Mo Clay to Baltimore?*** signs with Jets***merged

[aria]

Losing all these guts at the same time hurts, no matter how you look at it. So many hypocrites in here were saying "I hope we keep Mo" or "as long as we keep Mo" and as soon as he leaves its he wasn't good anyway, we're better off without him, no loss, etc.

 

[phildadon86]

Counting on rookies to make immediate impacts is foolish. And at this point, we might be counting on multiple rookies to have to be immediately impacts in our secondary.

I was all for redoing the secondary. I had no issue with Church being sent packing and one or Carr or Claiborne. But right now, CB is much worse than what we had at CB at the end of the year. Carroll is a turd. And now you've put yourself in a situation where you have to force picks at CB and multiple picks at that AND then not only use multiple picks at CB but have them all hit and be impact players immediately.

That's about as risky as it gets.

Im wondering if the success of our rookies last year has clouded our front offices judgement a little. If no more moves are made and we go into the season with an all rookie backfield led by Byron Jones Anthony Brown, Orlando Scandrick, and Nolan Caroll, I am more than worried.

 

[gmoney112]

I think this is a SB caliber team if they could improve the defense. This isn't a team that should be looking 3 years down the line as when they can finally compete. They have the talent, especially on offense, to compete now. This isn't a rebuilding situation.

This ridiculously dumb notion that if you spend a little money in FA somehow is only a short term fix and can't fit into a long term vision of the team is bizarre.

Hey, you're preaching to the choir breh. I'm of the opinion that FA is 50% of your offseason. Why handcuff yourself?

But, you eventually have to look at all the moving pieces and be realistic. The FA market this year just wasn't very good for what we needed, and you absolutely have to take in opportunity cost when it comes to, not only development but future capital.

I don't agree that anything we could realistically do this offseason on defense could get us a Super Bowl unless it was at the expense of future capital/success.

That's why I asked if you thought this is a Super Bowl or bust season. Right now we have a couple guys coming back from injury, and one of the deepest drafts in the secondary I can remember. We'll take a pass rusher in the 1-2 as well.

But right now I think we also have 3-4? comp picks in 2018, and if Romo leaves, an additional 60 million under the cap, as well as probably the youngest defense in the league. If you want to see this team set up in 2018 like a real franchise with some young emerging guys and plenty of cap, then this is the year to go light, when your QB is only in his second year.

I know fans want immediate gratification and can't imagine past tomorrow, much less a year, but if you look at the situation we'd be in, and a better evaluation of all the young guys playing next year (Hopefully Law is healthy, Tapper, Jaylon), Brown, etc. i can't find a really good reason to jeopardize that.

And you said first year guys don't contribute a lot. Yeah, first year is hard, but that applies more to DE's than CB's. Talented CB's can start, they're not going to be Revis their first game but they can definitely surprise.

I just think if we were going to be serious at competing continuously through Dak's career, the defense needed some new blood, and CB is logical. Change the guard from overpaid, mediocre athletes to the youth that hopefully can force some turnovers at CB. If not, we'll Brinks truck a guy in FA because we'll have 60 mill in cap.

 

[Eric_Boyer]

great - now we have to focus on the secondary and RT.

 

[Kolemmitt]

I am not surprised nor am I worried. At the end of the year, Scandrick was starting to look like the Scandrick of '14 and before and if he continues to improve he is a fine starter. Even better Brown looked like a player, if he continues to progress he can start. This draft is historically deep in good corners, if we hit on a good one they can start. Then there is Carroll, if all else fails he can start and probably be no worse than Carr.

 

[gmoney112]

They are not pushing all in for sure

Slow and steady............next year we won't have as many FAs to lose and a ton of cap space and might make a big splash if needed on D

That's my thinking. See what we have, target what we need in 2018.

 

[irishline]

willcox, church, carr, claiborne 4/4

2/4 Carr, Brown, Jones, Church.

Be real Claiborne only player in 7 games last year (Brown started 10) and Wilcox only started in the 4 games Church was out.

That said losing them all is a lot of losses for the secondary.

 

[MRV52]

I am starting to worry about this year. We have really taken a step backwards on Defense this FA. We have a lot of work to do to fix the secondary.

 

[conner01]

So 3/4s of our starting defensive backfield is gone and to improve that area we signed Nolan Carroll.

Hahahahahaha.

Fans wanted to blow up the secondary. Upgrade everyone which was never possible
4 for 4

 

[tyke1doe]

Not sure what the fo is doing here. He should have been resigned. Too many holes now

I was one of Mo's few supporters. I always felt he just needed to get healthy. But he's very injury prone. I would have been satisfied had he stayed, but I'm not disappointed that he left.

I think we're going to certainly move from #28 down if we get a taker. And I think Romo gets traded on draft day or we're going to swap picks somewhere with Houston and turn Houston's pick into a further trade down, whether from #20 down or #52 down.

We need more picks in this draft to cover all the needs we have.

We'll need at least one safety and two corners at a minimum and at least two pass rushers. Unfortunately, that may squeeze us out of drafting a tight end in one of the deepest drafts for that position in quite some time.

Hoping Rico ends up being a diamond barry-ed in the rough.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Im wondering if the success of our rookies last year has clouded our front offices judgement a little. If no more moves are made and we go into the season with an all rookie backfield led by Byron Jones Anthony Brown, Orlando Scandrick, and Nolan Caroll, I am more than worried.

