How did we get so bad from 1 season to the next?

[CT Dal Fan]

To answer this question, let's do a roster review, 2023 to 2024:

Tony Pollard, Tyler Biadasz, Tyron Smith, Dorance Armstrong, Dante Fowler, Johnathan Hankins, Leighton Vander Esch, Stephon Gilmore- GONE.

Micah Parsons, DaRon Bland, DeMarcus Lawrence, Sam Williams, Brandin Cooks, Marshawn Kneeland- OUT WITH INJURY

Ezekiel Elliott, Erik Kendricks- IN.

I think this sums it up.

 

[Coy]

They weren’t that good last year as we saw in the playoffs, a couple of guys left, a very good DC left and you get a couple of big injuries and theae are the results.

 

[buybuydandavis]

On offense we mainly have the same guys minus LT Tyron Smith and Center Tyler Biadasz.

Losing Tyron and Biadasz and replacing them with rookies was going to be a big dropoff.
Martin dropping off has been a surprise.

Cowboy fans liked to complain about some olineman like Connor Williams and Tyler Biadasz who were actually pretty good for us, particularly when they left. We've been so spoiled on the oline for years, and now we're seeing what an average to mediocre oline looks like, and what Dak and our skill players look like playing behind them. Not pretty.

The drop off in the oline is particularly bad for Dak, as he's a tick slow as a QB, and the stronger olines gave him that extra tick to work with. Not this year.

 

[buybuydandavis]

To answer this question, let's do a roster review, 2023 to 2024:

Tony Pollard, Tyler Biadasz, Tyron Smith, Dorance Armstrong, Dante Fowler, Johnathan Hankins, Leighton Vander Esch, Stephon Gilmore- GONE.

Micah Parsons, DaRon Bland, DeMarcus Lawrence, Sam Williams, Brandin Cooks, Marshawn Kneeland- OUT WITH INJURY

Ezekiel Elliott, Erik Kendricks- IN.

I think this sums it up.

For this year the defense is hurting for injury and DT play.
The offense it's mainly losing players on the oline and losing the Martin we had grown accustomed to. He's not the same player this year.

 

[TNCowboy]

 

[slick325]

Standing pat while losing contributing players and depending strictly on young players developing or stepping in and contributing immediately will lead to a fall off. Dallas made no effort to improve the roster that Jerry himself felt was "hanging around the rim".

For the life of me I can't understand why you wouldn't do everything to improve the team after losing to GB in the fashion you did. Especially when your team was the 2 seed (luckily but the 2 seed nonetheless) having won 12 games 3 years in a row. Dumbfounded why you would go "all in" this season.

 

[Phil413Cowboy]

We look like one of the worst teams in the NFL.

Question how do we look so bad after coming off of 3 twelve win seasons?

On offense we mainly have the same guys minus LT Tyron Smith and Center Tyler Biadasz.

And on defense I know we are missing our best players for most of the season (to be honest when we had the starters we haven't looked good on defense except when we played the Browns) but man this defense is the worst Cowboys defense I've seen in a while. Was Dan Quinn play calling and scheme really making this defense seem wayyyy better than what they truly are? I guess we are really missing Sam Williams, Dorrance Armstrong, and Dante Fowler Jr. this season. BTW Dante Fowler Jr. plays starting strong side backer for the Commanders.

Thats easy....he didn't use the free agency, Jerry bring back washed up players and went to the discount store for other players

 

[SuspectCorner]

Talent exodus > talent infusion.

 

[Chasing6]

We look like one of the worst teams in the NFL.

Question how do we look so bad after coming off of 3 twelve win seasons?

On offense we mainly have the same guys minus LT Tyron Smith and Center Tyler Biadasz.

And on defense I know we are missing our best players for most of the season (to be honest when we had the starters we haven't looked good on defense except when we played the Browns) but man this defense is the worst Cowboys defense I've seen in a while. Was Dan Quinn play calling and scheme really making this defense seem wayyyy better than what they truly are? I guess we are really missing Sam Williams, Dorrance Armstrong, and Dante Fowler Jr. this season. BTW Dante Fowler Jr. plays starting strong side backer for the Commanders.

