Hard realities

[Johannes44]

Ya, enough already. Do you have to repeat it 1,000,000 times?

It bears repeating no? Problems are like pimples, they don't go away on their own without first bursting crap all over your face. The Cowboys never spot a problem and actually deal with it. They let the crap metastasize to the point where it becomes a massive enough problem where they can no longer lie to the fanbase about it. That is what we are being sold with Prescott. A problem who is a problem but is being concealed by the fact that there are bigger problems. Instead of addressing it however we are going to let it ride for a few more years -wasting more time, more seasons, more careers.

 

[Kingofholland]

Watching the Game Day thread yesterday, the only thing that surprised me was the number of fans that seemed genuinely shocked at how bad our defense played. The screams for Matt Eberflus’ head is understandable but would solve 0% of our problems. Because this defense is really, really bad.

So here’s our first hard reality: This defense does not have much talent. A “better” scheme and a 4th new defensive coordinator in 21 months will not solve our problems.

In the 2023 season, our last season with realistic playoff hopes, 3 of our best defenders on that team are no longer on this team. And 3 others are currently hurt. And that 2023 defense was not great to begin with.

• Micah Parsons - best talent we’ve had on defense in two decades. Traded to GB. Predictably tearing it up in GB.
• Demarcus Lawrence - one of the most underrated Cowboys in recent years, was lost in FA to Seattle. (Too many fans here only looked at sack numbers) DLaw was a real talent who has already made an impact in Sea.
• Jourdan Lewis - a real leader and underrated talent, lost in FA to the Jags. Has two picks in 3 games.

The above players weren’t enough to make our defense good enough in the playoffs as we saw in the horrible GB playoff disaster. But the guys who have replaced the above better players we had are all a major step down.

And most of the other talent we have on D now is hurt. Trevon Diggs isn’t right, Deron Bland has a bad foot, and DeMarvion Overshown - who knows if he will ever be the same. Osa Odighizhua is a complimentary piece that will never be dominant without help, and Kenny Clark is clearly not the same guy he once was.

The second hard reality I have accepted and it’s the hardest to overcome: A complete lack of front office cohesiveness beyond how to market this team. Someone was quoted on Twitter last night saying, “The Dallas Cowboys are the Jacksonville Jaguars with better marketing.”And that’s not fair to the Jags. They have been to two conference championship games in the last 30 years.

The hard reality is this is not a roster with enough talent to be a playoff team. It can improve but not much IMO. Losing a lot of games this year is sadly in our team’s best interest.

One final question: Do you have faith that our front office knows how to rebuild? I wish I did but I don’t. We fans are just going to have to play the long game in hopes that real changes will happen at some point. It doesn’t take much football insight to know our FO is clueless when it comes to building a playoff roster.

Looking at the current roster, I think there are 4 guys you can definitively say should be part of the starting lineup and 2 of them are injured.

Osa
Clark
Bland
Overshown

I like some of our young des potential, but they're young and inexperienced. I probably over estimated this group. The poor coverage in the secondary has allowed teams to get the ball out fast which doesn't give them much time to get home.

At LB this group is decent against the run but is weak in coverage and lacks game changing potential.

Safety may be the worst coverage group, totally lost on their assignments and execution. Wilson needs to be a box safety with limited coverage responsibility or benched

Corner is injury riddled and continually losing players in coverage, hard to fully evaluate with the poor safety play. However, when guys like Revel and Carson are back I would get them lots of playing time.

Moving forward I will say it again get your corners up pressing the receivers. Playing 7-10 yards off gives receivers a clean release and if you can't follow your assignments atleast with the jam you're making the QB hold the ball an extra second or two giving pass rushers a better chance to disrupt the timing. Certainly the risk is if the receiver beats the jam you may leave him wide open, but that's happening anyway.

 

[NDGAEDE]

All great points. We signed a bunch of role players who are now expected to be difference makers because we traded the only difference maker we had and let the best starters leave in free agency.

Replaced Lewis with Elam, injured Diggs and injured Revel

Replaced Lawrence and Micah with Sam Williams and Dante Fowler.

Kept Hooker, Damone Clark, and Wilson in their starting positions despite years of this kind of play.

Traded for Murray and handed him a starting role despite years of this kind of play.

Entered offseason counting on Mazi to not be the worst player on the team, necessitating a desperate trade for Clark.

Signed a DC whose zone scheme doesn't fit our personnel. Drafted guys who don't fit the scheme. Traded the one player who could make the scheme work better.

The OP is actually right. The defense is built incredibly poorly and will continue to struggle, regardless of the DC, because the Joneses haven't a single clue what they're doing.

