If we can't win this year we may never win

[CowboysFaninHouston]

another cowboys fan who over estimates and over evaluates the quality of the players on the team and compares it to another team, etc. etc. etc.

we have talent, but we also have holes. yes true of any team, so it all depends on where the holes are and the impact to your team.

we have talented skilled position players on offense, but the OL has been an issue. yes, TC and preseason look good, but lets see what the team does when the real bullets start flying before we annoint them anything. without the OL, the team will struggle, even if we had dez and calvin johnson on the team, along with adrian peterson.

on the defensive side, we have holes in the saftey, and the DL outside of ware is nothing to crow about. lets see how they do first.

right now, I am not drinking the koolaid about our OL and DL and that's key to success.

we have a chance, but so do all the teams in our division, atlanata, seattle, SF, chicago, GB, etc.

(Barring Injury)

This is a veteran team, we have good Assistant coaches, and we have a QB in his prime.


We also have all kinds of offensive weapons and with the signing of Brandon Moore our OL should be solid at the very least.


I actually have the Packers in the Superbowl as my Pre-season pick but when I look at the Cowboys roster and the Packers roster I can't say they are a lot better than the Cowboys.

If we can't make some post season noise this season then it's probably just not meant to be with Romo and Garrett.

I can't see Dallas dramatically getting better anytime soon unless they stumble upon a phenom in the draft somehow.

 

[KJJ]

Escobar is expected to replace Witten in two years.

The Cowboys aren't expecting Escobar to replace Witten especially not in 2 years he was drafted to pair with Witten. Witten is only 31 he's like Tony Gonzalez barring injury he'll be playing at a high level for several more years.

 

[Zordon]

Guys like Hatcher, Spencer, Ratliff and Miles might be gone after this year. It's a very important year.

 

[erod]

The Cowboys aren't expecting Escobar to replace Witten especially not in 2 years he was drafted to pair with Witten. Witten is only 31 he's like Tony Gonzalez barring injury he'll be playing at a high level for several more years.

LOL, Witten is nothing like Tony Gonzalez. That's like comparing Romo to Aikman.

When Witten showed up, he was weak at blocking, too. They plan to build up Escobar to become the new Witten eventually. But of course, they will use Escobar in the meantime, although Hanna and Rosario are far better options at this point.

 

[DFWJC]

I think that with the direction this thing is going (better drafting, less entitlement, more unity, and slowly more depth) our best chances may be in 2014 and 2015.

The downside for any NFC team right now is that the balance of power has now massively switched in favor of the NFC. The conference is loaded.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I would tend to agree with regards to winning with Garrett.

The only thing I think that makes me doubt that is that we play in the toughest division in football with each team in the division having quality starting QB's (even Vick).

When we look at the most successful teams in the past 5-10 years, we typically will name the Steelers and Patriots.

The Patriots play in the worst division in football with Buffalo, Miami and the Jets. The best non-Tom Brady QB in that division has been...Chad Pennington. The others are a list of awful starting QB's like Mark Sanchez, Kellen Clemens, Gus Frerrotte, Cleo Lemon, JP Losman, Ryan Fitzpatrick, etc.

The AFC North isn't exactly great. The Browns are horrendous. The Bengals have been able to field some teams, but they were the Bungles for a reason. And it's not until recently that the Ravens fielded a legitimate franchise QB in Flacco. Once Carson Palmer got injured, the Bengals didn't have a legitimate franchise QB and Dalton is really an unknown commodity that hasn't been overly impressive. And it coincided with the Steelers having their worst years since they are battling 2 legitimate teams with one very good QB and one average QB.

We are in a division where each team is more than willing to spend the money to get the best players, coaches and resources. So often times good teams don't make the playoffs because they are getting beat out by other good teams in their division.






YR

 

[KJJ]

Niners win by being tough to throw against, and then they brought in a coach who improved their QB play.

Before Harbaugh took over in 2011 the Niners hadn't had a winning season since 02. Their pass defense was ranked 24th in 2010 and hadn't been ranked higher than 17th since 03. Their pass D was ranked dead last in 05. What turned that team around was solid coaching from an enthusiastic, passionate HC.

