ESPN Insider: 10 Logical Cap Casualties... WR Roy Williams

[Stash]

No, it has not been a disaster. The team would be worse if it had been a disaster. Unfortunately, it has not been a substantially successful move, either. The trade did not elevate Dallas to SB champs or at least NFC champs. The results are in the middle.

Oh, I would agree with Count that is most certainly has been a disaster to dat - an embarrassing one at that.

If not for Austin's emergence, this team would have never sniffed the playoffs, much less won a game counting on Roy Williams as its' #1 receiver.

Troy Aikman was right when he said it, this trade will very likely go down as one of the worst in franchise history.

 

[Biggems]

I firmly believe that Jones acted prematurely with Williams. Had he merely shown some patience, we could have most likely signed Williams as a free agent. I doubt anyone else would have traded for him, well at least for what the Lions were asking for. I believe he would have gotten released after the season. We could have then cut Owens, signed Roy, and kept our draft picks......and possibly picked our future left tackle Michael Oher or even gone for the homerun hitter in Percy Harvin.

Just think about this. Had we been able to keep our first, draft Oher, and still sign Roy.....we could draft Iupati in the first this year and our OL for the future would be sick.....Oher, Iupati, Gurode, Brewster/Newhouse, Free.

Jones and his lack of patience cost us and the future of our LT position is still a big mystery.

For the record, I am glad Roy is a Cowboy. I took a tour this past weekend of the new stadium. I didn't have a camera, but my friend did. He took a picture of me in front of Roy's locker doing the HOOK EM HORNS with both hands. I feel he is overpaid, but if he can become our possession WR, and continue to catch TDs, the high price tag is easier to digest. Give me 75 catches, 850 yds receiving, and 10-12 TDs.

 

[Idgit]

You don't think a 1st and a 3rd and 12 mil this year a bit much for what we've gotten from Roy? Did you even see who was available where we would have had our pick?

Allow me.

Brandon Pettigrew
Alex Mack
Percy Harvin
Michael Oher
Peria Jerry
Vontae Davis
Clay Matthews
Donald Brown
Eric Wood
Hakeem Nicks
Kenny Britt
Chris Wells
Evander Hood

We could have had some very good offensive linemen or some young, good WR's if we so choose. We would be sitting pretty this year with Mack or Oher or Wood on this team.

We would have been in a FANTASTIC spot last year with those picks.

The only good thing to come out of Roy's signing is allowing us to cut Owens.

Don't get me wrong. It was a bad trade, no ifs-ands-buts. I just don't think it was a disaster. We loaded up for a shot at a Superbowl and missed. I'm just saying the combined value of the basket of picks we gave up for the guy wasn't all that much for a team that moves up and down in the draft as much as we do, and that RW's production has been a huge disappointment relative to expectations, but not all that bad objectively. For example, if we'd used the 3rd and the 6th in '08 to move up and get a WR who played as poorly as RW has, we'd be disappointed, but not apoplectic.

The real damage, as you and I both point out, was the cap-hit. But fortunately we're in good cap shape overall do to careful handling, so even that's not the end of the world.

 

[wileedog]

Don't get me wrong. It was a bad trade, no ifs-ands-buts. I just don't think it was a disaster. We loaded up for a shot at a Superbowl and missed. .

If Roy doesn't hurt his rib and Miles never gets significant playing time then I agree with Stash that we don't sniff the playoffs. And if that happens Wade is almost assuredly gone and we are starting over with a new coach this season.

I'll let you all decide individually if that is a disaster or not...

That said, without that injury this trade could very well have lurched the whole franchise in another direction again, good or bad.

And quite frankly the emergence of Austin is a massive talent evaluation fail. The badness of the trade is only made worse in the fact that it never needed to made in the 1st place - a far better WR was already sitting on the bench for the past 4 years. And now we have to potentially pay both of them a ransom.

Maybe disaster is too strong a term, but this trade was very, very close to affecting the franchise about as badly as you can expect 1 transaction to do so.

 

[ODawg]

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[Four]

Yes I read the link and thought, "holy crap, where's the link"

that's crazy alright!

 

[RS12]

Seriously doubt Jerry eats that 9 mill. Particularly if he wound up in NFC East and had his two good games a year vs the Cowboys.

 

[JohnnyHopkins]

Probably has something to do with the article that was posted on their website about players that they felt should be released in their opinion.

They have a tendency to sensationalize things to get you to subscribe to their "Insider" service.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

it says COULD cut.

 

[elcowboi]

Seriously doubt Jerry eats that 9 mill. Particularly if he wound up in NFC East and had his two good games a year vs the Cowboys.

If I'm not mistaken the cap hit is over like 2-3 years. So it wouldn't be as bad in this uncapped year to do it.

