Cowboys Offseason Opus: Step-by-step free agency, draft path to SB LII

[birdwells1]

Maybe 5 years ago.........he is selfish and one dimensional

Here's some reasons why:

1) He's a pain in the butt and can cause some locker room issues
2) He's one dimensional
3) He's lazy
4) He's not going to be cheap
5) He can't block to save his life

But he runs well. That's about it.

Soooo...... Let's just keep twill. No one respects nor fear our #2 wr, his presence alone would keep the safety out of the box. That helps everyone else on the offense.

 

[Nightman]

Soooo...... Let's just keep twill. No one respects nor fear our #2 wr, his presence alone would keep the safety out of the box. That helps everyone else on the offense.

I would spend our Draft2 on a young burner.....it is a strong Draft for WRs

 

[Killerinstinct]

Pretty much agree across the board. I think Butler will be cheap and he's not a bad 4th or 5th WR option. Obviously though, you have a hole though at the #2 WR spot.

One of many holes.

I go WDE, SS, WR, DT, TE, RB

Taco, TWilliams, JPeppers, speed WR, ND/FSU/AUB DT, Butt TE, Perrine/Mixon/Clement RB

Pretty close to what I would do as well. I probably wait a year on TE unless I get more picks. I probably don't draft a DT this year since I am re-signing Mcclain. RB I probably wait a year as well unless I find one late in the draft. I draft a CB even though I re signed Claiborne. I probably draft two receivers. One within the first 4 rounds and another late to be a KR/project WR.

WDE, SS, CB, WR2, WR/KR, 1 trick pony speed rusher late in the draft(Darrius English as an example) Project OT or OG depending on how I handle RT backup to Green.

 

[Nightman]

One of many holes.



Pretty close to what I would do as well. I probably wait a year on TE unless I get more picks. I probably don't draft a DT this year since I am re-signing Mcclain. RB I probably wait a year as well unless I find one late in the draft. I draft a CB even though I re signed Claiborne. I probably draft two receivers. One within the first 4 rounds and another late to be a KR/project WR.

WDE, SS, CB, WR2, WR/KR, 1 trick pony speed rusher late in the draft(Darrius English as an example) Project OT or OG depending on how I handle RT backup to Green.

Right on......CB is a good call and could take one instead of SS.........TE depends on Gathers being real or not

Need a backup QB too.......maybe a Chad Kelly late

 

[Killerinstinct]

Right on......CB is a good call and could take one instead of SS.........TE depends on Gathers being real or not

Need a backup QB too.......maybe a Chad Kelly late

I re-signed Moore so I wait on QB. TE I just roll with Witten and Swaim this year. I take both a CB and SS and likely within the first 3 rounds.

Scandrick and Tyrone Crawford are on notice for next offseason. If you want to be here this is the year to prove it. Thornton too.

My draft would look something Like this.

1. Peppers SS
2. Jourdan Lewis CB
3. Jordan Willis DE
4. Artavis Scott WR
6. Darius English DE
7. Justin Senior OT
7. Tarik Cohen RB

Something along these lines.

 

[KD Drummond]

Zack Martin will have his 5th year option kick in next week for 9m

There is no hurry to extend him.....they may do it in Sept or Oct if we have a couple million to pay for his signing bonus pro-ration

His cap hit will be less than 5m for 2018 and 2019 .....he doesn't need to budgeted for

There's no hurry to extend him, but the Cowboys are going to as a reward for his play, keeping his 2017 cap hit in the same area as it is currently and setting up his 2018 base salary to include the restructure bonus that will serve as his "signing bonus".

We literally just saw them do this last year with Travis Frederick and they've spoken about his extension as one of their offseason prioriities.

 

[KD Drummond]

I'm saying I would like for them to trade him and receive something in return. I also don't want them to have the option of spending the 8.9 mil this year and ending up with dead money next year. This is already year 2 of having Romo wreck the cap without even being the QB. I would prefer not to go for year 3. Rip it off like a band aid. Move on and learn from it.

Desean Jackson would be a great addition i dont understand why some would not want the one thing that this offense lacks.
Good article.

If people have suggestions for a veteran burner who's proven he is capable of contriburing heavily to a successful offense I'm all ears. I don't see many other options in this class, and yes, this is the piece that could transform the offense from really, really good to unstoppable.

 

[CCBoy]

http://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/201...perry-desean-jackson-budda-baker-zack-martin/

Last month, a few members here questioned my writing abilities, compared me to Skip Bayless (that still stings lol) and basically claimed I wrote stuff without the how and why behind it.

http://cowboyszone.com/threads/cowb...will-mcclay-do-his-job-in-free-agency.371873/

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course, but I wanted to share my Offseason Opus. This is how EYE would address what I consider the Cowboys needs via free agency and the draft, with the salary cap firmly in mind. This takes into account what the Cowboys like to do, but I differ in my opinion on some of their mandates. This is not a prediction for how the offseason would go, but how I'd go about fixing the perceived holes in the roster.