 

[KJJ]

LOL, Witten is nothing like Tony Gonzalez. That's like comparing Romo to Aikman.

Romo is never going to make it to the HOF like Aikman. LOL Witten will be in the HOF along with Gonzalez. I never said Witten's and Gonzalez' game were alike or that Witten was as good as Gonzalez I was referring to their longevity. At 31 Witten has a lot more than 2 years left in him he's coming off a career best 110 catch season. The Cowboys never drafted Escobar with the thought of him replacing Witten. I'm just hoping Escobar is still with the team by the time Witten is starting to show signs of decline.

 

[KJJ]

Once the Romo era is over the window will be slammed shut on the Cowboys until they find another real productive top 10 QB. It's not going to be easy replacing Romo when the time comes so the Cowboys have to take advantage of the good years he has left. The Cowboys have a couple of other key players who aren't going to be easy to replace like Witten and Ware. When you look at the Cowboys roster the past 3 seasons it doesn't say 6-10 and a pair of 8-8 seasons. The talent has been here but the coaching hasn't been. The past 3 years the Cowboys have had far more talented teams than the 2003 team Parcells had that went 10-6 and made the playoffs.

Virtually the same exact team went 5-11 the year before under Campo. That 03 team didn't have a QB near the caliber of Romo. It had a rookie Jason Witten who only produced 35 catches for 347 yards, That team didn't have a Demarcus Ware putting up double digit sacks or a Dez Bryant putting up 90+ catches for almost 1400 yards and 12 TD's. The Cowboys top sacker in 2003 only produced 8 sacks. Their top receiver in 2003 only produced 52 catches for 745 yards and 5 TD's. All the Cowboys receivers combined in 2003 only produced 5 more TD's than Dez had last season.

Talent wise the Cowboys are NIGHT and DAY better than the 2003 team. Unless Garrett improves as a HC especially as a game manager the Cowboys will continue to struggle with consistency. The 2013 Cowboys have the potential to be a very good team because they have the talent to be very good but Garrett has to improve his game management. He has to get his players to buy into him. To be a consistent team you have to be organized and know how to manage the clock in critical situations late in games. There's no way the Cowboys should be a 500 team with the talent they have on both sides of the ball. This has been an underachieving team that lacks discipline and solid coaching.

 

[Apollo Creed]

This league is built around parity, keeping markets relevant thus generating more revenue across the board. Hence the enormous turnover in playoff teams year to year.

With that said, it increases your probability of being successful, where in years past - you really had to build a team up for contention (i.e. 2003-2006). Now as long as you have a quarterback that is semi-competent and a decent supporting cast you got a shot.

People ask me why I think Dallas has a shot this year, I don't go into Xs and Os, talk about the focus on the running game, Billy C calling plays, the switch to the 4-3, yada yada.

It's pretty simple, they're just due.

 

[5Stars]

This league is built around parity, keeping markets relevant thus generating more revenue across the board. Hence the enormous turnover in playoff teams year to year.

People ask me why I think Dallas has a shot this year, I don't go into Xs and Os, talk about the focus on the running game, Billy C calling plays, the switch to the 4-3, yada yada.

It's pretty simple, they're just due.

The problem with that line of thinking is that the NFL does not owe any team anything. You either earn it or you don't.

 

[Nova]

Some people have such a narrow view of the future.

The problem is that 'some people' category has included our FO since the mid 90s. There has never been a patient enough strategy to cultivate an identity from a proper philosophy. We've largely built our teams on faulty foundations and principles of 'win now!'.

I think we're on to building a winning team again, but will the FO be keen enough to see good things coming on the horizon? Will they be acute enough to realize that finding talent and replacements for our aging guys will be manageable under the current regime?

Or will they do what they normally do and keep cycling through coaches (and therefore a major shift in doctrine) in a misguided attempt to 'win now!' and set us back a few years once more?

For numerous reasons, I'm inclined to believe the latter. Therefore you'll get threads like this one, fearing that 'this is it-- this is the best we're going to be'... At least until we get lucky again.

 

[Picksix]

The problem is that 'some people' category has included our FO since the mid 90s. There has never been a patient enough strategy to cultivate an identity from a proper philosophy. We've largely built our teams on faulty foundations and principles of 'win now!'.

