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Dallas hasnt always ha a good draft to FA ratio, but from 2016 on? Lets look at what they did.
2016
1 Ezekiel Elliot
2 Jaylon Smith
3 Maliek Collins
4 Dak Prescott
6 Anthony Brown
6 Lance Frazier
There are other picks there but this is the bulk of their draft thats meant anything. All have started at some point. They have 3 players who are franchise players in QB, RB, and LB. You add a starting 3tech and one of the better slot CBs in the NFL. Add in a ST ace and a situation safety. Every person on this draft is on the Cowboys except for Tapper.
This has been one of the best drafts in this teams history.
2017
1 Taco Charlton
2 Chidobe Awuzie
3 Jourdan Lewis
6 Xavier Woods
7 Noah Brown
This draft added 2 starters to this point in Awuzie and Woods. A CB who IMO should be starting in Lewis. Have to wonder what Richards is looking at. Because this kid makes more plays then all other CBs they have combined. Is it strictly size keeping him out? Charlton if he comes back the way he played early in 2018 this team will be just fine. Brown i think is going to be cut this yr.
With the 4 players from this draft Dallas has 10 players starting and/or contributing in the core of this team.
2018
1 Leighton Vander Esch
2 Connor Williams
3 Michael Gallup
4 Dorance Armstrong
6 Cedrick Wilson
2018 saw Dallas add 3 more players who would become 3 starters for now and the future. Williams started out not ready weight size. But as the season went on u saw him get bigger and settled down a little. Leighton once Lee got hurt went off. Gallup was a starter who deserved to be there since week 1. Armstrong is a guy who just got pushed back because of talent ahead of him. As much as people want to focus on that rams game because it was important and knocked them out of the playoffs, this DL was very good. This yr i could see him make a jump. Then theres Cedrick Wilson, who went on IR. He was showing coaches things they liked before he got hurt. He looked more refined as a WR then Gallup did.
So in the last 3 drafts Dallas adds 15 players and 8 starters. Which could turn into more this yr. But as of right now 8 of your 22 starters on offense and defense have come in the last 3 drafts. And theyre not just avg starters but players who have made differences.
This is how you go into the offseason not making big FA signings. Because you dont need to. They dont have the gaping holes these teams making these signings have. The Jets, Browns, Raiders made these trades and signing why? Because they need to. They were bad teams.
Would i like it if this team signed guys like Malcolm Brown, or other 2nd tier FAs? Yes they have experience. But they i think of it in the Cowboys view and ask, can i find guys in the draft to give me the production Brown would give me? Looking at how they have draft while building this team and the answer is a resounding yes. While we as fans get frustrated at times some more then others. What the Dallas Cowboys are doing is working.
The other thing i hear is the Cowboys are wasting the yrs of the players on rookie yrs to sign these big FA guys. Here is where fans are ignorant to the working of this team. You do this and youre going to lose these players when you cant pay them because of these big deals signed 1 or 2 yrs before. So what is this team doing? Theyre going to sign said rookie deal players early to get them for cheaper. Dak can be controlled for 3 more yrs with this yrs rookie yr and 2 yrs of franchise tagging him. Which he will end up getting around close to 67mil in 3 yrs. Which might seem cheap, but it works against you and the players trust. You can sign Dak to a long term deal and have the media tout a 25-30mil avg salary, but keep the first few yrs manageable in thr 20mil range, and work out a restructure that pays him alot of money again voiding the fluff yrs. Thus keeping your QB happy and ur salary cap safe. This is what the team did with Romo his entire career. It wasnt his contract that put the team in trouble. It was them other deals that they cut players and had alot of deal money. Romo;s deal did hurt them but it wasnt because of him or the teams fault. It was a fluke inury.
This team has balanced the cap and its roster without having to pay these over the top salaries in FA that are seeing these players being cut and back in FA.
So while me myself i wouldnt mind seeing a 2nd tier FAs, im not upset because they are knocking it out of the park in the draft. If im going to get furious with this FO its the coaching situation. Theres no doubt in my mind this team would have won a superbowl or maybe 2 since 2014 with a better coach.
