Darnold > Prescott

[thunderpimp91]

oh, you forgot to blame him for defensive penalties. its all no matter what Dak's fault.

when we win, its never ever never Dak. its the rest of the team carrying him. its the janitor helping, its section 25-, row 34A through 34H, its the sun and how its aligned, its the turf on the stadium being favorable, its players from other team, its the refs, its the league, its never ever Dak.

All good stuff, everybody else, all the bad stuff regardless is Dak's fault.

got it?

I never once said it was Daks fault. I just also don't believe blindly assigning penalty numbers to relive Dak from blame is a good argument either. And to be honest I haven't watched that game film back in years so I can't say for sure either way, but I do think its important to bring context into the equation when talking about penalties.

Kansas City is typically among the league leaders in offensive holding calls. They also have a QB that holds onto the football longer than most. That doesn't mean that Mahomes is a bad QB, but it does suggest that the style of play could be a factor in an elevated number of penalties.

It very well could be that all of those offensive holding calls in the playoff game being referenced were in the run game for all I know, but of all the QBs from that years playoffs Dak was also #4 in most time spent before throwing the football. For that reason I think its important to watch the tape before just throwing out penalty numbers and assigning credit/blame to any individual player.

 

[thunderpimp91]

we had 65M on the cap this year. why couldn't se sign those two? last year we finished with 25M on the cap avialable, the year before we had 20M.

I am not so sure about Armstrong.... but Lewis I would have liked to keep. his 25 cap hit was 5M.

call it a stupid GM decision.

1) Your numbers are inflated a bit....the Cowboys only had about $20m in cap space from 2025. About the same in 2024. 2023 $10m. You might be looking at dead cap instead of actual cap space??? Not sure where those numbers are coming from.
2) The unused cap money is typically there to roll over and offset the salary increases for the following season. It gives them some roster flexibility year to year if someone hits a wall and they are forced into a situation where they dont want to restructure that player with a high cap hit.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

And from what I'm hearing, we're like 60 mil over this next season, and that's w/ rolling over the cap space from last season.

AI says we only had 2-4 mil in cap space. Where'd you hear 25?

this season. that doesn't explain why we didn't sign lewis last season at a 5M cap hit, when we had 65M. after handing out new contracts (to likes of Leupke for 5M) and trades takiing on salary, we still had 25M on the cap.

every team pushes money in the future. restructures to get cap space and move forward until a point, you take a massive hit. suck for a couple of years and rebuild. that's the cycle.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cap/_/year/2025

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

I never once said it was Daks fault. I just also don't believe blindly assigning penalty numbers to relive Dak from blame is a good argument either. And to be honest I haven't watched that game film back in years so I can't say for sure either way, but I do think its important to bring context into the equation when talking about penalties.

Kansas City is typically among the league leaders in offensive holding calls. They also have a QB that holds onto the football longer than most. That doesn't mean that Mahomes is a bad QB, but it does suggest that the style of play could be a factor in an elevated number of penalties.

It very well could be that all of those offensive holding calls in the playoff game being referenced were in the run game for all I know, but of all the QBs from that years playoffs Dak was also #4 in most time spent before throwing the football. For that reason I think its important to watch the tape before just throwing out penalty numbers and assigning credit/blame to any individual player.

I was being sarcastic...acting like Hate Dak Cult.

 

[thunderpimp91]

I was being sarcastic...acting like Hate Dak Cult.

Haha it gets harder and harder to tell around here.

 

[thunderpimp91]

this season. that doesn't explain why we didn't sign lewis last season at a 5M cap hit, when we had 65M. after handing out new contracts (to likes of Leupke for 5M) and trades takiing on salary, we still had 25M on the cap.

every team pushes money in the future. restructures to get cap space and move forward until a point, you take a massive hit. suck for a couple of years and rebuild. that's the cycle.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cap/_/year/2025

100%. The cap is one issue. Jerry being tight with his money and skipping over the mid tier FA groups is another.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

1) Your numbers are inflated a bit....the Cowboys only had about $20m in cap space from 2025. About the same in 2024. 2023 $10m. You might be looking at dead cap instead of actual cap space??? Not sure where those numbers are coming from.
2) The unused cap money is typically there to roll over and offset the salary increases for the following season. It gives them some roster flexibility year to year if someone hits a wall and they are forced into a situation where they dont want to restructure that player with a high cap hit.

per spotrac.com
actually 22M in 2025. I stand corrected.
but 20M in 2024
yes, 10M in 2023 but we had like 15M and then having paid out bonuses or something to that effect after season end.

yes, it gives flexibility, but also teams like Detroit, Eagles, SF, etc. all sign players they want, push money in future and continue to restructure.

given our GM and his son are not very good at it, they tend to manage it like kindergartners. maybe I am exagerating a bit. more like elementary school, while real GMs are in college grad school.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

Haha it gets harder and harder to tell around here.

