Twitter: Cowboys want to resign Jourdan Lewis

[CowboyoWales]

Last year they did significantly more in free agency than they usually do. Four former Pro Bowlers, one even from the previous year.
And I'm not even counting Dalton. That was just luck of the Plague. Not counting Aldon Smith either.

They didn't sell out the farm, but they brought guys who had started for years, and with real success, to start for us. They swung and they whiffed. But they did swing.

I think they already knew that McCoy was carrying an injured and Poe was never as mobile enough to be described as a swing.

We needed DT's and we got who was left, hoping that one of them one succeed.

Hope is the word to describe our approach to free agency.

 

[visionary]

It's a good point about our free agent bust last year. We spent more than usual. We gave Poe and McCoy multiyear contracts. Complete bust.

Maybe we should be happy they're staying out of bigger money free agents.

even stupidity should have its limits

 

[jterrell]

It's a good point about our free agent bust last year. We spent more than usual. We gave Poe and McCoy multiyear contracts. Complete bust.

Maybe we should be happy they're staying out of bigger money free agents.

I genuinely dislike Stephen the way most of you do Jerry but I can't say he is wrong about free agents.
Saw someone do a recap of FA signed for more than 2M a year and the "hit rate" was like 20%.
It was mostly opinion and hard to get any real accurate answer/data there but the point remains FA is a bad bet in general.

It's a lot like picking top 10. You better study the guy, You better have a plan for that player. You better be ready to tweak things to fit for him.
If not then odds will get worse quick that he can meet or exceed expectations.

Last year Dallas tried to plug in guys that could run a 3-4 scheme.
Then they asked the returning guys to adjust on the fly to that.
No off-season, no pre-season, no real practice.
It inevitably failed.
Cut all those guys and go back to the previous system and we were still undermanned and choppy but we were "ok".

Look at a guy that super worked out: Randall Cobb.
He was a slot guy with some chops and experience. He came in here as a walk in starter replacing Bease with a QB that could get him the ball, a system that ran a lot of 3 wide and he put up great numbers.
That's having a plan for a guy and spending appropriately.

 

[Bowdown27]

Please don’t resign this guy

 

[quickccc]

We need a guy who can play 16 games and doesn't get burned taking risks TBH.
We have Diggs as playmaker/risk-taker.

Farley is interesting but Surtain fits like a glove to me.
Horn is a dog and will go to war but he isn't quite the athlete the other 2 are and is very grabby. Plays run the best though.
Farley has an insane athletic profile but he doesn't have much on tape versus good WRs and doesn't have much tape period, honestly.
Surtain has played at a very high level for 2 years in a row including of course across from Diggs and he has seen the best WRs in the collegiate world in practice every day.
Horn and Surtain played across from each other some in High School ironically.

But end of day they really need a young CB who can be a step up from what Chido was last year. Slight draft miss there.

I’d like to do research on - much of what you’re saying sounds much like a couple of others termed Horn as a hound dog and I guess that term is circulating as such.

What I haven’t heard is Surtain Jr. being termed as a Ball hawk. Where are his INTs ?
How effective is he about playing his hand on the ball in coverage ?

Is it a INT contested battle when the ball is in the air ? Is he turning his head and locating-reacting to a INT catch ?
Diggs had 3 INTs in one year at Bama,...(and that's when Diggs was still converting to CB) ... however Surtain only had 3 INT during his career at Bama.

I do like the level of competition (ala LSU) and vs his own high regarded WR mates in practices.
Broaddus hinted that Surtain Jr'’s father could be a Melo-ball type intruding father and pondered if that could be a hinderance in teams selecting him.

 

[Creeper]

If they wanted to sign him, they would have signed him already. They are waiting to see if any other team offers him a contract so they can lowball him on a 1 year deal if he gets no offers. They want to sign him but only if he is willing to sign for a pittance.

 

[quickccc]

I genuinely dislike Stephen the way most of you do Jerry but I can't say he is wrong about free agents.
Saw someone do a recap of FA signed for more than 2M a year and the "hit rate" was like 20%.
It was mostly opinion and hard to get any real accurate answer/data there but the point remains FA is a bad bet in general.

It's a lot like picking top 10. You better study the guy, You better have a plan for that player. You better be ready to tweak things to fit for him.
If not then odds will get worse quick that he can meet or exceed expectations.

Last year Dallas tried to plug in guys that could run a 3-4 scheme.
Then they asked the returning guys to adjust on the fly to that.
No off-season, no pre-season, no real practice.
It inevitably failed.
Cut all those guys and go back to the previous system and we were still undermanned and choppy but we were "ok".