Dementia is setting in.

 

[jay94]

No depth, getting talent worse 2 years in a row, and finally a much tougher schedule.

 

[Kingofholland]

We look like one of the worst teams in the NFL.

Question how do we look so bad after coming off of 3 twelve win seasons?

On offense we mainly have the same guys minus LT Tyron Smith and Center Tyler Biadasz.

And on defense I know we are missing our best players for most of the season (to be honest when we had the starters we haven't looked good on defense except when we played the Browns) but man this defense is the worst Cowboys defense I've seen in a while. Was Dan Quinn play calling and scheme really making this defense seem wayyyy better than what they truly are? I guess we are really missing Sam Williams, Dorrance Armstrong, and Dante Fowler Jr. this season. BTW Dante Fowler Jr. plays starting strong side backer for the Commanders.

I didn't think we would look this bad either, but other teams went out and improved their roster and the Cowboys did nothing. So if you're not improving you're net negative.

Really our failure to invest in the running game and getting OT insurance doomed this offense. Dak is playing scared and looks like a shell of the MVP runner up. Plus Cooks is a year older and was hampered by a knee injury so no real #2 threat.

Defensively, we're missing a lot and we're trying to implement a new scheme under a new defensive coordinator. We're also still soft at DT, and any team with half way decent coaches just had to watch the Green Bay game.

 

[JonesBoys]

When Jerry Jones is your GM anything is possible.

 

[plasticman]

Injuries and poor personnel strategy..

It's as if the injuries were strategically placed to destroy the Cowboys areas of strength. It actually began last season.

Anyone can see that Trevon Diggs is not the same. It made Bland's injury even more devastating. that is two 1st team All Pros that are still recovering. Bland came back too soon, that is also obvious. Even their rookie backup Caelon Carson was hobbled for a great deal of the 1st half of the season.

This destroyed a very strong CB squad but that was nothing compared to the DE's. All four DE's in a potentially great rotation? All picked off by injury. Probably the strongest unit for the Cowboys, now the weakest on defense.

Injuries only destroyed those units that the Cowboys didn't destroy themselves. Not addressing the need for RB's was pure madness. However, if you are going to be one-dimensional, at least give them a fighting chance with protection and weapons.

A veteran WR and O-lineman was an absolute need in free agency but the Cowboys did nothing and so they are doing nothing now.

You had to know it was only a matter of time before Dak went down. Everybody knows he is going to pass the ball two out of every three plays so why bother with run defense. Dak has been on the run for the whole season.

Dak really has only one legitimate and consistent target. Of course, defenses are going to get physical with CeeDee.

It's almost as if Jerry had some really deep resentments on their two contracts and is now forcing them to win games alone.

 

[NumOneQB]

Every team that thinks they're contenders turns over their roster and is active in improving their roster with free agency during the off season. Cowboys did none of that. You lose players and do nothing to improve and are surprised by the results? The front office execs will NEVER have their jobs on the line. Their is no sense of urgency to do things the right way or get better. The Jones idiots shrug their shoulders and shake it off as we will try it again next year. They will always have a football team to return to.

 

[AshyLarry06]

We look like one of the worst teams in the NFL.

Question how do we look so bad after coming off of 3 twelve win seasons?

On offense we mainly have the same guys minus LT Tyron Smith and Center Tyler Biadasz.

And on defense I know we are missing our best players for most of the season (to be honest when we had the starters we haven't looked good on defense except when we played the Browns) but man this defense is the worst Cowboys defense I've seen in a while. Was Dan Quinn play calling and scheme really making this defense seem wayyyy better than what they truly are? I guess we are really missing Sam Williams, Dorrance Armstrong, and Dante Fowler Jr. this season. BTW Dante Fowler Jr. plays starting strong side backer for the Commanders.

Bad offseason and lack of talent, although important contributors, are not the main reason imo. The main reason is coaching. Bringing back McCarthy on an expiring contract with no extension AFTER that debacle playoff loss vs Green Bay was a blatant death sentence.

From the get go, this team never looked like they believed- they looked like they questioned the legitimacy of their coach. When that happens, the MOMENT something goes wrong, EVERYTHING begins to crumble, which is exactly what we’re seeing.