You forget Heath.


Feel better?

 

[big dog cowboy]

Since he was drafted people didn't want Mo and wanted him ran out of town. Now we are rueing him leaving? Really?

 

[conner01]

I'm with you. Revamp the dbs in the draft. I like brown a lot. We can make 3 picks early and change our d backfield. We need it. I was sick of hoping carr and Claiborne to step up. Never lived up to potential and money. I'm happy to see new look d

You could use your top 3 picks on db's, might even get a couple who develope but then again that means not upgrading the pass rush

 

[NorthwestDallas40]

I believe that letting Mo, Carr, Church, and Wilcox go is a good thing. For many years, I have closely watched our secondary, both in live games and in replays. Compared to other teams, I have not seen one secondary who collectively makes fewer plays on the ball and pass breakups than the Cowboys'. I know they play a lot of off man coverage, but they gave up so many uncontested completions that it made me pull my hair out. By comparison, Nolan Carroll had 10 pass break ups by himself last year. And Anthony Brown, for a rookie, got his hands on more passes than any of those 4. I believe that our FO did us a favor here by not pursuing these 4. Even if it means taking a step back with a high-round rookie this year, we needed to hit the "reset" button for this secondary. To me, in this day of 3 step drops and QBs releasing the ball quickly (see, Brady), upgrading the secondary was even more important than upgrading the pass rush because, except for 3rd and long, there usually is not time for edge rushers to get there. We need DBs that can mirror and run with WRs, and most importantly, play the ball when it is in the air. Hopefully, we find at least one premier rookie CB who can do that. If so, with OScan one more year removed from ACL, Brown taking a leap in his second year, and Carroll's experience, we will be fine.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

1. Claiborne couldn't stay healthy and is not a zone corner. He's a press cover man. He improved a lot last year and wasn't a total liability as a tackler. But, he still got injured and with the way he's built with a small upper body and traps, I would imagine that tackling will always be an issue for him when it comes to staying healthy. I wasn't nutty about him getting a long term deal.

2. Carr has been a better overall tackler, but nothing great by any means. He's also not a zone corner. He came here for the same reason we drafted Mo...we had a Rob Ryan defense that plays heavy amounts of press man. We have wanted to move to zone coverage and he doesn't fit well. When we went to press man with Cover-1 in 2015, he just doesn't have the running speed he used to have to play it effectively. The biggest positive about Carr is he didn't miss games due to injury which is rare for CB's.

3. This draft is supposed to be enormously deep at CB in particular. There's talk of CB's with 5th round grades in this draft that would get 2nd round grades in other drafts.

4. I think it's clear that Marinelli has never had the type of CB's he wants. Rhonde Barber was a fixture at Tampa and was a zone corner and considered one of the best tacklers against the run for a cornerback in the history of the league. Brian Kelly was another zone corner, good tackler type. So was Charles Tillman, DJ Moore and Tim Jennings. The only CB that has fit more to what Marinelli likes is O-Scan (and now Brown).

5. Zone oriented schemes are usually more geared towards getting CB's on the cheap. Press-man schemes where a corner can possibly 'shutdown' another player are more willing to pay the price for that corner. Looking at the Patriots, Malcolm Butler was undrafted and Logan Ryan was a 3rd round pick that they let the Titans sign. While Richard Sherman is paid handsomely, he was a 4th round pick (and he played so well, you'd be stupid not to pay him). Brandon Browner came over from the CFL, Byron Maxwell was a 6th round pick and Walter Thurmond was a 4th round pick.

I think (and to a large degree, hope) that Dallas gets into that mindset of playing more zone and finding zone corners that they can pay less, draft later and put their focus in on the safeties. That's the main issue I have is that teams like the Patriots and Seahawks and the Monte Kiffin led Bucs had superior safety play. I'm not completely against Heath starting at SS, but I'm not sold on him either and I'd hate to see them pass up on a good SS prospect because they have Heath.

My guess is we'll now draft CB's and hopefully a SS, but we'll pick up a veteran CB or two that are more zone oriented corners to help out.

It's a bit of a pickle, but I can't say I was all that nutty of seeing another season of Mo and Carr. They are just not playmakers in zone coverage.




YR

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Having to draft lots of corners is like the smell of napalm in the morning...

 

[Supercowboy1986]

What's with the rueage over MC and BC? Lol

All year, and even the past few years there has been nothing but negativity about both players. BC with his contract, and MC with the trade up/injury history. Also, how both have very little ball/playmaking skills. How many ints do they have between the 2 of them?

I am looking forward to seeing a bunch of new faces.

 

[mattjames2010]

What happened to the Anthony Brown fandom here? Weren't a lot of you saying he was a legit #2?

 

[mugsybows]

i feel like front office plan for the next couple years is gut the defense, and improve DL and Secondary with low draft picks, like we did with our offensive line. it went from a weakness to a strength. not holding too much hope for a long playoff run this year.

 

[bayeslife]

So 3/4s of our starting defensive backfield is gone and to improve that area we signed Nolan Carroll.

Hahahahahaha.

-flashbacks to Green Bay scoring 3 straight touchdowns in the playoffs-

How will we ever recover???? They were our backbone for so long.....