Let's talk DT and RB

[GimmeTheBall!]

Clearly big holes that could bite us in the *** come the season.

So throw out some names as to who might be available come August cuts. Dallas cannot go into the season with what they have at both spots.

We want detritus from August cuts?

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

I wouldn’t say we’re loaded at LB. We lost LVE who was one of our best run stoppers and we signed a 32 year old LB. The jury is still out on Overshown who’s coming off an ACL. He has yet to take a regular season snap. That injury set him back. No guarantees he returns to form and shows the promise he did last summer in training camp. Trevon Diggs is also coming off an ACL and it could take a while for him to return to form if he ever does. We haven’t re-signed Gilmore, who was good for us last season. If we get hit by the injury bug, we could be in some real trouble.

I largely agree.
But Overshown is UT ergo soft.

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

I could swear that just after the draft Jerry said he is intrigued by what what Ezekiel Elliott could do as RB1.

Am I wrong or did that happen? If I’m not, that tells us plenty.

Run the ball and stop the run are the keys yes? Those were arguably the two weakest areas of the team, and the answers were an RB they cut two years ago for being cooked and a 7th round DT.

They say the ball hasn’t bounced right. It’s maddening and why I now expect nothing. I’ll watch only because I don’t know any better. Not yet anyway.

Trey Lance? Sequel Elliott? Tolbert?
Start them and we are guaranteed a top 5 draft pick (actually a good thing).

 

[Motorola]

Clearly big holes that could bite us in the *** come the season.

So throw out some names as to who might be available come August cuts. Dallas cannot go into the season with what they have at both spots.

Responding to the thread title...appears the Cowboys FO are being mum on the topic \ providing very little dialog regarding filling those two positions with quality players.

 

[_sturt_]

Dallas cannot go into the season with what they have at both spots.

RB, we're covered. No, really. We are.

• Rico will get 40% of the snaps. Rico's good. He's just not been the glamour boy yet.

• Zeke will get 30% of the snaps. At that number of snaps, Zeke is good.

• Luepke will get 20% of the snaps, many of those 3rd down. He only needs to get that goalline fumble out of his head, and he's good to go. And he will.

• Deuce will get 10% of the RB snaps, but also will get some empty backfield snaps in the slot--and he will prove that his problem in his rookie season never was his problem, but rather, the somewhat obvious problem was that you can make 1 guy miss, but if your line is a hodge-podge of starters and nonstarters late in a game that is already decided, you're not going to make 3 guys miss... 3 guys who are in the backfield because the defense knows you're running out the clock anyway.

And if any of those go down with a camp injury (knock on wood), dang, we have more RBs (8, maybe 9) than maybe ever going to Oxnard: add Malik Davis, Snoop Conner, Nate Peet, and Royce Freeman. (And, UFL FB/TE John Lovett worked out but there's been no update that I'm aware of.)

I'll add my support for the idea that Trey Lance needs to be incorporated as Taysom Hill type weapon. If not now, when? The kid may never play a regular season snap at QB, but his legs are golden. We need to utilize him. We just do.

1-tech is the big concern, by far. You can't be serious about going to Oxnard without even one 1-tech who has starting experience in the league.

I continue to wait patiently for Lawrence Guy, who though he wasn't NE's nose tackle, at 6-4/315lb, he's got the size to be a credible 1-tech, and has been a starter on a Patriots D-line known for their run stopping for all these years, including 2023.

 

[_sturt_]

Btw... no one should be surprised if Alvin Kamara is making too much money relative to his production for New Orleans to continue with his contract.

But, in my opinion, everyone should be surprised if Dallas would take interest in adding another older RB who essentially replicates Zeke's level of production.

Regular Season

	Rushing	Receiving
Rk	Player	Age	From	To	G	GS	Att	Yds	Y/A	TD	1D	Tgt	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	Ctch%	Y/Tgt	1D	AV	FantPt
1	Ezekiel Elliott	28 (7/22/95)	2023	2023	17	5	184	642	3.5	3	33	65	51	313	6.1	2	78.5	4.8	12	5	123.5
2	Alvin Kamara	28 (7/25/95)	2023	2023	13	12	180	694	3.9	5	42	86	75	466	6.2	1	87.2	5.4	23	8	158.0

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Not just a number of RBs ... but it's also how they are " schemed " to be used and utilized.

they are speed oriented backs ... splash oriented backs. ..We the Cowboys dunno how to scheme for such backs.

the Sorry ..err i mean Solari group seems to be made and designed for a power oriented ground and pound game
- not a splash/speed one.

Those Miami backs would not fit here, imo.

One cut and run doesn't fit? You watch Pollard?

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

DT is the most important position on D.

Why?

 

[quickccc]

One cut and run doesn't fit? You watch Pollard?

this solari scheme is not same as that when pollard earned a pro bowl nod

 

[DeaconMoss]

Clearly big holes that could bite us in the *** come the season.

So throw out some names as to who might be available come August cuts. Dallas cannot go into the season with what they have at both spots.