I do think we can make a quick turnaround next year IF and ONLY IF the RIGHT coach is brought in AND this cheap *** owner/President/GM/dictator spends some damn money this offseason.

 

[cowboys1981]

Not replacing Pollard

Abandon DT spot again

Not addressing the depth DEs we lost

 

[McMicah]

It’s a culmination of multiple things. But the biggest factor remains Jerry’s greatest weakness: Overvaluing aging players.

 

[ConstantReboot]

We look like one of the worst teams in the NFL.

Question how do we look so bad after coming off of 3 twelve win seasons?

On offense we mainly have the same guys minus LT Tyron Smith and Center Tyler Biadasz.

And on defense I know we are missing our best players for most of the season (to be honest when we had the starters we haven't looked good on defense except when we played the Browns) but man this defense is the worst Cowboys defense I've seen in a while. Was Dan Quinn play calling and scheme really making this defense seem wayyyy better than what they truly are? I guess we are really missing Sam Williams, Dorrance Armstrong, and Dante Fowler Jr. this season. BTW Dante Fowler Jr. plays starting strong side backer for the Commanders.

WE did nothing and pretended like we did something.

I still hate that we let Dan Quinn go. I was never a fan of Zimmer.

We also didn't bring in one running back. We didn't even draft one. We also didn't look at other backs that such as Barkley and Henry. I really wanted Aaron Jones too.

Jerry sat on his butt thinking the draft would cure everything. Two bad drafts, no prominent FAs, bad coaching, nothing got fixed and an old man as a GM who has no clue in building a team. A recipe for disaster.

 

[TwentyOne]

We look like one of the worst teams in the NFL.

Question how do we look so bad after coming off of 3 twelve win seasons?

On offense we mainly have the same guys minus LT Tyron Smith and Center Tyler Biadasz.

And on defense I know we are missing our best players for most of the season (to be honest when we had the starters we haven't looked good on defense except when we played the Browns) but man this defense is the worst Cowboys defense I've seen in a while. Was Dan Quinn play calling and scheme really making this defense seem wayyyy better than what they truly are? I guess we are really missing Sam Williams, Dorrance Armstrong, and Dante Fowler Jr. this season. BTW Dante Fowler Jr. plays starting strong side backer for the Commanders.

On offense you also lost Pollard. And Cooks is hurt.

To lose starters of the two most important positions on the OL is hard so swallow. Your newly drafted LT right now is a bad player. Your new Center looks OK, but he is a rookie and you cant expect him to handle the position without problems.

Steel did not recover like you hoped for. He looks even worse. And we have no backup plan. We took a very big risk and lost. Well our owner says of himself that he is a risk taker so he must know this feeling.

In the end you lost a lot of talent. Also because you gave your bum at QB a big contract. And he is what he is. He cant do it with talent around him and he for sure cant do it with less.

We also play more winning teams from last year because we won the division.

There you have it for the offense.


Anyways. It was clear from the beginning that this and next year are rebuilding years. Just close the eyes and go thru it.

The bigger problem for me is: This FO cant build a contender. So what will a rebuild effectivly do for us? We will have more cap space and better draft picks. OK. But this FO will burn it like before with the result of having bum coaches bum Qbs and bad draft picks again.

 

[TwentyOne]

WE did nothing and pretended like we did something.

I still hate that we let Dan Quinn go. I was never a fan of Zimmer.

We also didn't bring in one running back. We didn't even draft one. We also didn't look at other backs that such as Barkley and Henry. I really wanted Aaron Jones too.

Jerry sat on his butt thinking the draft would cure everything. Two bad drafts, no prominent FAs, bad coaching, nothing got fixed and an old man as a GM who has no clue in building a team. A recipe for disaster.

Yeah Zimmer just does not have it anymore. The game went by him years ago.

But i think there was no chance Quinn would have stayed with us. It was the right time for him to leave.
He was becoming the scapegoat here because the defense couldnt stop the run.

With this FO that wasnt his fault. He created a great defense here. But those accolades would have been forgotten if he stayed here much longer.