Defensive line restructuring plan

[Zordon]

when you consider the cap situation and the other holes, it's looking like this is going to take 2 years to fix. yes, it's nice to have crawford and bass back but do we really know how they are going to play? guys like hardy are pipe dreams. we need build this thing correctly with the draft. i want 3 linemen this year and 2 more in 2015. ware has to go now. i don't even want a paycut. cut him along with miles and few others. lets fix this cap situation once and for all and build thru the draft.

 

[sbark]

In years in the recent past, not last year, our GM would say he makes moves in Free Agency to avoid being locked into taking players of need, that's keeps the teams options open during the draft............lets see if he goes back to that strategy.

 

[Alexander]

ware has to go now. i don't even want a paycut. cut him along with miles and few others. lets fix this cap situation once and for all and build thru the draft.

I do not even see the value to debate the pros or cons of dumping Ware. I simply do not believe it will happen.

 

[TheSport78]

Nice in theory, but I do not think Jones has the inclination, or the courage, to do it.

He needs to do what's best for business. Ware hasn't been himself for over 2 years now. This has been the problem with the Cowboys: they seem to hang on to players one or two years too long, instead of cutting bait before they start declining. Smart organizations do the latter.

No thank you. Enough with penciling in walking wounded as starters. We did it with Ratliff we do not want to do it again. If I am taking and spending what might be decent money on an injured player, I go get Melton who is coming off a less intrusive type of injury and is younger.

Of course Spencer would have to check out medically, but I do believe that if Anthony played in 2013, we'd be 10-6. He single-handedly won the Cincinnati and Carolina games in 2012 with huge sacks. I'm taking Spencer over Ware in 2014.

Disagree again. Crawford needs to be viewed as what he is. An injured player coming back that quite honestly was unproven to begin with. I would view him and Bass as clear and distinct reserves. Hayden would not even figure in my thought process he is so ordinary. Nice try hard player, but easily improved upon.

I agree with what the Cowboys SHOULD do, but I suspect the Cowboys will view Crawford's return similar to Barry Church's. Church came back with no issues, and Crawford has had even more recovery time. I think he'll be a day one starter in 2014.

Of course keep true to the board. But getting interior pressure has to be first priority when valuing the defensive linemen.

There are quite a few disruptive defensive tackles that could be available (Donald, Sutton, Hageman). It is simply deeper than the outside rushers, luckily for us.

Yup. Just get me a DT or a DE in the 1st or 2nd round.

Answers in bold.

 

[Zordon]

I do not even see the value to debate the pros or cons of dumping Ware. I simply do not believe it will happen.

it really is a waste of time. he's on all the commercials in dallas, he's part of the "establishment" in dallas. he's not going anywhere. i'm sure they'll cut his salary by 3 mill or so and act like everything is fine.

 

[Alexander]

it really is a waste of time. he's on all the commercials in dallas, he's part of the "establishment" in dallas. he's not going anywhere. i'm sure they'll cut his salary by 3 mill or so and act like everything is fine.

Cut his salary? I do not expect anything but him to do anything but painlessly agree to turn his cap charge into bonus and give Jerry Jones what amounts to another loan.

 

[hutch1254]

Biggest move the team needs to make is replacing DeMarcus Ware. Greg Hardy is a great option for that.

We also have to replace Hatcher/Ratliff. I believe Henry Melton would be the obvious choice, depending on his health and status.

Those are two high priced free agents, but they'll help remake this team overnight.

In the draft if we add Stephon Tuitt or Trent Murphy I think we'll be sitting pretty. Hopefully we could draft a defensive tackle in the 2nd or 3rd round, if not Bass would get the nod.

Releasing Ware and Austin, having already released Ratliff, and not resigning Spencer, affords us the ability to spend more on the defensive line altogether.

Thoughts are welcome, even dissenting ones. I think the biggest worry would be how healthy Melton is, and if he can come back and produce as he did before. If we keep Marinelli, I think this is a no brainer. Without knowing much behind the scenes, I'd guess that he'd want to come back to Texas where he is from and play for the his old defensive coordinator. He might be on the outs in Chicago because of his legal trouble combined with his injury and expense.

I'm completely fine with the strategy and the players you mention above. I'm ready to clean the D line house and start fresh. The questions are, how are we getting there financially to be able to do it and.... a really big and...is the GM smart enough to see it and act on it? Please don't answer the questions, I know the answers.

 

[Bullflop]

I'm not anticipating Henry Melton or anyone else being a vet FA addition this year. Our additions will be drafted, first and foremost. Melton would be an expense our cap issues likely wouldn't permit. We're on tap to be 27 mil over the cap.