I should have put a warning up front.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

100%. The cap is one issue. Jerry being tight with his money and skipping over the mid tier FA groups is another.

we are middle of the pack in dead cap at about 54M and that's because of Lewis, Lawrence and couple of others that we let go. that's the highest we have had in a few years, essentially holding on to players regardless of their contribution or value. usually we are in the bottom 5-10.

we are middle of the pack in cash spent in 25, but that's mostly because of Dak, CD, Diggs....so a lot of the cash is being spent on a few players. but we were last in cash spent in 2024,
by compariison, Denver, Buffalo, New england were top 3. we also don't spend as much on coaches, so puts coaches like Ben Johnson and Vrable out of reach for us.

Jerry's approach was sign a big name. generate headlines, milk it. get fans stirred up (stir things up as he says). and then while everyone is looking over there, getting excited, he signs bottom of the barrell players everywhere else skipping the mid tier. that way he maximizes profits.

 

[thunderpimp91]

we are middle of the pack in dead cap at about 54M and that's because of Lewis, Lawrence and couple of others that we let go. that's the highest we have had in a few years, essentially holding on to players regardless of their contribution or value. usually we are in the bottom 5-10.

we are middle of the pack in cash spent in 25, but that's mostly because of Dak, CD, Diggs....so a lot of the cash is being spent on a few players. but we were last in cash spent in 2024,
by compariison, Denver, Buffalo, New england were top 3. we also don't spend as much on coaches, so puts coaches like Ben Johnson and Vrable out of reach for us.

Jerry's approach was sign a big name. generate headlines, milk it. get fans stirred up (stir things up as he says). and then while everyone is looking over there, getting excited, he signs bottom of the barrell players everywhere else skipping the mid tier. that way he maximizes profits.

All valid points...On top of that a lot of the money he does spend in the offseason comes from trades. Guys like Kenneth Murray who are not every good at NFL level football and took up $7.5m n cap space and a draft pick. Now these are not all bad acquisitions (Gilmore for examples), but the refusal to just go out and sign a $7m LB instead of trading for an already failed one are the type of things that tell me Jerry is too tight with his money. It still goes down as the same cash spend, but he saves all that signing money and bonus money that would go to FAs at signing and instead doesn't have to pay these guys a dime until the game checks start.

 

[OGSixshooter]

this season. that doesn't explain why we didn't sign lewis last season at a 5M cap hit, when we had 65M. after handing out new contracts (to likes of Leupke for 5M) and trades takiing on salary, we still had 25M on the cap.

every team pushes money in the future. restructures to get cap space and move forward until a point, you take a massive hit. suck for a couple of years and rebuild. that's the cycle.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cap/_/year/2025

Dak's contract makes all those decisions HARDER. You admit he's not elite, but he DEMANDS elite pay. That means the FO has near zero margin for error when deciding in free agency or bubble players. So the answer to the question, "Why do you keep talking about Dak?" is that all roads lead back to the albatross of a contract.

 

[OGSixshooter]

100%. The cap is one issue. Jerry being tight with his money and skipping over the mid tier FA groups is another.

Jerry's stated reasons for this: 1) Dak's contract , 2) He's not sure which Dak will show up... 2023 Dak (near MVP) or early 2024 Dak (his normal, true form)? He doesn't want to throw money at free agents. and such if Dak is not going to be competitive.

 

[kskboys]

per spotrac.com
actually 22M in 2025. I stand corrected.
but 20M in 2024
yes, 10M in 2023 but we had like 15M and then having paid out bonuses or something to that effect after season end.

yes, it gives flexibility, but also teams like Detroit, Eagles, SF, etc. all sign players they want, push money in future and continue to restructure.

given our GM and his son are not very good at it, they tend to manage it like kindergartners. maybe I am exagerating a bit. more like elementary school, while real GMs are in college grad school.

Eagles and DET appear to be falling down after their spending sprees. What a spending spree does is open up a very small window for the super bowl. Some are saying the Lions missed theirs and it's over now. To be seen.