I think we're on to building a winning team again, but will the FO be keen enough to see good things coming on the horizon? Will they be acute enough to realize that finding talent and replacements for our aging guys will be manageable under the current regime?

Or will they do what they normally do and keep cycling through coaches (and therefore a major shift in doctrine) in a misguided attempt to 'win now!' and set us back a few years once more?

For numerous reasons, I'm inclined to believe the latter. Therefore you'll get threads like this one, fearing that 'this is it-- this is the best we're going to be'... At least until we get lucky again.

I agree. They haven't been very good at balancing short-term and long-term thinking, usually leaning toward the short-term. You need some of that, of course, but too much of it mortgages the future. And I understand people thinking that, with Romo, Ware, Witten, etc., getting older, we need to win now while they still have life, but then they're making the assumption that those guys can't eventually be replaced. It's not easy, but thinking it can't happen, or may take too long, is just really limited.

But yeah, as far as having faith in this FO, that's a big test.

 

[Pessimist_cowboy]

Packers based on what ? They don't seem to have a very good team and had one of the weakest schedules last year ( not this year ) do you base this solely on qb ?

(Barring Injury)

This is a veteran team, we have good Assistant coaches, and we have a QB in his prime.


We also have all kinds of offensive weapons and with the signing of Brandon Moore our OL should be solid at the very least.


I actually have the Packers in the Superbowl as my Pre-season pick but when I look at the Cowboys roster and the Packers roster I can't say they are a lot better than the Cowboys.

If we can't make some post season noise this season then it's probably just not meant to be with Romo and Garrett.

I can't see Dallas dramatically getting better anytime soon unless they stumble upon a phenom in the draft somehow.

based

 

[Verdict]

If we've improved from an aging Veteran team in 2 years, what's stopping us from furthering that improvement in 2 more years. A time that will indeed lessen the impact of the 2009 disaster.

They have hopes that Crawford can replace Ratliff. Bass is a young, up and coming player and a first round pick on D line next year (especially if we don't do well) will help bolster the Dline some more.

Yes, the 2009 draft class was a waste of time. They could have traded all of their picks for a bag of magic beans and been better off, and saved a little bit of salary cap too. LOL. But every team goes through bad drafts. Even the Patriots who are given credit for drafting well every year.

 

[Ratmatt]

(Barring Injury)

This is a veteran team, we have good Assistant coaches, and we have a QB in his prime.


We also have all kinds of offensive weapons and with the signing of Brandon Moore our OL should be solid at the very least.


I actually have the Packers in the Superbowl as my Pre-season pick but when I look at the Cowboys roster and the Packers roster I can't say they are a lot better than the Cowboys.

If we can't make some post season noise this season then it's probably just not meant to be with Romo and Garrett.

I can't see Dallas dramatically getting better anytime soon unless they stumble upon a phenom in the draft somehow.

This team will win again when they learn how to build a football team.

 

[KJJ]

I actually have the Packers in the Superbowl as my Pre-season pick but when I look at the Cowboys roster and the Packers roster I can't say they are a lot better than the Cowboys.

The Packers OL was worse than the Cowboys OL before Bulaga was lost for the season. They may be stuck with a rookie protecting Rodgers blindside. Unless Rodgers can do it all on his own the Packers are going to have their work cut out for them especially with some new receivers.

 

[Verdict]

This is sad. I've never heard of quitting two seasons ahead of time.

Hey, if you are going to be a leader, especially as a quitter, you have to get out of the gates quick on this website, because someone will always one up you on this website. The first quitter has no chance of coming out on top on this board!!!!

 

[Verdict]

Ware and Lee aren't alone. They've got Carter, Claiborne, Spencer, Ratliff, Carr, and Church.

Plus they have Tanner who everyone thinks will rush for 2500 yards this year because he "runs hard".

 

[DC Cowboy]

I'm not saying there is a window. We could be good for awhile.

I just think if we can't make some noise this year then I doubt there is much hope down the road.

Especially since we have ignored a major youth movement on the O-line and D-line.

D-line maybe but IF Leary starts then 3/5 of our O-line is young, T. Smith 3rd year only 22, Leary 2nd year, Fred. rookie. Free is not that old as well.