News: CW: Grading Cowboys' offseason moves at midway point of 2022 season

[Reid1boys]

If I'm giving out an A grade it's because the player is way outperforming expectations and emerged as a big contributor. I would probably give Tyler Smith an A considering he was supposed to be a guard and had played very well at tackle.

Sam Williams has been productive, but had played around 25% of snaps, I don't think that warrants an A, but I can be sold on a B.

Jalen Tolbert has 1 catch for 4 yards and considering what we heard in camp, is probably the biggest draft dissappointment so far.


For the rest Ferg and Clark both As here? I don't think we've seen nearly enough to warrant that rating. Both showing a lot of promise though.

Like I said.. you can move a grade up or down slightly IMO, but the point of the article remains the same.

Do you see Ferguson starting next year? I think Schultz is outstanding... but not sure we can pay him what he might get in free agency. You simply have to cut salar somewhere, and unfortunately, I see it being ith Schultz.... ESPECIALLY if they think Ferguson is ready.

 

[Proof]

is the gist of the article correct or incorrect? Maybe the grades can be slightly changed up or down, but does it change the overall FACT, that as of this moment, can we say there wa sa single team made better moves from the end of last season till now than the Dallas Cowboys.

Call it luck, call it whatever you want, but the moves they made have pretty much been perfect.

Released Cooper Rush, got him back for minimum money. PERFECT.

Gregory walked... luck, yep, but it worked out PERFECTLY. We are better off with him gone since we have a player as good for a fraction of the money taking is snaps.

2 Rookie TEs... perfect.

1st and 2nd rd picks... homeruns.

3rd rd ill give them an F

5th rd bland??? are you kidding.. GREAT pick.

5th rd LSU LB.... homerun as of today

Signing Turpin? HOMERUN

what did they do that hasnt worked out for the positive besides Tolbert?

ok.. te rookie def tackle... but you simply have a very good defense, and there just wasnt room.

My point is people just refuse to give credit for what has been back to back homerun drafts.

I dont live in the past 20 year blah blah garbage.

I wasn't a fan of this offseason and have been very vocal about it. I've also eaten tons of crow and admitted i was wrong. has nothing to do with my perception of the article though. We made some smart moves and drafted extremely well, and the article was terrible lol.

 

[Ken]

The draft looks pretty good as of now when you see Smith, Williams and Ferguson. That alone, if they all continue their trajectory, would be a really nice draft. Bland looks like a decent 3rd CB option as well. If Clark and Tolbert figure things out, it's a great draft.

The Cooper grade is inflated. Yes, they got some cap relief but no, the return was weak. It's a C grade at best.

You can't really give a B+ grade to Gregory leaving. The front office WANTED HIM BACK AT 70 Million. You can't give the front office any sort of credit here or give the move a passing grade. It was luck, pure and simple. The situation may be a B+ but the front office gets a D for that one.

Did I miss their mention of Fowler? For the cost, I think that's a B grade, at least. He's been pretty decent.

Can't ding them for the Gregory move. They wanted him until Jerry said "El Paso"... Then they proceed to knock the position out of the park.

 

[dagreat1_87]

what s there to sink in. Go to every pick in the 3rd round ABOVE Tolbert and see how many have not worked out as of today. NOBODY hits on every pick in the draft... nobody ever has in the history of the sport.

nope they sure don't. However I think the front office has the thought process that because they do the BPA approach, those round 1-3 picks should always be immediate contributors, and i don't think that should be the approach. You do that and you end up in a situation where you're trying to send a 2nd rounder for Cooks to make up for it. Don't get me wrong, I do think we draft well in the 1st round and later rounds but we are pretty hit or miss (mostly miss) in the 2nd and 3rd round because we have a habit of looking at those guys as starters not rookies who still need development in many areas.

I just feel like we usually don't do enough to protect ourselves from the chance those 2nd and 3rd rounders aren't going to be good for a couple of years...or ever. Now, I will say for once i think we did a good job this year of picking up decent free agents to bridge the gap...Fowler for sam williams, james washington (hurt unfortunately) for tolbert, Barr for Clarke, and i think that's why we've still been competitive.

 

[VaqueroTD]

If only we had a real front office

https://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/lists/cowboys-2022-grades-free-agency-trade-draft/

Good stuff. I almost feel like someone here wrote that. I swear I’ve read all that here.