 

[dantheman41]

Here's my quick fix:

1. Ask Ware to cut his salary in half, if he refuses, cut ties.
2. Re-sign Spencer to a 1 or 2 year deal and pencil him in as a starter; Selvie is the backup plan
3. Tyrone Crawford will be the 1 or 3 tech; Ben Bass and Nick Hayden provides depth
4. Draft your last DL in the 1st or 2nd; stay true to your board

From what broaddus has been saying, Spencer's recovery is not going well at all. His knee will never be right. cowboys will move on

 

[BigStar]

Biggest move the team needs to make is replacing DeMarcus Ware. Greg Hardy is a great option for that.

We also have to replace Hatcher/Ratliff. I believe Henry Melton would be the obvious choice, depending on his health and status.

Those are two high priced free agents, but they'll help remake this team overnight.

In the draft if we add Stephon Tuitt or Trent Murphy I think we'll be sitting pretty. Hopefully we could draft a defensive tackle in the 2nd or 3rd round, if not Bass would get the nod.

Releasing Ware and Austin, having already released Ratliff, and not resigning Spencer, affords us the ability to spend more on the defensive line altogether.

Thoughts are welcome, even dissenting ones. I think the biggest worry would be how healthy Melton is, and if he can come back and produce as he did before. If we keep Marinelli, I think this is a no brainer. Without knowing much behind the scenes, I'd guess that he'd want to come back to Texas where he is from and play for the his old defensive coordinator. He might be on the outs in Chicago because of his legal trouble combined with his injury and expense.

I would like Hardy too but he'll likely be franchised/resigned. Tyson Jackson/Linvel Joseph/Raji would give us some beef (push the pocket) and a presence in the middle to cover Lee (needs this to stay on the field). TJ Ward would actually top my list if I had to pick one FA to spend some coin on. Especially considering that this draft is supposed to be DL heavy and understand the position needs to be rebuilt. I really think the investment would be worth it (Ward) considering how poor the safety position has been. He would also be able to correct these coverage issues that plague us in the middle of the field. Yes, A LOT of investment in the secondary but if we are rebuilding the DL via draft; it wouldn't cripple the future cap. Next contracts: Ward, Dez, Smith. Everything else via draft but could envision a mid range FA DL to give the line something proven to work with (if FAs could be considered proven )

 

[Galian Beast]

A lot of people are saying we can't afford x free agent(s).

I hope these people realize the amount of money we were dropping on Ware, Ratliff, and Spencer...

Moving on from Ware gives you the ability to spend money on other players. Not resigning Spencer does the same.

I'm not sure where you think all this money is tied up, but I can tell you that a large percentage is tied up in Austin and Ware.

 

[BigStar]

A lot of people are saying we can't afford x free agent(s).

I hope these people realize the amount of money we were dropping on Ware, Ratliff, and Spencer...

Moving on from Ware gives you the ability to spend money on other players. Not resigning Spencer does the same.

I'm not sure where you think all this money is tied up, but I can tell you that a large percentage is tied up in Austin and Ware.

I hear ya man, but Zordon/Alexander are saying JJ won't swallow his pride and cut Ware like he needs to and not giving us the FA dollars we should have to play with. Ware's money gets in the way of my Ward crapshoot fantasy too

 

[cowboys1981]

Well, we can't.

The only real hope is to admit the real problem. We have no interior pressure. End of story.

Since we are talking about the Panthers, they had the edge rushers in Hardy and Charles Johnson the past several seasons. It really did them little good until they decided to fix a real issue at defensive tackle when they took both Lotulelei and Short back to back. They paired those with a rotation inside with Colin Cole (off the scrap heap) and incumbent Dwan Edwards. Interior pressure changes a lot of things and it certainly helped them. We would be wise to look inside first, then worry about replacing Spencer.

You nailed it. We need DT's that can push the line vs the whole quick off the snap type of player. This would prevent QB's from stepping up in the pocket against us more often.

 

[Szczepanik]

Nice in theory, but I do not think Jones has the inclination, or the courage, to do it.



No thank you. Enough with penciling in walking wounded as starters. We did it with Ratliff we do not want to do it again. If I am taking and spending what might be decent money on an injured player, I go get Melton who is coming off a less intrusive type of injury and is younger.



Disagree again. Crawford needs to be viewed as what he is. An injured player coming back that quite honestly was unproven to begin with. I would view him and Bass as clear and distinct reserves. Hayden would not even figure in my thought process he is so ordinary. Nice try hard player, but easily improved upon.



Of course keep true to the board. But getting interior pressure has to be first priority when valuing the defensive linemen.

There are quite a few disruptive defensive tackles that could be available (Donald, Sutton, Hageman). It is simply deeper than the outside rushers, luckily for us.