 

[superpunk]

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Informative thread.

Would read again.

 

[Dodger]

Not going to happen.

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

Seriously doubt Jerry eats that 9 mill. Particularly if he wound up in NFC East and had his two good games a year vs the Cowboys.

The realists here will gladly take that chance.

 

[xWraithx]

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tl;dr

 

[jterrell]

There's no "What If" about it. If we hadn't traded for Roy, we'd have had a 1st round pick. The only what if is whether we would have been better or worse without trading for him, thus affecting what position we got, but the first round was packed with talent. We would have gotten a good player.

That's not even the question, you were saying it wasn't a disaster and thus far it has certainly been that.

No, it hasn't been a disaster.

We were able to cut TO because of the trade. That's a pretty big bag of win.

We did lose a 1st and 3rd and yes that 1st round had talent but your list is a silly one because it applies about zero to us a team.

Listing every decent player left in the draft is just for comedy purposes and has no basis on the Dallas Cowboys.

I would have preferred a large handful of players over RW11 to be sure. But none of those players would have meant we could cut TO. Harvin looks great but he had off the field issues which means we have to wait a bit to judge him. If he fails a drug test then all of a sudden no one is so hot on him.

It's clear RW11 hasn't lived up to the trade but it's also clear we moved on from TO and played the best football we've played this decade AFTER the trade. That's pretty much the opposite of disaster.

 

[wileedog]

It's clear RW11 hasn't lived up to the trade but it's also clear we moved on from TO and played the best football we've played this decade AFTER the trade. That's pretty much the opposite of disaster.

We played the best football we have in a decade because a guy who was already on the team came out of nowhere to have a monster season.

What does that have to do with the trade?

No one trade is ever going to sink an entire team, but in terms of losing quality players and financial flexibility it can screw you up pretty bad, particularly for the future.

We'll probably never really know the true damage because there are too many variables to predict, but if you want to say that losing a 1st, a 3rd, $45M bucks and a very mediocre WR taking up lots of valuable playing time isn't a disaster, then what exactly is a disaster for a trade on your scale?

 

[jterrell]

We played the best football we have in a decade because a guy who was already on the team came out of nowhere to have a monster season.

What does that have to do with the trade?

No one trade is ever going to sink an entire team, but in terms of losing quality players and financial flexibility it can screw you up pretty bad, particularly for the future.

We'll probably never really know the true damage because there are too many variables to predict, but if you want to say that losing a 1st, a 3rd, $45M bucks and a very mediocre WR taking up lots of valuable playing time isn't a disaster, then what exactly is a disaster for a trade on your scale?

What is has to do with the trade is we never would have released T.O. opening up a spot for Miles Austin.

Jerry basically noted part of releasing T.O. was expecting Austin to be the big play WR that T.O. had been. RW11 becoming a rather pedestrian WR allowed the ball to go to Austin as the better talent and bigger play guy BUT also RW11 had enough of a reputation to still draw coverage for the first half the season at least.

RW11 had #2 WR numbers. He had 7 TDs on the year and was a legit NFL WR even if an underwhelming one that couldn't get on the same page with his QB.

I've got no problem cutting him, no problem calling his time here a bust, but do have a problem with people whose minds don't allow them to calculate ALL that went into and then came out of the trade. As in most there is a middle ground. This trade was bad but still allowed us to do some things to get better as a football team.

The RW11 trade started dominoes falling and some fell in our favor while others obviously fell against us.

BTW, any talk of 45 mil falls on deaf ears because RW11 will not make 45 mil or even close to it here with us. We haven't faced any challenges due to RW11's contract at this time and look to be immune to it going forward.

 

[Randy White]

They will have dead money if the cap comes back, but it won't be a massive chunk all in one season.

The only way they get out of that dead money is if the CBA extension or new CBA wipes the slate clean, which is extremely doubtful.

I think it's extremely doubtful that they wouldn't wipe the slate clean with a new CBA.

 

[speedkilz88]

I think it's extremely doubtful that they wouldn't wipe the slate clean with a new CBA.

I don't think you understand it then.

 

[Hoofbite]

You don't think a 1st and a 3rd and 12 mil this year a bit much for what we've gotten from Roy? Did you even see who was available where we would have had our pick?

Allow me.

Brandon Pettigrew
Alex Mack
Percy Harvin
Michael Oher
Peria Jerry
Vontae Davis
Clay Matthews
Donald Brown
Eric Wood
Hakeem Nicks
Kenny Britt
Chris Wells
Evander Hood

We could have had some very good offensive linemen or some young, good WR's if we so choose. We would be sitting pretty this year with Mack or Oher or Wood on this team.

We would have been in a FANTASTIC spot last year with those picks.

The only good thing to come out of Roy's signing is allowing us to cut Owens.

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