 

[jterrell]

Wow. That was a pure homer article. Disappointed to see it came from Drummond.

Not sure what grade you wanted him to hand out but you lose your QB for 5 weeks and sit 6-2.

Slightly generous at best on these.
Fans just hate admitting they were wrong.

 

[jterrell]

LVE B+

I wish I had that teacher in school

LVE has been very solid and makes near zero salary.
He's among the best value on the team and across the league excluding rookie deals.
LVE has been significantly better than Barr.

 

[jterrell]

Nothing earth shattering in the off season, but it has to be considered a success.

Tolbert has been disappointing, but otherwise the draft seems pretty strong.

Turpin, Maher, Fowler, Hendershot, Peters & Barr were all quality acquisitions, and letting Collins & Gregory walk appear to have been very good choices.

I'm still a bit disappointed the Cowboys didn't make a stronger bid for Bobby Wagner though. He indicated interest, and the contract he ended up with from LA wouldn't have been prohibitive.

Wagner didn't have real interest,. He was focused on the Rams so much that he called them direct. Keep in mind he doesn't have an agent.\
He was born in LA and never left the West coast beyond Utah State which is 1 time zone away.
But Wagner is better than Barr for sure and would have been an A move.

 

[Stash]

Not sure what grade you wanted him to hand out but you lose your QB for 5 weeks and sit 6-2.

Slightly generous at best on these.
Fans just hate admitting they were wrong.

That’s just it. Fans were right that giving Cooper away was a mistake.

With a fully stocked offense, you might be looking at 8-0 instead of 6-2.

I can be happy with 6-2 and still remain objective when it comes to seeing bad decisions. It’s not an absolute with me.

 

[OmerV]

Wagner didn't have real interest,. He was focused on the Rams so much that he called them direct. Keep in mind he doesn't have an agent.\
He was born in LA and never left the West coast beyond Utah State which is 1 time zone away.
But Wagner is better than Barr for sure and would have been an A move.

I agree it would have been very hard to keep him away from the Rams, but would like to have at least seen some effort. I think the Cowboys were on the short list, but he said the Cowboys never really showed much interest.

 

[Sydla]

Can't ding them for the Gregory move. They wanted him until Jerry said "El Paso"... Then they proceed to knock the position out of the park.

They literally offered him 70 million. He walked over a clause in his contract. In no realm of realism should they get credit for moving on from Gregory.

 

[jterrell]

That’s just it. Fans were right that giving Cooper away was a mistake.

With a fully stocked offense, you might be looking at 8-0 instead of 6-2.

I can be happy with 6-2 and still remain objective when it comes to seeing bad decisions. It’s not an absolute with me.

So all the crying is over one grade?
I should have known.

And no, fans were not right there.
They were demonstrably wrong.

Coop was WR2 LAST year with CeeDee being more productive.
Then this year without Amari as fans swore CeeDee has had zero issues getting open and is AGAIN more productive than Amari.

CLE may well cut Amari in the off-season. I kid you not.
He is owed 24M each of 2023 and 2024 with 7.5M in dead money for 2025.

KD pointed out the obvious. Coop can and does disappear in games.
He is a plus, plus route runner but brings zero other plus skills to the table nowadays.
He has average hands with the same 4 drops as CeeDee.
He breaks few tackles with 0 this year.
He brings average speed at this point of his career.
He is in the mid WR1 category and simply not worth the contract.
That means he is a very tarnished asset.
Again, KD pointed out the entire league could have had him and no one offered more than CLE.

It was at worst a C move for Dallas.
Same as cutting Zeke next year would be a C move.

 

[Stash]

So all the crying is over one grade?
I should have known.

Valid criticism is now called ‘crying’?

No, I ‘should have known’. Some people are mature enough to handle criticism and some aren’t.

 

[Chuck 54]

it hasn't/won't sink in for them...they'll say it was more about the player than the process, and point to all the picks after Tolbert like Ferguson/Bland/Clark who have found their way onto the field as rookies and look decent.

And if Tolbert becomes a starter next year and produces more than Gallup (which isn’t saying much), suddenly his value will be way up for a 3rd round pick. In most years, you don’t get immediate success with rookies.

