some will write this off as a woe is me post but it's a real discussion point. The goal in the offseason is to get better and right now, we have not. We seem to be throwing all our hopes at improving at our draft.

That's a risky proposition IMO.

I don't disagree.. But keep in mind, some variables to get excited about. 2nd and 4th round picks from last year will be healthy. Don't rule us out from trading for a proven pass rusher either. Don't know if this was a great FA class in general to get excited about
 
I haven't been around these forums long enough to post my own thread, so let me chime in on this one.

Much of the concern about the Cowboys defense has been the lack of a consistent pass rush. Sydla said as much in his original post and it is a legitimate concern. However, someone who hasn't been mentioned a lot in the discussion of said pass rush is Charles Tapper. He is an unknown quality, since he has yet to play in an NFL game, preseason or otherwise. However, before he was sidelined with his back problem during training camp, there seemed to be every indication that he was progressing nicely. If his back is healthy, I think he can be a great addition to the defense and to the pass rush.

Brian Martin from Inside The Star has an article that lays out the argument for Charles Tapper much better than I can.

https://insidethestar.com/charles-tapper-will-improve-cowboys-pass-rush-in-2017/
 
Anyone who was expecting to improve on last season hasn't been paying attention.

How you view it will define you as a fan:

1) The team is building slowly, carefully, intelligently in hopes of forming a dynasty starting in a year or so.

2) The Jones know business and know the rubes will buy whatever is in the display case whether they risk more money or not.

They were the #1 seed in the NFC last year.

The idea that this is a slow build kind of went out the door at this point.
 
I haven't been around these forums long enough to post my own thread, so let me chime in on this one.

Much of the concern about the Cowboys defense has been the lack of a consistent pass rush. Sydla said as much in his original post and it is a legitimate concern. However, someone who hasn't been mentioned a lot in the discussion of said pass rush is Charles Tapper. He is an unknown quality, since he has yet to play in an NFL game, preseason or otherwise. However, before he was sidelined with his back problem during training camp, there seemed to be every indication that he was progressing nicely. If his back is healthy, I think he can be a great addition to the defense and to the pass rush.

Brian Martin from Inside The Star has an article that lays out the argument for Charles Tapper much better than I can.

https://insidethestar.com/charles-tapper-will-improve-cowboys-pass-rush-in-2017/
Welcome to Cowboyszone man. Nice to see a new poster who seems to communicate well.
 
Anyone who was expecting to improve on last season hasn't been paying attention.

How you view it will define you as a fan:

1) The team is building slowly, carefully, intelligently in hopes of forming a dynasty starting in a year or so.

2) The Jones know business and know the rubes will buy whatever is in the display case whether they risk more money or not.

signing a couple expensive FAs does not prevent the building of a dynasty and does not blow the cap up.
while almost everyone is aware of what the previous strategy is, some of us gave the front office the credit of being flexible and being able to change up strategy to be opportunistic.
apparently that was in error.

people will buy whatever is in the display case.
more success will make more $ though, as if they needed it.
 
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