 

[CCBoy]

It bears repeating no? Problems are like pimples, they don't go away on their own without first bursting crap all over your face. The Cowboys never spot a problem and actually deal with it. They let the crap metastasize to the point where it becomes a massive enough problem where they can no longer lie to the fanbase about it. That is what we are being sold with Prescott. A problem who is a problem but is being concealed by the fact that there are bigger problems. Instead of addressing it however we are going to let it ride for a few more years -wasting more time, more seasons, more careers.

I don't buy that in an organization nothing is ever solved.

 

[Mr_437]

Watching the Game Day thread yesterday, the only thing that surprised me was the number of fans that seemed genuinely shocked at how bad our defense played. The screams for Matt Eberflus’ head is understandable but would solve 0% of our problems. Because this defense is really, really bad.

So here’s our first hard reality: This defense does not have much talent. A “better” scheme and a 4th new defensive coordinator in 21 months will not solve our problems.

In the 2023 season, our last season with realistic playoff hopes, 3 of our best defenders on that team are no longer on this team. And 3 others are currently hurt. And that 2023 defense was not great to begin with.

• Micah Parsons - best talent we’ve had on defense in two decades. Traded to GB. Predictably tearing it up in GB.
• Demarcus Lawrence - one of the most underrated Cowboys in recent years, was lost in FA to Seattle. (Too many fans here only looked at sack numbers) DLaw was a real talent who has already made an impact in Sea.
• Jourdan Lewis - a real leader and underrated talent, lost in FA to the Jags. Has two picks in 3 games.

The above players weren’t enough to make our defense good enough in the playoffs as we saw in the horrible GB playoff disaster. But the guys who have replaced the above better players we had are all a major step down.

And most of the other talent we have on D now is hurt. Trevon Diggs isn’t right, Deron Bland has a bad foot, and DeMarvion Overshown - who knows if he will ever be the same. Osa Odighizhua is a complimentary piece that will never be dominant without help, and Kenny Clark is clearly not the same guy he once was.

The second hard reality I have accepted and it’s the hardest to overcome: A complete lack of front office cohesiveness beyond how to market this team. Someone was quoted on Twitter last night saying, “The Dallas Cowboys are the Jacksonville Jaguars with better marketing.”And that’s not fair to the Jags. They have been to two conference championship games in the last 30 years.

The hard reality is this is not a roster with enough talent to be a playoff team. It can improve but not much IMO. Losing a lot of games this year is sadly in our team’s best interest.

One final question: Do you have faith that our front office knows how to rebuild? I wish I did but I don’t. We fans are just going to have to play the long game in hopes that real changes will happen at some point. It doesn’t take much football insight to know our FO is clueless when it comes to building a playoff roster.

Good post. I believe this issues now are directly connected to the last offseason of the McCarthy era where GM Jerry let a lot of the solid depth players walk in FA i.e. Dorance Armstrong etc. To make matters worse they don't participate in FA properly to plug the holes created 2 years ago. It should have been a full rebuild at that time, but Jerry just couldn't let Dak walk, so now their stuck. A extremely top heavy team traded its best defender on a bad defense, and the Owner and some fans tried to spin that the team is better off, OK. Too many good players let go, and Jerry doesn't restock the shelves long story short.

 

[DallasEast]

Ya, enough already. Do you have to repeat it 1,000,000 times?

Accidental or intentional irony?

 

[ShiningStar]

Our only hope this year is to get a top 5 pick and get our QB of the future since this is a very good QB class

Then hope that GB loses as many games as possible so at least we get a pick in low 20s

This year is lost

this is funny.

ok, lets play

Do you REALLY think JJ wants a SB and a contending team?

 

[ChronicCowboy]

Letting Lewis go was a huge mistake. If Jerry had anticipated trading Parsons, I think they would have made more of an effort to re-sign him.

 

[nate dizzle]

Nobody could play the QB position on this team and cover the warts....well, maybe Patty, but outside of him?

At this point, you're probably right, with all the recent losses and draft misses on the defensive side of the ball. But this defense is only 2 seasons removed from a top 5 unit. Dak gets paid and now they're 30th. Cause/effect.

 

[BotchedLobotomy]

One final question: Do you have faith that our front office knows how to rebuild?

Nope.
The first step is the front office recognizing that a rebuild is necessary. Jerry is nowhere close to that. When he's telling us that this team is still a playoff caliber team, it really shows us how far Jerry is from thinking rebuild.

 

[John813]

The front office is clueless. The owner wants to play GM/HC and these are the results. Sometimes the team can win in the regular season but weaknesses are always exposed in the playoffs.

