Totally agree. I was more shocked by LC “team friendly” deal than Jaylons by far. The fact that we were able to keep LC long term is amazing and a blessing.
I know this might not make sense to some, but..
The FO being able to obtain Collins long term kinda makes up for the ‘swing and miss’ of Taco Charlton in my eyes. Hear me out.. had Collins walked, sure we could all hope that Conner McGovern (or Conner Williams kicked out to Tackle) would fill the void at RT. But knowing how this team emphasizes OL play.. drafting a OL’man in the top three rounds of next years draft would have been a consideration. Yet now, with the likes of McGovern and others, our OL is locked up for the next 4-5 years and continues to be our strength.
Which indirectly, frees up next years draft to fine tune our talented young Defense. Do we add Secondary help? CB? FS?(or is Donovan Wilson the answer?) Do we take a second swing at DE? DT?
I wont' go so far to say that it makes up for the swing and miss on Taco but, all too often, posters focus on the failures of the FO/coaching staff (like Taco) and go off the deep end as if that particular move is the sum of the franchise.
In their fit of rage they completely discount the maneuvering of locking down/drafting/mining the talents of guys like Romo, Jaylon, Collins, Vander Esch, Cobb, Devin Smith, etc.
This is the NFL and the league is littered with 1st round busts, bad FA signings, the one that got away, etc. No one bats 1.000 in this league. No one. But the Cowboys aver the past 6-7 years or so have been at the top of the league in drafting and acquiring talent.In fact, this may be the best year this team has had in FA in a LONG while and they didn't break the bank on a single player. The kicker is, almost everyone they brought in should be a significant contributor. We've swung and missed several times taking a more frugal approach to FA but, so far, they've knocked this one out of the park.
I prefer to focus on those things rather than some chump with a corny sack dance that couldn't muster up enough "want to" to make a squad that's clamoring for some pressure from the edge. I hate that the guy was a bust but it happens (to literally EVERY. SINGLE. TEAM). To even fathom that we'd be immune would be woefully unrealistic.
The scouts blew it, the FO blew it, the evaluators blew it. I'm over it. I'm not going to sit in a suicide circle about it. Onward.
As to the rest of your post, I agree 1000%. The domino effect that this signing (and his improvement at the position) is absolutely huge for this football team. Being able to invest draft capital (and subsequently cheaper contracts) in the defensive side of the ball is going to be paramount to this team's future success. We have to hope, however, that we use that capital wisely (and this where the people that are up in arms about Taco and, to this point, Hill have a valid dog in the fight and legitimate gripe). If we don't knock some of those picks on D out of the park, it could set us backwards rather than forward. We have GOT to be better with our early round picks (especially on defense). Vander Esch was a great pick but you can't follow that up with a selection like Hill. You just can't. The point is to re-stock the defense, not load it up with projects.