Jordan Mason from SF could be released.

 

[Sydla]

RB, we're covered. No, really. We are.

• Rico will get 40% of the snaps. Rico's good. He's just not been the glamour boy yet.

• Zeke will get 30% of the snaps. At that number of snaps, Zeke is good.

• Luepke will get 20% of the snaps, many of those 3rd down. He only needs to get that goalline fumble out of his head, and he's good to go. And he will.

• Deuce will get 10% of the RB snaps, but also will get some empty backfield snaps in the slot--and he will prove that his problem in his rookie season never was his problem, but rather, the somewhat obvious problem was that you can make 1 guy miss, but if your line is a hodge-podge of starters and nonstarters late in a game that is already decided, you're not going to make 3 guys miss... 3 guys who are in the backfield because the defense knows you're running out the clock anyway.

And if any of those go down with a camp injury (knock on wood), dang, we have more RBs (8, maybe 9) than maybe ever going to Oxnard: add Malik Davis, Snoop Conner, Nate Peet, and Royce Freeman. (And, UFL FB/TE John Lovett worked out but there's been no update that I'm aware of.)

I'll add my support for the idea that Trey Lance needs to be incorporated as Taysom Hill type weapon. If not now, when? The kid may never play a regular season snap at QB, but his legs are golden. We need to utilize him. We just do.

1-tech is the big concern, by far. You can't be serious about going to Oxnard without even one 1-tech who has starting experience in the league.

I continue to wait patiently for Lawrence Guy, who though he wasn't NE's nose tackle, at 6-4/315lb, he's got the size to be a credible 1-tech, and has been a starter on a Patriots D-line known for their run stopping for all these years, including 2023.

You are certainly more bullish on our RBs than most. Dowdle is basically a dime a dozen NFL RB.

 

[RonnieT24]

this solari scheme is not same as that when pollard earned a pro bowl nod

I'm amazed at the number of people who don't get this. Pollard looked good in the Moore/Philbin scheme.. Not nearly as good in the McCarthy/Solari scheme. McCarthy and Solari draw praise from me for at least eliminating the delay handoff while not blocking the backside DE. That play nearly always failed and the only time it succeeded was if the back did something special. Asking backs to do something special just to get back to the line of scrimmage or 3-4 yards on a play is just stoopid. Solari's run scheme is a throwback to the early 90's Cowboys which folks will recalled worked really well for some guy named Emmitt. I think it will suit Zeke and Dowdle better than a jitterbug type like Pollard.

 

[kskboys]

Why?

1. The worst pressure for any QB to handle is up the middle pressure. Several QB's have stated this, BTW.
2. Up the middle pressure makes it impossible for the QB to step up in the pocket. W/o interior pocket disruption, your edge rushers are too easy to negate.
3. You absolutely must be able to stop the run. This is important for so many reasons. If you can't, teams will simply walk up and down the field on you. If you use strictly your LB's to stop the run, they will get hurt w/o the disruptive DT's to slow down the run.
4. The DT position w/ interior disruption/LOS controlling/run stopping affects every other position/area on D as no other position/area does. For instance, if you don't disrupt the pocket, your CB's will be required to cover too long. No CB can cover forever.

 

[gimmesix]

This is not the best, but I believe the team is going into the season with Elliott, Dowdle, Vaughn, and Leupke as the RBs. I think Freeman is camp fodder.

The DT is another story. I believe the team will ABSOLUTELY pick up another once all the cuts are made.

I kind of Freeman is like Elliott-lite (or actually Elliott-heavy), so I could see us keeping him and being committed to running between the tackles since that's what we preferred last year anyway even though we didn't have the backs to do it. It will be interesting to see if we carve out a role for Vaughn. I'm not really sure what it would be, though. He might be ideal movement skillwise for a third-down change-of-pace role, but I'm not sure he can handle the pass blocking that comes with that. Frankly, if we keep Vaughn, I think it may be Dowdle who is out of a job. I know some of you feel that Freeman is camp fodder, but his average was the same as Dowdle's last year and I think he's a better fit for the inside zone scheme.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

1. The worst pressure for any QB to handle is up the middle pressure. Several QB's have stated this, BTW.
2. Up the middle pressure makes it impossible for the QB to step up in the pocket. W/o interior pocket disruption, your edge rushers are too easy to negate.
3. You absolutely must be able to stop the run. This is important for so many reasons. If you can't, teams will simply walk up and down the field on you. If you use strictly your LB's to stop the run, they will get hurt w/o the disruptive DT's to slow down the run.
4. The DT position w/ interior disruption/LOS controlling/run stopping affects every other position/area on D as no other position/area does. For instance, if you don't disrupt the pocket, your CB's will be required to cover too long. No CB can cover forever.

A DT that can do that can be the most disruptive player because of the things you point out. That does not make the DT position important in and of itself. It can be important certainly.

Lowering opponent run efficiency does not lead to wins. The NT is one of 7 people who are most key on any given run down.

Your 1st, 2nd, and 4th points are really just the same point. Why the fluff?