Another offseason of sitting on their hands in FA. Trading for "disappointments" in Murray and Elam.
Trading away the best player in August.

I'm completely resigned to the fact this team won't be a contender till the ownership gets a shakeup. Until then, I see very little to get fully invested in the NFL.

I said this before, but I also root for the Florida Panthers, a team for most of it's existence was a clown show/mess outside of a 96 Cinderella run.
Wasn't until new ownership came in, cleaned house over time, gave assets to the GM and backed away from hockey moves.
Now they are back to back SC champs, and 3 years in a row to the Finals. GM has kept all the core pieces too for more runs.

Seeing that and then watching the Cowboys operate, it's depressing to see how far this franchise has fallen.

 

[maryquality]

• Micah Parsons - best talent we’ve had on defense in two decades. Traded to GB. Predictably tearing it up in GB.
• Demarcus Lawrence - one of the most underrated Cowboys in recent years, was lost in FA to Seattle. (Too many fans here only looked at sack numbers) DLaw was a real talent who has already made an impact in Sea.
• Jourdan Lewis - a real leader and underrated talent, lost in FA to the Jags. Has two picks in 3 games.

The above players weren’t enough to make our defense good enough in the playoffs as we saw in the horrible GB playoff disaster. But the guys who have replaced the above better players we had are all a major step down.

^^^^^ this right here sums it up!!!

 

[gtb1943]

the jethro kool aid drinkers drooled over this team and called anyone that did not a hater

now the haters are pretty much either hiding or claiming it is not this bad

 

[ShiningStar]

The front office is clueless. The owner wants to play GM/HC and these are the results. Sometimes the team can win in the regular season but weaknesses are always exposed in the playoffs.

Another offseason of sitting on their hands in FA. Trading for "disappointments" in Murray and Elam.
Trading away the best player in August.

I'm completely resigned to the fact this team won't be a contender till the ownership gets a shakeup. Until then, I see very little to get fully invested in the NFL.

I said this before, but I also root for the Florida Panthers, a team for most of it's existence was a clown show/mess outside of a 96 Cinderella run.
Wasn't until new ownership came in, cleaned house over time, gave assets to the GM and backed away from hockey moves.
Now they are back to back SC champs, and 3 years in a row to the Finals. GM has kept all the core pieces too for more runs.

Seeing that and then watching the Cowboys operate, it's depressing to see how far this franchise has fallen.

oh lords

no, they are not clueless, they are doing their jobs.

YOU are cluess.

you think this is about football, for 30 years, JJ has saod NO, its about making money.

now look at it from that persepective.


there you go. now you know how it works and now it makes sense.

this is NOT about football. making money.

you have to change your view to suit the reality of it.

you are clueless, JJ changed the game before your eyes and it didnt take long.

 

[gtb1943]

Watching the Game Day thread yesterday, the only thing that surprised me was the number of fans that seemed genuinely shocked at how bad our defense played. The screams for Matt Eberflus’ head is understandable but would solve 0% of our problems. Because this defense is really, really bad.

So here’s our first hard reality: This defense does not have much talent. A “better” scheme and a 4th new defensive coordinator in 21 months will not solve our problems.

In the 2023 season, our last season with realistic playoff hopes, 3 of our best defenders on that team are no longer on this team. And 3 others are currently hurt. And that 2023 defense was not great to begin with.

• Micah Parsons - best talent we’ve had on defense in two decades. Traded to GB. Predictably tearing it up in GB.
• Demarcus Lawrence - one of the most underrated Cowboys in recent years, was lost in FA to Seattle. (Too many fans here only looked at sack numbers) DLaw was a real talent who has already made an impact in Sea.
• Jourdan Lewis - a real leader and underrated talent, lost in FA to the Jags. Has two picks in 3 games.

The above players weren’t enough to make our defense good enough in the playoffs as we saw in the horrible GB playoff disaster. But the guys who have replaced the above better players we had are all a major step down.

And most of the other talent we have on D now is hurt. Trevon Diggs isn’t right, Deron Bland has a bad foot, and DeMarvion Overshown - who knows if he will ever be the same. Osa Odighizhua is a complimentary piece that will never be dominant without help, and Kenny Clark is clearly not the same guy he once was.

The second hard reality I have accepted and it’s the hardest to overcome: A complete lack of front office cohesiveness beyond how to market this team. Someone was quoted on Twitter last night saying, “The Dallas Cowboys are the Jacksonville Jaguars with better marketing.”And that’s not fair to the Jags. They have been to two conference championship games in the last 30 years.

The hard reality is this is not a roster with enough talent to be a playoff team. It can improve but not much IMO. Losing a lot of games this year is sadly in our team’s best interest.

