Is Anyone As Worried As I Am About Dez's Non-Exclusive Tag?

[btcutter]

If someone offered to trade you Zach Martin and Travis Fredbeard for Dez Bryant, wouldn't you take it? Beyond that unless they put a poison pill into the contract, we still have the ability to match it.

Two #1's do not equate to two Pro Bowl players. Could be two busts as well. Draft is gambling....to a certain degree.

 

[HardHittin'Witten]

Just think of how off the mark the Browns have been with their first rounders lately.

3 Years drafts, with two years having two first round picks and this is what they have to show for it.

Trent Richardson
Brandon Weeden
Barkevious Mingo
Justin Gilbert
Johnny Manziel

I really shouldn't have read this while eating lunch.

 

[TwoCentPlain]

So, you want to be a GM. These are the tough questions GMs have to decide. Oh, and by the way, you will be graded on hindsight. I am guessing the owner of said team would probably be against locking into a $100M contract for a 'potential powderkeg.' Investing $100M is some serious coin. I am guessing the GM doesn't really care abouit the money but cares more about the 2 first round picks and how to fit it in the cap. You also have to factor in the risk of injury when you have so many eggs in one basket.

If I were GM, I would be exploring my options right now, working on contingency plans. Which FA WRs will likely be available? Mike Wallace, Maclin, Andre Johnson, Cobb, et al.? And how much do they want? If some team offers Dez $15M/yr for 7 years with $50M guaranteed, I'd consider taking the two 1st round picks and signing maybe Wallace and Andre Johnson or Maclin or some combination of the WR FAs available and use the money saved for other value FA pickups available.

 

[skinsscalper]

I really shouldn't have read this while eating lunch.

You also shouldn't draw any parallels between the Brown's piss poor drafting and the Cowboys over the past few years. Especially when you consider that the Cowboys have drafted significantly lower than the Browns over that same period and come out with MUCH better success in every single one of those drafts using two first round picks and two second round picks as opposed to 4 first round picks.

 

[Nation]

Call me gutless, but I'll take the known young phenom just entering his prime over the unknown of two 1st round draft picks.

It's a good debate though.

Yeah I'd be lying if I said I'd have the stones to do that with certain other positions like a Quarterback, Left Tackle, or an Edge Rusher. If you're talking about a Wide Receiver or Cornerback or RB that rely on so much other stuff around them to get elite results I'm going to take the two firsts plus an additional 10M in cap space to play around with.

But as you said, it's a good debate and I can certainly see the other side of it.

 

[btcutter]

If we do lose Dez then we will make more effort to sign Murray or Peterson. Also we will probably splurge on a defensive FA to try to dramatically improve the defense in addition to the draft. At that point the mantra would be running game and defense wins championship.

 

[kevm3]

So we want to waste a couple more years of Romo's career by having to draft another WR and hoping that WR pans out if someone else signs Dez...

 

[kevm3]

You also shouldn't draw any parallels between the Brown's piss poor drafting and the Cowboys over the past few years. Especially when you consider that the Cowboys have drafted significantly lower than the Browns over that same period and come out with MUCH better success in every single one of those drafts using two first round picks and two second round picks as opposed to 4 first round picks.

How about another Felix Jones and Mike Jenkins?

 

[iceberg]

How about another Felix Jones and Mike Jenkins?

"over the past few years..." leaves them out.

 

[Nightman]

Just saw a blog that correctly pointed out a team like Indy could look at giving up two #1s, especially since they're likely to be late rounders, as very reasonable for the opportunity to land Dez. Oh, and they have a ton of cap room. They could lock up the Luck to Dez connection for life, just like we think we're going to do.

Why do I get a really bad feeling about this?

You want a worst case scenario??

Philly trades their first rounder this year and next to move up and draft Mariota
They trade Foles to HOU for their first next year
They sign Dez to a huge deal after the draft that we can't match
We get their 2017 and 2018 first round picks because they already traded 2015-16 and can't trade HOUs as part of the deal.

 

[pancakeman]

You want a worst case scenario??

Philly trades their first rounder this year and next to move up and draft Mariota
They trade Foles to HOU for their first next year
They sign Dez to a huge deal after the draft that we can't match
We get their 2017 and 2018 first round picks because they already traded 2015-16 and can't trade HOUs as part of the deal.

Surely it doesn't work that way?!

 

[Nightman]

Surely it doesn't work that way?!

They may have to have the first round picks to even make an offer. I was just thinking of the worst case.

 

[endersdragon]

You have utterly missed the point. First of all, how can you possibly know that those two late first rounders would translate into two all-pro level offensive linemen? Your assumption is incredibly flawed.

I can assume that the $13 million that we are saving could be used to get a guy like Hardy or Suh can't I? The 2 1st rounders are just gravy at that point, really good gravy, but still just gravy.

 

[JoeBoBBY]

I almost want another team to give up 2 first rounders and pay Dez all that money......

Ill take that deal every day.

 

[Nightman]

I almost want another team to give up 2 first rounders and pay Dez all that money......

Ill take that deal every day.

Fans here still whine almost daily about the Galloway and RWilliams trades. But when you flip it around they will swear up and down that Dez is worth 2 firsts.

Like you said 13m and 2 firsts would go along way. Just sign MCrabtree to a cheap deal and draft DGB from Okla.

 

[cowboys2233]

If we do lose Dez then we will make more effort to sign Murray or Peterson. Also we will probably splurge on a defensive FA to try to dramatically improve the defense in addition to the draft. At that point the mantra would be running game and defense wins championship.

By "make more effort," you really mean overpay more, correct? But giving Dez a non-exclusive tag was probably the only course of action after further thought. If they made it an exclusive tag, it could look like they're trying to force him to take a lesser contract than he could get on the open market, not good from a player relations standpoint, especially when you're trying to get a long term deal done with the guy. This way, they're being very transparent and saying "hey, we really want you to be here and we're confident in the deal we're going to give you."

And yes, two #1s wouldn't be a bad consolation prize.

 

[speedkilz88]

You want a worst case scenario??

Philly trades their first rounder this year and next to move up and draft Mariota
They trade Foles to HOU for their first next year
They sign Dez to a huge deal after the draft that we can't match
We get their 2017 and 2018 first round picks because they already traded 2015-16 and can't trade HOUs as part of the deal.

I believe teams have to have their 1st round picks available to sign someone that is franchised.

 

[skinsscalper]

How about another Felix Jones and Mike Jenkins?

"Cowboys have drafted significantly lower than the Browns over that same period and come out with MUCH better success in every single one of those drafts"

How about some reading comprehension?

 

[dargonking999]

You want a worst case scenario??

Philly trades their first rounder this year and next to move up and draft Mariota
They trade Foles to HOU for their first next year
They sign Dez to a huge deal after the draft that we can't match
We get their 2017 and 2018 first round picks because they already traded 2015-16 and can't trade HOUs as part of the deal.

That's impossible. If they do not have first round picks to trade, then they cannot sign Dez to an offer sheet.

 

[Tawney88]

They get to match the contract. There is no poison pill anymore.