I am all for smart cap usage, but what's the plan? *Merge*

Yakuza Rich

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I think Stephen Jones has wanted the Cowboys to be more patient, cap conservative and being very wary of age when it comes to contracts for quite some time.

Garrett probably has been as well, but we know that Garrett's big thing is about assembling top notch position coaches with the idea of developing a 'program' and having the best coaching from top-to-bottom.

I think Stephen has pushed for that as well and now with Garrett and now with the success they had last season...Jerry is buying into it.

Last year, EVERY SINGLE STARTER on the offense was either drafted by the Cowboys or was signed as a UDFA. That shows, at least on offense, that we have the coaching to develop a great offense. It's extremely rare to see that from any side of the ball on any team in the league where the entire starting roster on offense or defense was all home-grown talent. But, Dallas did it and our offense was exceptional last season. And many of the key backups like Dunbar, Randle, Escobar, Hanna, Beasley and Harris were all home-grown as well.

I think they wanted to re-sign Dez, but they wanted to clear up some cap space and figure out who they are going to re-sign and who they are going to let go first...then work out a deal with Dez. Yes, he was franchised, but players get franchised all of the time and then get a deal worked out before the season starts. Teams are not exactly fond of using the franchise tag, either.

Parnell got an outrageous contract from the Jaguars. He's pretty limited in what he can do and is a nice backup, but as a starter the team lost its edge. We re-signed Free who is 30 years old, but the contract seems very favorable and allows us to develop some of the backups we have or possibly draft a RT and allow Free to be the backup swing tackle if need be.

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Harris got a very good contract for himself. I was a Dwayne Harris fan, but the past 2 seasons his technique in punt returns slipped dramatically. He's not a good kick returner and he's not very effective in the passing game. Dallas basically used him to block, which he's ferocious at. And they would put him in 12 and 21 personnel with Dez to show run because of his blocking ability, but also threaten to pass. But if they passed with him in the game, they almost always went to Dez or Witten.

Why?

Because Harris is a non-factor in the receiving game.

If Harris can get his old punt return skills back and still does well in punt coverage and still blocks great (and stays healthy), then it's a solid pickup for the Giants. But if he continues to play like he did last season, I think they overspent. And they still have to hope he stays healthy.

Meanwhile, I think it's apparent that the Cowboys think they can get the same, if not more, from Devin Street. He was a very good blocker as well. He doesn't get great separation, but has better hands and can catch passes in closed quarters due to his height and jumping ability. They probably feel they can get somebody else cheaper to do punt coverage and somebody else can do punt returns. I don't think any of that is unreasonable logic.

We did end up re-signing Beasley to a favorable contract. Teams are able to find more slot receivers these days, but it's still not as easy as finding somebody that is as effective as Beasley is as he constantly gets great separation, has good hands and has been injury free. To me, Beasley should have been a high priority for the team and he was and he got re-signed.


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We still don't know with Murray, yet. I will say that I think his signing with whoever he does end up with will be the most interesting of the draft because just a few years ago Murray would have been a top FA in the market. But now with the game changing, how teams value the tailback and the # of carries he logged...it makes you wonder how much he will sign for. Murray deserves far more credit for the team's running game than he gets. However, the team does have arguably the best O-Line in football and has a solid combination of backups in Randle and Dunbar. Plus, the team could always find an elite athlete in tailback in the 2nd or 3rd round of the draft. Remember, Murray himself wasn't selected until the 3rd round. I think you certainly would want him back, but at very high rate makes no sense.

If he's going to get paid $9 million a year, even if the team he signs with has tons of cap room, it's just likely a very unwise decision.


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It's hard to say on Carter because while I wanted him to say, he was given a pretty good contract by the Bucs. And the issue with Carter is you don't know which Bruce Carter will show up to play. And I think it's also reasonable to believe that he performed better last season because he was in a contract year. I also think that Marinelli just is not keen on the guy.

Durant turns 30 years old and had his best season ever as a pro and got injured. Meanwhile, we still have Lee (although I have zero confidence he'll stay healthy) and Hitchens along with possibly McClain. We will also have to figure out something with Carr and possibly Moore.

But in all, I think most of the guys that have gone have either signed contracts that are too much or they are players that signed reasonable contracts, but they are iffy as far as if they will perform to that contract.






YR
 

erod

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What player/contract that has happened so far do you wish the Cowboys signed?
 

KalEl

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So you draft a player like Bruce Carter, redshirt him, and when he starts to shine you let him walk?


Im all for spending smart in FA but letting Carter go was a mistake imo.

You realize Hitchens was starting over him games 12-16

Durant was the bigger loss IMO
 

Rockport

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I get not entering the fray for some of these higher priced guys. But still, there doesn't seem to be a plan other than, "hey, let's lowball guys and hope we get lucky". And even then, we don't seem to be linked to many Tier 2 guys either.