One final question: Do you have faith that our front office knows how to rebuild? I wish I did but I don’t. We fans are just going to have to play the long game in hopes that real changes will happen at some point. It doesn’t take much football insight to know our FO is clueless when it comes to building a playoff roster.

Demarcus lawrence was never a great player and was overpaid almost his whole time here

Micah is a one trick pony who is VERY GOOD AT IT but that is all

Jourdan Lewis we should have kept I agree there but he was not a star either

 

[John813]

oh lords

no, they are not clueless, they are doing their jobs.

YOU are cluess.

you think this is about football, for 30 years, JJ has saod NO, its about making money.

now look at it from that persepective.


there you go. now you know how it works and now it makes sense.

this is NOT about football. making money.

you have to change your view to suit the reality of it.

you are clueless, JJ changed the game before your eyes and it didnt take long.

Did you have a stroke when writing this?

 

[SteveTheCowboy]

It bears repeating no? Problems are like pimples, they don't go away on their own without first bursting crap all over your face.

We could try some tea tree oil.

 

[MisterWaffles]

Nothing changes until Jerry Jones is not in charge anymore. It's that simple. He's immune to reality, immune to self-improvement or humility, and thus will never cede the GM role that he so painfully clutches to despite being completely incapable of doing that job well. The criticism just hardens his shell against the world and I am convinced that he has no regard whatsoever for fans - they are just some thing from which he must extract money and attention from, nothing more.

The only thing I think his ego could not take would be mass fan apathy resulting in tens of thousands of empty seats in his stupid carnival stadium. A heavy hit to his wallet in terms of revenue loss, and ego in terms of embarrassing TV shots game after game of huge swaths of empty upper decks is probably the only thing that might (not even that with certainty, but maybe) move this ridiculous old man to get the heck out of the way. But the chances of that happening are next to zero, so I don't think anything meaningful changes with this franchise until Jerry Jones is no longer.

 

[montgod]

The hard reality is this is not a roster with enough talent to be a playoff team. It can improve but not much IMO. Losing a lot of games this year is sadly in our team’s best interest.

One final question: Do you have faith that our front office knows how to rebuild? I wish I did but I don’t. We fans are just going to have to play the long game in hopes that real changes will happen at some point. It doesn’t take much football insight to know our FO is clueless when it comes to building a playoff roster.

Fully agree regarding this not being close to a playoff team and have been saying this especially for those who want to waste the minimal picks received for MP on someone like Trey H. DAL needs too much to waste resources on adding more on the outcome of this year imo. There are no quick fixes anymore, the team is decimated to a point where the core has been marginalized enough to where it can't keep this team contending (in the sense of winning more than 10 games and possibility for a wild card spot).

And a resounding no as for as the FO, they have no clue. When you hire budget coaches along with budget players, the results are dollar tree specials. Don't know why they continue to think otherwise. This is why you need a competent FO to plan AHEAD in building a true, sound team - this encompasses salary cap, team management, etc.

Just cause you can whip up controversy and interest with a few minutes work, doesn't mean the same can be had for a successful "WINNING ON THE FIELD" franchise.

 

[chicago JK]

I don't know the answer. The scary part is the FO won't have a plan either. Their talent is low, but they are paying their QB the most in the league. I have no trust the front office can rebuild. It may be a long down period. The Mazi draft is a bust..Mazi included. You can flush that down the toilet. Unforunately, the one promising player in the draft has torn both ACL's. No clue if he can ever recapture his play from last year. Seems unlikely and he may not even be able to stay healthy.

The 24 draft looks ok, but man Guyton may not have it. Tough to really pile draft classes together when you miss on first round picks. For a team that likes to build during the draft, they have not been good at it recently. I have no idea about Booker. I like everything about the kid, but he is an interior guard. He really needs to be one of the better in the league to really be worth such a high pick.

I am not sure how much trade value our players have. Kenny Clark would be #1 on my trade list. He is solid and his contract is pretty good. Send him to a team where he could help. He is almost 30 and he shouldn't be long here. I am not really sure if anyone else has any value. I would not trade our young interior line. If you are not willing to pay market price for Williams this summer, than trade him too.

I have never seen a defense this bad. No pressure and wide open receivers. They should all be embarrassed. It wasn't a great defense to begin with, but it was built on Micah and Lawrence creating pressure with a secondary that can take advantage of mistakes. They are worthless without the pressure. They needed better DT play, but that should have been taken care of this offseason. There was a path to have a league average defense with the ability to create turnovers. Unfortunately, they decided against that and now it looks like the whole defense personell will need to be upgraded. This is not a one year fix.