 

[baltcowboy]

If only we had a real front office

https://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/lists/cowboys-2022-grades-free-agency-trade-draft/

I don’t know how our starting left tackle can be anything but an A. The guy might have saved the season.

 

[Kingofholland]

Like I said.. you can move a grade up or down slightly IMO, but the point of the article remains the same.

Do you see Ferguson starting next year? I think Schultz is outstanding... but not sure we can pay him what he might get in free agency. You simply have to cut salar somewhere, and unfortunately, I see it being ith Schultz.... ESPECIALLY if they think Ferguson is ready.

Schultz will be interesting, he's been valuable to Dak but with Rush and the knee injury he disappeared. Ferg and Hendershot have made some plays with the limited catch opportunities they've gotten. I would be curious how much more involved they get as the season goes on. If we don't see Schultz get back up to the 90-100% snaps we saw before the injury that's probably an indication the coaches feel they're narrowing the gap.

 

[jterrell]

Valid criticism is now called ‘crying’?

No, I ‘should have known’. Some people are mature enough to handle criticism and some aren’t.

[/QUOTE]
ROFL. Valid criticism is NOT being mad at one grade so dumping on the entire article.

Dallas Front Office up big over Fan Base this off-season.
Draft class as a whole is A+ --UDFA finds are insane.
They won the Gregory dramafest. Dorance HAS been as good.
They won the La'el Collins deal as Steele HAS been as good.
CeeDee HAS been as good as Coop statistically for the 2nd year in a row. CeeDee has counted 7M versus cap those 2 years. Coop was handed 20M each season.
Kicker has been rock solid after much fan pity partyng in Oxnard.
Franchising Schultz appears genius. you want him right now but have two good young TEs ready to roll next year.
Rush was proper choice for QB2 over all options.
FA signings were slim but largely effective with Fowler and Barr playing regularly on the leagues nastiest defense.

Negatives
Rookie 3rd round WR Tolbert was supposed to be NFL ready day 1 and he isn't. But I'm not grading an F on a 3rd round pick after 8 games.
James Washington was hurt getting off the bus. D move at best.
No plan for 3rd OT was proven foolhardy by week 1 though they did get a rookie LT out of draft. --Peters has been a fine hail mary move.

 

[jterrell]

Schultz will be interesting, he's been valuable to Dak but with Rush and the knee injury he disappeared. Ferg and Hendershot have made some plays with the limited catch opportunities they've gotten. I would be curious how much more involved they get as the season goes on. If we don't see Schultz get back up to the 90-100% snaps we saw before the injury that's probably an indication the coaches feel they're narrowing the gap.

Dallas can comfortably let Schultz walk in off-season and recoup an R4 type comp pick.
Ferguson, Hendershot and McKeon is not great but it is solid and improving.

 

[Stash]

ROFL. Valid criticism is NOT being mad at one grade so dumping on the entire article.

Dallas Front Office up big over Fan Base this off-season.
Draft class as a whole is A+ --UDFA finds are insane.
They won the Gregory dramafest. Dorance HAS been as good.
They won the La'el Collins deal as Steele HAS been as good.
CeeDee HAS been as good as Coop statistically for the 2nd year in a row. CeeDee has counted 7M versus cap those 2 years. Coop was handed 20M each season.
Kicker has been rock solid after much fan pity partyng in Oxnard.
Franchising Schultz appears genius. you want him right now but have two good young TEs ready to roll next year.
Rush was proper choice for QB2 over all options.
FA signings were slim but largely effective with Fowler and Barr playing regularly on the leagues nastiest defense.

Negatives
Rookie 3rd round WR Tolbert was supposed to be NFL ready day 1 and he isn't. But I'm not grading an F on a 3rd round pick after 8 games.
James Washington was hurt getting off the bus. D move at best.
No plan for 3rd OT was proven foolhardy by week 1 though they did get a rookie LT out of draft. --Peters has been a fine hail mary move.

I stated from the beginning that there were multiple embarrassing grades. But apparently you see what you want to see.

 

[Stash]

I don’t know how our starting left tackle can be anything but an A. The guy might have saved the season.

Agreed. Not sure how he gets an A-?

The kid has been so good that it seems to be taken for granted.