Look at a guy that super worked out: Randall Cobb.
He was a slot guy with some chops and experience. He came in here as a walk in starter replacing Bease with a QB that could get him the ball, a system that ran a lot of 3 wide and he put up great numbers.
That's having a plan for a guy and spending appropriately.

Good point on Randall Cobb cheap low risk/high reward but where is the flip side of that which needed to turn out for us on Defense ?

It wasn't free agency, but the Robert Quinn trade (6th rd pick that will turn into a 4th rd compensatory for us) has easily been the closet thing to a Win -Win
But when will it turn around for us per Free Agency ?

Post-FA in 2020, I had actually no problem at all with what Cowboys did with bargain vets with big names. McCoy, Poe, Aldon, Griffin- even Ha Ha Dix … so long as we still
combine invested young heir apparent in the NFL draft - that was the key with me.
Speaking of Aldon, I was really hoping some NFL team throws the money check book at Aldon Smith for compensatory gains but apparently there's been no serious takers.

 

[fivetwos]

Lewis is the one of the three DBs from 2017 that I wouldn't mind having back.

I get a bad feeling its going to be Woods though.

Not saying he is anything great, but for a 4th or 5th corner he is good enough.

I dont worry about corner because pick 10 is most likely going to be one...and we should be set with Diggs across from that player and Brown in the slot.

 

[jterrell]

I’d like to do research on - much of what you’re saying sounds much like a couple of others termed Horn as a hound dog and I guess that term is circulating as such.

What I haven’t heard is Surtain Jr. being termed as a Ball hawk. Where are his INTs ?
How effective is he about playing his hand on the ball in coverage ?

Is it a INT contested battle when the ball is in the air ? Is he turning his head and locating-reacting to a INT catch ?
Diggs had 3 INTs in one year at Bama,...(and that's when Diggs was still converting to CB) ... however Surtain only had 3 INT during his career at Bama.

I do like the level of competition (ala LSU) and vs his own high regarded WR mates in practices.
Broaddus hinted that Surtain Jr'’s father could be a Melo-ball type intruding father and pondered if that could be a hinderance in teams selecting him.

Horn is an aggressive in your face guy and he will really hit you.
He was full on tugging and jawing with Kyle Pitts.
Given his Dad this isn't surprising.
Joe Horn was a tiny dude but he would fight your whole team.

I hope I didn't type 'Surtain is a ballhawk'. He is a technician that stays with his man. He is far more like Bryon Jones than a ballhawk. He doesn't really gamble at all and just plays smart, sound football all the time.
He will tackle but he doesn't blow anyone up. Everything he does is smooth and with great technique but he isn't some 4.2 guy that can recover if he bites on a fake.

Farley is more a ballhawk. But it helps when you are playing lesser WRs and just hoping the ball comes anywhere near you.
Farley really is a Deion-lite type upside but you are taking a large gamble imho.
He might struggle with bully ball big WRs or with route running technicians especially early in his career.

 

[SportsGuru80]

Undersized and slow...

 

[jterrell]

Good point on Randall Cobb cheap low risk/high reward but where is the flip side of that which needed to turn out for us on Defense ?

It wasn't free agency, but the Robert Quinn trade (6th rd pick that will turn into a 4th rd compensatory for us) has easily been the closet thing to a Win -Win
But when will it turn around for us per Free Agency ?

Post-FA in 2020, I had actually no problem at all with what Cowboys did with bargain vets with big names. McCoy, Poe, Aldon, Griffin- even Ha Ha Dix … so long as we still
combine invested young heir apparent in the NFL draft - that was the key with me.
Speaking of Aldon, I was really hoping some NFL team throws the money check book at Aldon Smith for compensatory gains but apparently there's been no serious takers.

You are correct. Defense has Quinn as trade win but nothing really on FA.
Best case recently may actually be Joe Thomas who was solid most of his stay but fell off last year and was always limited by his size.

Quinn should put you in position to add the proper FA. He knows the system he wants to run and the team in place knows it. So he should see who knows it and what they need.
Mike Nolan probably should have had some of these advantages but I think his desire to be multiple was just far too aggressive for a 1 year plan.
And both he and Mike kept selling us they were a 4 down team but flay BSing us about how much they were changing the scheme.

Aldon's in a tough spot. His body was wore down by NFL pounding but there isn't a high price deal for a guy his age doing the little things. If he can't be explosive he has to play for a few million a year.
Tough pill to swallow when you've watched lesser guys get deal for 10m a year and seen what Quinn got to leave Dallas.
But he may be a good option in Dallas on say a 1 year 4-5M deal where he could hope fewer snaps would equal great sack numbers and a bigger 2022 payday.

