Mickey: no time to dream about what might be

[Ranching]

This franchise, just lurch from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis.

You love it!

 

[Techsass]

Not a big Mikey fan, but he's right. We need both Mazi & Guyton to produce.

 

[Rockport]

Not a big Mikey fan, but he's right. We need both Mazi & Guyton to produce.

From the very little tiny bit I’ve seen from “Live from Training Camp”, Guyton’s a beast and Mazi’s not so much right now. He looks like he’s over thinking maybe. Not sure, but first padded practice that they showed with him in it wasn’t that great. Still very early. But Guyton,,,,,please stay healthy #60.

 

[CCBoy]

Lol, you are ridiculous.

I'll stick to egg tacos off a 'boystown' cart....

 

[Bobhaze]

This is the fundamental issue with the Cowboys methodology of team building. Mickey is right, but they are completely dependent upon late 1st round picks (and others) being day 1 impact players. If Mazi and Guyton aren't successful this team has two major holes on their roster and are counting on unknowns to get to even replacement level production. Since 2020 picks in the bottom 3rd of 1st round picks show about a 50/50 hit rate in terms of just making starts. Looking at pro bowl appearances you have

2020 - 2 players out of 12
2021 - 1 player out of 12
2022 - 3 players out of 12
2023 - 0 players out of 12

Looking at 2023 here were the snap counts (including special teams) for later 1st round picks (20-32)....

WR Smith-Njigba - 672
WR Quentin Johnston - 746
WR Zay Flowers - 1019
WR Jordan Addison - 921
DB Deonte Banks - 901 (Not good results)
TE Dalton Kincaid - 785
DL Mazi Smith - 328 (Horrible results)
OL Anton Harrison - 1183 (Horrible results)
DL Myles Murphy - 392 (Mostly bad results)
DL Bryan Bresee - 604 (Mostly bad results)
ED Nolan Smith - 472 (Horrible results)
ED Felix Anudike-Uzomah - 240 (Horrible Results)

Perception seems to be that if you take a player in the 1st round they should be plug and play starters. Pretty much all data shows that to be not true. You have about a 50/50 shot to land an above average late 1st round rookie, and it seems to be much better odds of finding a plug and play skill player than a guy in the trenches. These guys typically need time to develop.

Excellent post.

This is exactly why building through the draft and develop model alone is not enough. This organization is so busy being “ambiguous” they lack laser focused planning for specific players in free agency that can make the team better NOW.

Equally bad, they don’t know how to manage contracts for players who have to be paid market rates on their second deals. Bad combination.