2016
1 Ezekiel Elliot
2 Jaylon Smith
3 Maliek Collins
4 Dak Prescott
6 Anthony Brown
6 Lance Frazier
There are other picks there but this is the bulk of their draft thats meant anything. All have started at some point. They have 3 players who are franchise players in QB, RB, and LB. You add a starting 3tech and one of the better slot CBs in the NFL. Add in a ST ace and a situation safety. Every person on this draft is on the Cowboys except for Tapper.
This has been one of the best drafts in this teams history.
2017
1 Taco Charlton
2 Chidobe Awuzie
3 Jourdan Lewis
6 Xavier Woods
7 Noah Brown
This draft added 2 starters to this point in Awuzie and Woods. A CB who IMO should be starting in Lewis. Have to wonder what Richards is looking at. Because this kid makes more plays then all other CBs they have combined. Is it strictly size keeping him out? Charlton if he comes back the way he played early in 2018 this team will be just fine. Brown i think is going to be cut this yr.
With the 4 players from this draft Dallas has 10 players starting and/or contributing in the core of this team.
2018
1 Leighton Vander Esch
2 Connor Williams
3 Michael Gallup
4 Dorance Armstrong
6 Cedrick Wilson
2018 saw Dallas add 3 more players who would become 3 starters for now and the future. Williams started out not ready weight size. But as the season went on u saw him get bigger and settled down a little. Leighton once Lee got hurt went off. Gallup was a starter who deserved to be there since week 1. Armstrong is a guy who just got pushed back because of talent ahead of him. As much as people want to focus on that rams game because it was important and knocked them out of the playoffs, this DL was very good. This yr i could see him make a jump. Then theres Cedrick Wilson, who went on IR. He was showing coaches things they liked before he got hurt. He looked more refined as a WR then Gallup did.
So in the last 3 drafts Dallas adds 15 players and 8 starters. Which could turn into more this yr. But as of right now 8 of your 22 starters on offense and defense have come in the last 3 drafts. And theyre not just avg starters but players who have made differences.
This is how you go into the offseason not making big FA signings. Because you dont need to. They dont have the gaping holes these teams making these signings have. The Jets, Browns, Raiders made these trades and signing why? Because they need to. They were bad teams.
Would i like it if this team signed guys like Malcolm Brown, or other 2nd tier FAs? Yes they have experience. But they i think of it in the Cowboys view and ask, can i find guys in the draft to give me the production Brown would give me? Looking at how they have draft while building this team and the answer is a resounding yes. While we as fans get frustrated at times some more then others. What the Dallas Cowboys are doing is working.
The other thing i hear is the Cowboys are wasting the yrs of the players on rookie yrs to sign these big FA guys. Here is where fans are ignorant to the working of this team. You do this and youre going to lose these players when you cant pay them because of these big deals signed 1 or 2 yrs before. So what is this team doing? Theyre going to sign said rookie deal players early to get them for cheaper. Dak can be controlled for 3 more yrs with this yrs rookie yr and 2 yrs of franchise tagging him. Which he will end up getting around close to 67mil in 3 yrs. Which might seem cheap, but it works against you and the players trust. You can sign Dak to a long term deal and have the media tout a 25-30mil avg salary, but keep the first few yrs manageable in thr 20mil range, and work out a restructure that pays him alot of money again voiding the fluff yrs. Thus keeping your QB happy and ur salary cap safe. This is what the team did with Romo his entire career. It wasnt his contract that put the team in trouble. It was them other deals that they cut players and had alot of deal money. Romo;s deal did hurt them but it wasnt because of him or the teams fault. It was a fluke inury.
This team has balanced the cap and its roster without having to pay these over the top salaries in FA that are seeing these players being cut and back in FA.
So while me myself i wouldnt mind seeing a 2nd tier FAs, im not upset because they are knocking it out of the park in the draft. If im going to get furious with this FO its the coaching situation. Theres no doubt in my mind this team would have won a superbowl or maybe 2 since 2014 with a better coach.