Not sure why resign spencer is a bad thing... he has a thing to prove. His stock got dropped quite dramatically with the injury and he needs to play well for 1 to 2 years to prove doubters wrong.

 

[Galian Beast]

I hear ya man, but Zordon/Alexander are saying JJ won't swallow his pride and cut Ware like he needs to and not giving us the FA dollars we should have to play with.

That is a definite possibility, but some here are saying we simply can't afford x players. That really just isn't true. You cut Ware and Austin and you open up a large amount of money down the road.

Cutting Ware in June saves us 12 million in 2014, another 12 million in 2015, 14 million in 2016, 14 million in 2017.

Cutting Austin in June saves us 5 million in 2014, 4.5 million in 2015, 12.5 million in 2016.

That's a total of 17 million in 2014, 16.5 million in 2015, 26.5 million in 2016, and 14 million in 2017.

That opens the war chest quite a bit. And before you say that we still have to extend Dez Bryant, the money is already there for that when you consider the money we were spending on Ratliff, Spencer, and the cap penalties. There are also other bad contracts coming off the books.

The biggest challenge this team faces if we get rid of Ware and Austin, is getting under the cap in 2014. We are well under the cap in 2015 if we do that, and well under the cap in future years.

What about resigning free agents?

Notable Free Agents
2015 - cap space if we cut both ware and austin in june 2014? 16.9 million ceteris paribus.
Dez Bryant
Doug Free
Dwayne Harris
DeMarco Murray
Tyron Smith

2016 - cap space if we cut both ware and austin in june 2014? 55 million ceteris paribus.
Morris Claiborne

I don't think we realistically plan on resigning Claiborne at this point.

It really comes down to Bryant and Smith, and potentially Murray. I don't think it would break the bank to keep Harris either. You can pay these guys pretty minimal salaries in 2015 in order to get under the cap. For example, sean lee was extended and got the base salary for 2013. Cost us 2.9 million with his signing bonus. This doesn't even include the restructuring of contracts, which if you want will open things up even further. Romo has very little dead money in the end of his contract. You could easily restructure him two more years, and still release him at the end of his contract if you need to part ways with him, without it blowing up the cap.

We're at the crux of our operation now. There is really no turning around. We can either keep paying players that don't produce and hold the team back, or we can move forward and bring in quality players that can help us.

We can afford two quality free agents on the defensive line. That isn't going to break the bank. This team can finally breath again if we get rid of ware and Austin.

 

[Galian Beast]

I say you put full emphasis on fixing the offensive and defensive line in the next draft, and you will witness real progress with this team.

We don't need any more receivers or tight ends, and we're pretty set at running back to be honest, even with the injury concerns. You create a better offensive line and it won't matter as much who is back there.

The same goes for our back seven. The weakest link on our defense is our defensive line, and our weakest link on our offense is our offensive line.

On offense we can roll one more year with Doug Free, he has already taken a pay cut for next year, so unless he decides to hold out, he'll be here. I doubt that happens. The more important thing is solidifying the guard position. Hopefully we can bring Waters back. Maybe we keep Bernadeau because cutting him only saves us 1.4 million. Even if Waters comes back, even if we don't cut Bernadeau, we need to draft a guard who could potentially replace Waters/Bernadeau or push Leary.

The biggest thing to do though is remodel this defensive line. We potentially have some quality depth there, but we need 4 new starters.

Release Ware, don't overpay and resign Hatcher, don't resign Spencer. Doing otherwise is not at all logical. Maybe you could find someone willing to give a 3rd or a 4th round draft pick for Ware... I doubt it though, but that would really help us out.

Trading Ware would be the best possible outcome. Not only would we get him off the books before June, so we could use that salary cap space early, but we could potentially get a pick out of it.

 

[iceberg]

Why would Caroline not either franchise or re-sign Hardy?

cause we want them. we'll trade them dat to provide the necessary value.

 

[big dog cowboy]

I say you put full emphasis on fixing the offensive and defensive line in the next draft, and you will witness real progress with this team.

Please expand to include LB and I want a safety in the mix also.

 

[Galian Beast]

Please expand to include LB and I want a safety in the mix also.

I think you can get away with the secondary and linebackers were already have, as long as we pour resources into this defensive line. We can do so for at least another year. Any attempt to upgrade linebackers or safety now, will detract from resources that should go towards the defensive line.

 

[big dog cowboy]

I think you can get away with the secondary and linebackers were already have, as long as we pour resources into this defensive line. We can do so for at least another year. Any attempt to upgrade linebackers or safety now, will detract from resources that should go towards the defensive line.

Should have clarified my point to include free agency sorry. Absolutely want to see a trench heavy draft. Hope you know who does also.