Michael Irvin blames our problems on cutting Dez

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https://247sports.com/nfl/dallas-co...n-problems-Cowboys-cut-Dez-Bryant--124696804/
Michael Irvin blames Cowboys' problems on cutting Dez Bryant
ByJORDAN DAJANI 17 hours ago
The Dallas Cowboys have been one of the major disappointments in the NFL thus far. The big win they earned over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night hopefully signals a change in the mentality of the team, but regardless, the Cowboys have gotten off to a slow start in 2018. Why is that?

Cowboys legend Michael Irvin believes the answer is very clear, but it's not a viewpoint that's shared by many Cowboys fans.
 
The problem was Dak (or any QB really) not having a security blanket, which Dez and Witten were in 2016. In 2017 both guys slipped at the end of the season, which compounded the problems of OL breakdowns, the Zeke suspension, Dak hearing footsteps etc.

Irvin is half right, every team needs a sure fire option at WR. The problem is that Dez wasn't that guy at the end of last season. And Witten was to a point, but he retired.
 
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I don't think cutting Dez Bryant and the retirement of Witten was the problem. The problem was we miss evaluated the talent level at those two positions, especially wide receiver. I believe Jason Witten had a little bit more in the tank than Dez Bryant simply because of style of play. Cooper and Witten with more involvement from Swaim would have been good to open the season with.

It's okay to move on from fan favorites as long as your address the void left by there on field production and not focus on there legendary status.
 
Tangle_Foot said:
I don't think cutting Dez Bryant and the retirement of Witten was the problem. The problem was we miss evaluated the talent level at those two positions, especially wide receiver.
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Totally agree, Hurns was their third option at WR but he has clearly underperformed. TWill completely disappeared too, which wasn't expected. If you look at the last five years, Hurns and TWill each averaged 3 catches per game and this year, those two have combined for 18 catches in 9 games.

Also they clearly expected one of Jarwin, Rico or Schultz to step up and claim a starting job and none of the three did so.
 
Kaiser said:
The problem was Dak (or any QB really) not having a security blanket, which Dez and Witten were in 2016. In 2017 both guys slipped at the end of the season, which compounded the problems of OL breakdowns, the Zeke suspension, Dak hearing footsteps etc.

Irvin is half right, every team needs a sure fire option at WR. The problem is that Dez wasn't that guy at the end of last season. And Witten was to a point, but he retired.
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I agree with all this, except to say that even though Dez wasn't truly that guy, he was at least somewhere in the ballpark of being that guy. Before we acquired Cooper we didn't even have that much, and I think it did hurt us some. I think Cooper makes a big difference, and I think will help us much more than Dez would have. It's probably too late to matter much this season though, and of course there are other issues beside WR as well.
 
OmerV said:
It's probably too late to matter much this season though, and of course there are other issues beside WR as well.
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I think it matters this season, Cooper's presence made a huge difference against the Eagles and it opens our offense back up instead of letting everyone key on the run like they have for the last 16 - 20 games. The question IMO is whether we can make the playoffs at 8-8 or maybe 8-9.

Also the OL will be better by the end of the season and Dak will have his timing down with Cooper much, much more than he does now. Give Dak a lot more time to pass and hit a couple of deep passes to Cooper every game and this team looks vastly different.
 
jwooten15 said:
Not having a #1 WR has been a problem, for sure. But Dez was/is no longer a #1 WR. Compound his attitude on top of that, and it was just time for Dez to go elsewhere
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By attitude you mean winning? I assume
 
Releasing Dez was a result of a poor decision to not have a legit WR on the team. If they signed or drafted another WR to replace Dez then the decision itself was not cause.
 
Fans say stupid things about Dez.

The guy had lost a couple inches on his vert and he had lost a step.

He created minimal separation (1.17 yards) and had too many drops(9).

BUTTTTTT he was also a legit after the catch threat breaking tackles well beyond what anyone not named Zeke can do.
And he was BY FAR the best red zone threat on the team.
He was still a top 25 guy in contested catches(23rd).


Dez fell from a WR1 to a WR2.
BUT he also had a skillset this team BADLY needed as part of it's WR corps and they never even tried to replace it beyond pretending Gathers was that guy for like 2 pathetic red zone attempts.
Dez was 4th in the NFL last year in red zone usage.
When we HAD Witten.

You removed BOTH those guys.... that was an issue.

DAL should have resigned Dez week 2 (when deals were no longer GTD) but someone in mgmt got butthurt by his tweets and it cost us a couple games.
Now they have addressed it with Cooper who is a legit WR1 but it may well have been too late to save the playoffs this season.
 
Hawkeye0202 said:
https://247sports.com/nfl/dallas-co...n-problems-Cowboys-cut-Dez-Bryant--124696804/
Michael Irvin blames Cowboys' problems on cutting Dez Bryant
ByJORDAN DAJANI 17 hours ago
The Dallas Cowboys have been one of the major disappointments in the NFL thus far. The big win they earned over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night hopefully signals a change in the mentality of the team, but regardless, the Cowboys have gotten off to a slow start in 2018. Why is that?

Cowboys legend Michael Irvin believes the answer is very clear, but it's not a viewpoint that's shared by many Cowboys fans.
Click to expand...

To an extent this is correct, because of both this offensive system and Prescott.

In 2016, one reason for Dak's success is because defenses were still scared of Dez. This opened things up underneath for Beasley and Prescott knew where he was going with the ball. This made for quick and easy decisions. If Dez drew single coverage, go to Dez. If Dez drew a corner and safety, go to Beasley underneath. If Beasley also drew a double, go to Witten.

Defenses didn't really figure out that year that Dez was more of a decoy because Dak couldn't connect with him deep very well, so they doubled Beasley underneath, which also allowed them to tighten the coverage some around Witten. Teams dared Dallas to beat them with Dez and force them to change strategies and Dallas couldn't do it.

Some in Dallas decided we were better off without Dez and thought we could go with receiver by committee, but they failed to understand the limitations of this scheme and this quarterback. First, the scheme forces Dallas to have receivers who can consistently win one-on-one. There are not a lot of rub routes, movement to create mismatches, etc.We rarely scheme players open. Second, Dak needs easy reads in order to be decisive. He needs to know that if player A has single coverage, I go there; if player B has single coverage, I go there; etc. When he has to read the whole field, he's indecisive.

So, both this scheme and this QB require a No. 1 option. Dez was not that player for Dak, though, so cutting him did not really create any more problems than we would have had if we had kept him. The problems extended from last season because we didn't replace Dez with a better option.
 
OmerV said:
I agree with all this, except to say that even though Dez wasn't truly that guy, he was at least somewhere in the ballpark of being that guy. Before we acquired Cooper we didn't even have that much, and I think it did hurt us some. I think Cooper makes a big difference, and I think will help us much more than Dez would have. It's probably too late to matter much this season though, and of course there are other issues beside WR as well.
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Exactly.......and that was enough to force some DBs and even defensive coor to still respect him to a point. Let's be honest, he was still a very dangerous receiver WITH BALL in his hand and in the red zone.
 
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