 

[kskboys]

100%. The cap is one issue. Jerry being tight with his money and skipping over the mid tier FA groups is another.

He's not tight, he's stupid w/ cap allocations, which is far worse than being tight.

 

[kskboys]

this season. that doesn't explain why we didn't sign lewis last season at a 5M cap hit, when we had 65M. after handing out new contracts (to likes of Leupke for 5M) and trades takiing on salary, we still had 25M on the cap.

every team pushes money in the future. restructures to get cap space and move forward until a point, you take a massive hit. suck for a couple of years and rebuild. that's the cycle.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cap/_/year/2025

That's due to the monster of the elephant in the room: Horrific player evaluations.

I don't understand why no one talks about this, it's the biggest glaring weakness of our FO.

 

[thunderpimp91]

He's not tight, he's stupid w/ cap allocations, which is far worse than being tight.

Eh it’s the same thing. The cowboys pretty regularly use the cap as an excuse not to spend money on the open market. The more they misuse cap space the more they can cry poor to the fan base.

 

[CowboyFrog]

Right just like D-Law was worse than the Seatlle DE when he was in Dallas... now he is the better DE... funny how that works...couldn't be in shape, was a choker and could not win the big game.. now he is in shape, big game player...

 

[GINeric]

Well said. I’m surprised you still carry on this endless debate. I try to stay out of it but the mood strikes….

Bottom line is simple…he is fine enough to win with, but also expected to do unrealistic things like over come shortcomings littered thoughout the rest of the roster….and this should happen due to the size of his paycheck.

I think Jerry is also guilty of thinking and/or figuring Prescott is better than he actually is. He is a good QB who is more than capable of winning, but will not be able to overcome a poor supporting cast, and can only be counted on to take a team on his back to a point.

I think people tend to believe that if they were paying Dak like 10m less that the difference would have been spent on some stud defender that makes all the difference. No. Not here. Maybe you’d still have like Tyler Biadasz, or Dorance Armstrong.

They can win with Dak, but he needs the help. I don’t know that he will ever get it in Dallas, as misevaluating the state of the roster always bites them in the end. Gaping holes will be exploited by the better teams.

Well said!!!

What im trying to educate those uneducated when it comes to football on this particular topic is....

A quarterback's or any player's salary has nothing to do with penalties committed. Thats a discipline problem. Then someone had the nerve to say in that 49ers game with the 14 league high playoff penalties, "Dak didn't command the respect and discipline of his team" to keep them from committing that many infractions.

He basically said it was Dak's fault his team didn't respect him enough to not commit a playoff high 14 penalties. You see how that works?

Last I checked, it was the Head Coaches job to instill and maintain the discipline of the team and its players, yet that particular poster placed team wide responsibility on a quarterback.

Ask yourself.... what other quarterbacks in history have you ever heard of that was responsible for the discipline of his team? Again, last time i checked that was the Coaches job.

Interesting....

 

[GINeric]

The penalty issue is a fair argument for that game, and I agree you can't put that loss on any one player, but we also need to review the impact Daks play had on some of those offensive penalties.

• 1 was a delay of game, which is typically on the QB. I don't remember the call specifically so it could have also been an intentional delay of game for punting room or something like that?
• 4 offensive holdings....were any of those due to Dak holding the ball too long or moving poorly around the pocket?
• 1 illegal shift...Could be on the player that shifted, could also be on the QB for not timing the snap properly
• 2 false starts....Rarely a QB issue

I'm not specifically blaming Dak for any of these, but without going back and watching the penalties (which I have not) we also can't exonerate Dak from fault on these offensive penalties as well.

This is a great take and something to think about.

But is there a list or category/chart tracking whether holding calls were issued to quarterbacks? I ask because I haven't really heard of that as a quarterback stat most times but I also realize that can happen when holding on the ball to long.

With that said, that couldn't apply to quarterbacks on running plays when he hand the ball off to the backs and we get holding calls.

Here's another thing to think about as well.... when a quarterback holds on to the ball too long, is it due to the receivers inability to get open? We were playing against a number one 49ers defense.... could the linemen have committed holds due to an excellent pass rush?

 

[SellTheTeam]

Put a “team” around a mid-level QB and go to a Super Bowl… put a ragamuffin bunch around a diamond studded QB and stay home. Two more years of suckage till we can dump Dak?