We went into the offseason knowing the defense needed help and to date, we haven't added anyone other than a broken down Rivers and seen two decent LBs bolt. We needed a pass rush and guys that should have interested us are coming off the board. The Murray thing is peculiar because we seem to not really care if he comes back given our lowball offer but then we aren't linked to any other potential replacements.

You can't fix everything in the draft if you want to make a SB run this year.

The plan is to build a championship team via the draft and scout team finds that contends year to year.
 

xwalker

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So you draft a player like Bruce Carter, redshirt him, and when he starts to shine you let him walk?


Im all for spending smart in FA but letting Carter go was a mistake imo.

Hitchens started in week 12 though 16 and Carter didn't start those games. The 3rd LB only plays about 50% of the snaps because they play Nickel about half of the snaps. They can't pay 5M for Carter to play 50% of the snaps.
 

TwoCentPlain

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I get not entering the fray for some of these higher priced guys. But still, there doesn't seem to be a plan other than, "hey, let's lowball guys and hope we get lucky"...

And what is the plan of all those teams active so early in FA? Miami's plan seems to be 'shed a lot of players and sign Suh to a massive contract and hope and pray Suh doesn't get hurt or does something stupid on the field.' Jet's plan seems to be 'sign Revis and hope the fans don't notice the other 21 starting players stink.' The Eagles' plan? Let me know when you figured that train wreck of whatever they are trying to accomplish.

I'll take "hey, let's lowball players and hope we get lucky" over "hey, let's highball players and hope we get lucky".
 

pancakeman

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So you draft a player like Bruce Carter, redshirt him, and when he starts to shine you let him walk?


Im all for spending smart in FA but letting Carter go was a mistake imo.

My impression wasn't that Carter was not that good, and then good. Rather he was all over the map over his time as a Cowboy, and impossible to set a trendline on.
 

CATCH17

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My impression wasn't that Carter was not that good, and then good. Rather he was all over the map over his time as a Cowboy, and impossible to set a trendline on.

I agree but he was still a young player that could play every LB position we had.

If I had to pick between Bruce Carters inconsistencies for 4-5 mill a year or Sean Lee i'd go with Carter.
 

TwoCentPlain

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My impression wasn't that Carter was not that good, and then good. Rather he was all over the map over his time as a Cowboy, and impossible to set a trendline on.

Bruce Carter basically signed a one year $5M contract with TB. I think there is little to no guaranteed money in years 2-4. It would not surprise me to see Bruce Carter out looking for another team this time next year. TB has a pretty pathetic track record for FAs the past couple years.
 

Floatyworm

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We've been linked to Greg Hardy, Adrian Clayborn, Derrick Morgan at DE. Antonio Cromartie and Patrick Robinson at CB. None of those guys have signed yet with anyone.

Lots of players still out in FA that can help this team. Cowboys will find some players to improve this team.

One Greg Hardy signing...and a lot of the sting goes away of all the free agent defections.

Looking forward to the draft to fill and upgrade;)
 

CyberB0b

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The plan is what Broaddus and Mickey have been saying: Letting other teams over spend on guys, while we scoop up Jeremy Mincey types.
 

kevm3

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They better sign Dez to a contract now after all of our departures. If Dez ends up leaving, this team goes to garbage bin status.
 

FLCowboyFan

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There lots of time to bring in players to fill holes before the draft. They will be bargain 1 or 2 year deals.
The draft is how you build your core players to grow the team in the future.

The problem is that we aren't keeping the players that we are signing in the draft. So is the plan to run the team on guys on rookie contracts?
 

KingintheNorth

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I'm not a fan of either extreme strategy but if I have to choose between "Free-spending Jerry" and "Conservative Jerry" give me the spender, because at least that's trying. Trying beats not trying every single time.

One thing that stands out these past several years is Jerry always needs themes. One year, we are going to spend big on man corners. Other years, we are all about second chances. Now, we are sitting back and being "smart". This isn't prom, this is building a football roster, we don't need themes. Every day the GM should be exploring possibilities to getting better. Not sitting on their hands. Not playing chicken with this team's ability to contend for championships. Go out and get better, by any and all means. Anything else besides that strategy is failure.
 

Doc50

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The problem is that we aren't keeping the players that we are signing in the draft. So is the plan to run the team on guys on rookie contracts?

Yes, to some extent, because it's quite a bit cheaper; that allows for young quality depth across the board.

We can be proud of the stars we've signed only if they're on the field.

Look what happened to our DL through attrition 2 years ago -- we had no quality back up.

We're trying to assure that something like that never happens again.
 

LittleD

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All I have heard since the season was over is how much the Cowboys want Murray back. Especially from Garrett.

I think Garrett & Romo ver
The problem is that we aren't keeping the players that we are signing in the draft. So is the plan to run the team on guys on rookie contracts?



We do keep some of them, about the same percentage as most teams over time. Our drafting has improved
over the last few years but, every teams misses on players.
 

Doomsday

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I was hoping they would sign a defensive linemen or corner by now, but I trust that they have a plan and are sticking to it.
 
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