Improvement starts when you accept what you are

[LACowboysFan1]

When your favorite team is bad, and you watch them play every week, you get used to seeing bad players making bad plays. When occasionally, a few of those players make some good plays, many of us get suckered into thinking, “Hey that guy is pretty good.” Compared to what?

When your favorite team only makes the playoffs 7 of the last 21 seasons, the bar gets lowered. We are so starved to see something good, I think sometimes we see “good” in players that in reality aren’t as good as we would love to think.

That in a nutshell is one of the biggest problems with this entire organization. This FO vastly overrates its talent, while also vastly overrating their own abilities to right this organization’s 25 year drift to consistent playoff irrelevance. Let’s face it, 30 other owners would have fired this GM and his children long ago.

What I hope is Mike McCarthy (or someone JJ listens to) has the stones to tell his bosses a series of truths that need to be addressed:

• This roster needs a major overhaul to be competitive for something more than mediocrity. We cannot sit pat. We must accept who we are: A below average football team.
• We need at least 7 new starters on defense. Keepers: DLaw, Gregory, Diggs, and maybe LVE although he’s so fragile, he’s probably worth considering a replacement.
• We need help on offense too. We may need a LT sooner than many want to believe.
  
• This isn’t just a talent problem. It’s a culture problem.
• This culture is diseased. There is a lack of focus and commitment from top to bottom. It’s been there for far too long. These players need to be challenged to show something more or we will keep getting what we’re getting.

We all want this team to improve and start competing. But this team needs a butt kicker in the locker room to start expecting more. Maybe have a Jimmy J training camp again complete with an asthma field.

And finally- like any organization that has 33% rate of even qualifying to compete for a championship, you won’t get better until you look in the mirror and admit your team sucks and you’re sick of losing and everything that contributes to it. Currently I don’t get the feeling from enough people at the Star to make a difference yet. Until enough people get sick of this repeated failure, expect the same.

Yeah it's not like baseball, where a batter can fail to get a hit 7 times out of 10 and he's a great player. Hey maybe Jerry thinks he owns a baseball team!

 

[Bobhaze]

@Bobhaze Before the season started, did you think this team had the talent to make the playoffs? If you did then the FO did it’s job, correct?

Every two weeks I meet with my boss and he asks each person two specific questions. 1) Do you have everything you need to succeed? and 2) What do you need from me? Anyone who is silent has no excuse and better not blame the boss if things go bad.

Great question and points.
Did I think the Cowboys had enough to make the playoffs? Yes. I picked them to go 10-6. I did not think they would do anything in the playoffs because I felt their defense was pretty weak before the season, although I didn’t expect it to be as bad as it was. I think the Cowboys have had enough talent for years to make the playoffs, which is certainly due in part to improved drafting with Will McClay. Credit JJ for hiring him.

Where things have tended to fall apart for this team for years has been the culture- the lack of mental toughness that is so important in the playoffs. Talent alone cannot win in the playoffs. It takes a team of well coached, disciplined players who understand their role and execute it.

This is the area where Cowboys teams of the last 20+ years have struggled. The culture here has been too soft. And a lot of that IMO has been due to Jerry’s tendency to meddle where he shouldn’t, say things publicly that undermine his coaches, etc. I don’t want to write another big thing on that.

I like what you said about a boss asking those two questions:
1. Do you have everything you need to succeed?
2. What do you need from me?

Well in response to those two questions if JJ were asking me as his HC, I would have to say-
1. I need to know I have full authority to discipline my players and run this team as the leader of the locker room.
2. What I need from you Mr. Jones is to let me and my staff do our jobs without any interference or public comments about players and coaches.

Lol. Now I know most coaches couldn’t sat that to their boss, but if they had the stones to think it, they should say it. That’s my take.

 

[LACowboysFan1]

Great question and points.
Did I think the Cowboys had enough to make the playoffs? Yes. I picked them to go 10-6. I did not think they would do anything in the playoffs because I felt their defense was pretty weak before the season, although I didn’t expect it to be as bad as it was. I think the Cowboys have had enough talent for years to make the playoffs, which is certainly due in part to improved drafting with Will McClay. Credit JJ for hiring him.

Where things have tended to fall apart for this team for years has been the culture- the lack of mental toughness that is so important in the playoffs. Talent alone cannot win in the playoffs. It takes a team of well coached, disciplined players who understand their role and execute it.

This is the area where Cowboys teams of the last 20+ years have struggled. The culture here has been too soft. And a lot of that IMO has been due to Jerry’s tendency to meddle where he shouldn’t, say things publicly that undermine his coaches, etc. I don’t want to write another big thing on that.

I like what you said about a boss asking those two questions:
1. Do you have everything you need to succeed?
2. What do you need from me?

Well in response to those two questions if JJ were asking me as his HC, I would have to say-
1. I need to know I have full authority to discipline my players and run this team as the leader of the locker room.
2. What I need from you Mr. Jones is to let me and my staff do our jobs without any interference or public comments about players and coaches.

Lol. Now I know most coaches couldn’t sat that to their boss, but if they had the stones to think it, they should say it. That’s my take.

The last company I worked for, the two owners felt they needed to see how they were doing. Hired two business consultants who basically told the owners two things:

1. "Let your people work"
2. Delegate more.

Also they told one of the owners "Nothing's going to work unless you change".

After that one of our very experienced workers ask that owner, after hearing what the consultant said, "Are you going to change"? To which the owner replied "Probably not".

They wasted thousands of dollars on the consultants, and just before they were going to lay out and institute suggested changes, the owners ended the consultation.

What did the other owner say when I asked him what happened with the consultants? "We dodged that one".

Meaning they knew what the consultants said was right, and needed, but weren't willing to do it.

That's Jerry in a nutshell...

 

[Bobhaze]

The last company I worked for, the two owners felt they needed to see how they were doing. Hired two business consultants who basically told the owners two things:

1. "Let your people work"
2. Delegate more.

Also they told one of the owners "Nothing's going to work unless you change".

After that one of our very experienced workers ask that owner, after hearing what the consultant said, "Are you going to change"? To which the owner replied "Probably not".

They wasted thousands of dollars on the consultants, and just before they were going to lay out and institute suggested changes, the owners ended the consultation.

What did the other owner say when I asked him what happened with the consultants? "We dodged that one".

Meaning they knew what the consultants said was right, and needed, but weren't willing to do it.

That's Jerry in a nutshell...

Well said. Except I don’t think JJ would even bring in a consultant to tell him what we all already know- he needs to back off.