 

[buybuydandavis]

even stupidity should have its limits

Indeed it should. Goodbye.
*plonk*

 

[buybuydandavis]

I genuinely dislike Stephen the way most of you do Jerry but I can't say he is wrong about free agents.
Saw someone do a recap of FA signed for more than 2M a year and the "hit rate" was like 20%.
It was mostly opinion and hard to get any real accurate answer/data there but the point remains FA is a bad bet in general.

At a minimum, a FA is a guy that a team who had him didn't want to pay what he wanted. Should you feel better about paying him that, when you know much less about him?
The problem with free agency is poor value; you end up paying more than any other team wants to pay. That's who wins the bidding war, the team who pays the most.

I like our general strategy.

1. Pay our own guys who are worth it first. (*Who are worth it*. We've recently overestimated multiple players.)
2. Churn free agents for draft picks.
3. Bring in third tier free agents to fill holes and be bridges to younger players.
4. Bring in guys who seem like value at positions of need. McCoy looked like that until he broke.
5. Take flyers on low cost, risky players with big upside. The Aldon signing was a no brainer. Cost nothing, and will be churned for a good pick.

If you've paid your own guys who are worth it, and find you have piles of money left over, then start worrying about spending seriously in free agency.

 

[buybuydandavis]

Aldon's in a tough spot. His body was wore down by NFL pounding but there isn't a high price deal for a guy his age doing the little things. If he can't be explosive he has to play for a few million a year.
Tough pill to swallow when you've watched lesser guys get deal for 10m a year and seen what Quinn got to leave Dallas.
But he may be a good option in Dallas on say a 1 year 4-5M deal where he could hope fewer snaps would equal great sack numbers and a bigger 2022 payday.

It was weird that we played the guy who hadn't played for 5 years more snaps than Lawrence and Gregory. It's almost like they were *trying* to put bad tape out there for him.
OverTheCap estimates his value at 8.8mil. I can see a wide variation on what he could get. I estimate he has a lot of upside for next season. His body just wasn't in NFL shape. After a season and an offseason, he'll probably last better.
If anyone gets him at 5, they got themselves a good deal.

 

[Kingofholland]

The whole defense was a mess last year hard to reasonably evaluate anyone especially in the secondary.

I genuinely dislike Stephen the way most of you do Jerry but I can't say he is wrong about free agents.
Saw someone do a recap of FA signed for more than 2M a year and the "hit rate" was like 20%.
It was mostly opinion and hard to get any real accurate answer/data there but the point remains FA is a bad bet in general.

It's a lot like picking top 10. You better study the guy, You better have a plan for that player. You better be ready to tweak things to fit for him.
If not then odds will get worse quick that he can meet or exceed expectations.

Last year Dallas tried to plug in guys that could run a 3-4 scheme.
Then they asked the returning guys to adjust on the fly to that.
No off-season, no pre-season, no real practice.
It inevitably failed.
Cut all those guys and go back to the previous system and we were still undermanned and choppy but we were "ok".

Look at a guy that super worked out: Randall Cobb.
He was a slot guy with some chops and experience. He came in here as a walk in starter replacing Bease with a QB that could get him the ball, a system that ran a lot of 3 wide and he put up great numbers.
That's having a plan for a guy and spending appropriately.

Yep most free agent contracts don't live up to the terms. Rather than signing these tier 1 names, I just feel there's better value and lower risk with the tier 2 guys. Some may be in 30ish range with declining skills but doesn't mean they can't help a team or upgrade a position.

 

[jterrell]

It was weird that we played the guy who hadn't played for 5 years more snaps than Lawrence and Gregory. It's almost like they were *trying* to put bad tape out there for him.
OverTheCap estimates his value at 8.8mil. I can see a wide variation on what he could get. I estimate he has a lot of upside for next season. His body just wasn't in NFL shape. After a season and an offseason, he'll probably last better.
If anyone gets him at 5, they got themselves a good deal.

Aldon came into the season in great shape and was the best DL for the first 3-4 games.
DLaw was injured but trying to play through it and of course Gregory wasn't even active early.
Aldon ended up being needed more inside.
He became our new Tyrone Crawford when the old one got stomped out inside.
I'd hadn't seen that 8.8 but it seems high to me given his age and lack of production the last half of the season.
I know he can help a team though so perhaps someone does give him that money.
My guess is he'd like to be the DLaw role on someone's team as a SDE with pass rush duties.