Let me know what you agree or disagree with. Cheers!

Some folks only look for the Yellow Brick Road and their own version of the Great Wizard...truth be known, we can all use some discussion as you provide, to get a depth of perception and remain in the ball park.

Thanks for offering insights, guy.

 

[jterrell]

Read this after seeing it on twitter a couple days ago.

I am a fan of the all encompassing plan and the insane detail. Love your comps for guys you signs to the FA deals are of this world.

Issues:
Budda Baker at 28. He's basically a shorter version of Byron Jones. They are both best as coverage, single high types IMHO. I don't think Dallas can afford that many lighter weight guys and Dallas traditionally likes bigger safeties.
I suspect they resign Wilcox to a cheap deal to be the starter in the Box. (he finally showed improvement last year)
Heath, Frazier as back ups.

Witten: Def not restructuring Witten out unless he's willing to sign an extension that has severe future base year pay cuts in it. Doubt he wants to give up what little contract leverage he has by just taking his base as a bonus so you prolly gotta toss him a guaranteed year in 2018. But would he add 3 years at 4m, 4m and 3m respectively then take 10m this year as bonus? Reduce his cap hit this year by 8m or so and guarantee 2018.

Wilber: I wouldn't cut him. As you note he's a plus special teamer who can also play SAM. James Morris is your Gachkar replacement so you already lose a ST guy. It's Wilber's final year but not worth 600k in savings to cut him unless a draftee beats him out.

Carr: Love that re-signing but think you have him undervalued. Spotrac has 4years ~24m. Think you can get it done but it might take a bit more.

DeSean Jackson: Obviously I've squeezed your cap totals a bit thus far so I have to cut someone off your FA list. For me that's DeSean. He's a speed guy who hasn't been a great team guy and is basically a big play only type at this point of his career.

Draft:
At 28 I'd take Takk McKinley or Taco Charlton(I haven't fully ranked Edge guys but love these two).
And I'd have zero issue following the rest of your draft. Even doubling down with Lawson at 60.

In general I'm staying as young as I can because this isn't a double down all in year. I'm gonna go try to win a playoff game or two to be sure; but this has to be a 5 year plan imho.

 

[jterrell]

Especiallyif the plan is to free up cap space by cutting Hanna and Wilbur. Free had his moments last year but was wildly inconsistent, I don't see paying him 5 Million next year when he will be a year older.

I see plenty of reasons to cut Free and no compelling reasons to cut Hanna and Wilbur.

Hanna is an injury deal. If he's back and clearly our #2 TE I don't cut him but anything less and he's gone.
I'm not cutting Wilber to add 600k.
Free is not a bad value or player. RT is a tough spot to fill.
Free is the OL leader and a tremendous locker room guy who took a pay cut previously without complaints or drop off in team duties.
He's played hurt more than people know and respect for him among the team is absurdly high.

 

[jterrell]

Desean Jackson would be a great addition i dont understand why some would not want the one thing that this offense lacks.
Good article.

Jackson isn't really a fit here.
Dallas wants younger and better blockers on the outside.
Dallas uses Beasley in that shifty/speed role.
DS has always been a me first type guy all the way back to college.

 

[Nightman]

There's no hurry to extend him, but the Cowboys are going to as a reward for his play, keeping his 2017 cap hit in the same area as it is currently and setting up his 2018 base salary to include the restructure bonus that will serve as his "signing bonus".

We literally just saw them do this last year with Travis Frederick and they've spoken about his extension as one of their offseason prioriities.

That is my point.............TFred's 4th year cap hit was 2.2m and his 5th year was 4.5m and next year will be 5.3m

ZMartin is due for a 2.8m hit this year and will be under 5m next year and 6m in 2019 if they re-do him ....nothing worth fretting about

 

[Kaiser]

Free is the OL leader and a tremendous locker room guy who took a pay cut previously without complaints or drop off in team duties.
He's played hurt more than people know and respect for him among the team is absurdly high.

Ahhh, another Bigfoot sighting of Big Hearted Doug Free taking a paycut so the team could raise puppies and orphans.

Free taking a paycut in 2013 voluntarily is a complete myth. He was a complete disaster in 2012 when he was the highest paid RT in the league. The team was going to cut him instead of paying him 7MM in 2013, after a long standoff Free took a restructure down to the same cap hit Dallas would take if they cut him. In other words - the minimum cut he could get away with.

Free is a leader in the lockerroom, no question. But so is Brandon Carr and we shouldn't overpay to bring him back either.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

This is an unreasonable approach. A more realistic scenario is ranking FA at positions of need based on priority and production/price ratio.

You just are not going to be able to handpick FA like that.

I'm also interested in picking players that the Cowboys might actually select. I have no doubt that KD wants Perry and Jackson but I am equally confident that the Jones would not do that nor that they would come that cheap particularly Perry.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Thought it was an interesting article and appreciate the time & effort it took to put it together.