Moore: Cowboys in serious bind at DE after whiffing on Chris Long

[Alexander]

Cowboys in serious bind at DE after whiffing on Chris Long; could Dallas reassess keeping Greg Hardy?



By David Moore , Staff Writer Contact David Moore on Twitter: @DavidMooreDMN

Chris Long was scheduled to have dinner with Cowboys coach Jason Garrett on Tuesday night.

He never made it.

The defensive end visited New England on Monday and left without a deal. But after New England traded Chandler Jones to Arizona for guard Jonathan Cooper, the Patriots did all they could to keep Long from making his visit to Dallas.

They were successful. Long announced on Twitter Tuesday evening that he had signed with New England. It's a one-year deal, a source confirmed.


The signing leaves the Cowboys in a serious bind at defensive end. Greg Hardy isn't expected to return. Randy Gregory is suspended for the first four games of the season, and DeMarcus Lawrence is coming off back surgery.

The fallback plan?

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http://sportsday.***BANNED-URL***/d...-cowboys-coach-jason-garrett-sign-new-england

 

[noshame]

Remember the day when if we wanted a FA he was here. Not so much because of the money, but everybody wants to play on a winner, well.......

 

[Fletch]

Yep. Our whole season depended on Chris Long.

 

[dboy05]

Bring Hardy back for cheap and keep it moving...

 

[sideon]

So there in a serious bind at DE when there's an upcoming draft full of quality DEs

 

[davey999]

So there in a serious bind at DE when there's an upcoming draft full of quality DEs

Draft is not deep on DE's and there are only so many holes that can be filled by the draft, especially considering our track record.

 

[birdwells1]

Yep. Our whole season depended on Chris Long.

Worst than that, it's signing Jack Crawford.

 

[Sydla]

LOL. Jack Crawford as being a must sign now at DE.

Holy hell.

 

[Stash]

Yeah, let's follow up one mistake by making two more.

Now that we've missed out on Long, let's panic and overpay to retain an average player in Jack Crawford.

 

[jazzcat22]

LOL. Jack Crawford as being a must sign now at DE.

Holy hell.

Would you prefer Mincey?

 

[Sydla]

Would you prefer Mincey?

I prefer neither.

Just middling to below average talents that the Cowboys find themselves scrambling to possibly sign.

 

[tyke1doe]

Remember the day when if we wanted a FA he was here. Not so much because of the money, but everybody wants to play on a winner, well.......

And that's why Long signed with the Patriots.

 

[Idgit]

Jack Crawford is a valuable rotation player. We need rotation depth, so he becomes important. We still won't overpay him, but I'm shocked he hasn't gotten an offer from somebody. He'd be a good value on a small deal.

We should be using FA to find and sign as many Jack Crawfords as possible. Those guys are out there, if you look hard enough. The fact that we've got one still unsigned suggests a couple other teams do, too. Then develop stars via the draft where we can.

 

[DeaconMoss]

Quinton Coples.......Get on the phone Jerry

 

[Sydla]

Jack Crawford is a valuable rotation player. We need rotation depth, so he becomes important. We still won't overpay him, but I'm shocked he hasn't gotten an offer from somebody. He'd be a good value on a small deal.

We should be using FA to find and sign as many Jack Crawfords as possible. Those guys are out there, if you look hard enough. The fact that we've got one still unsigned suggests a couple other teams do, too. Then develop stars via the draft where we can.

Because he's a dime a dozen player. Teams don't waste their time or money scouring for other teams' dime a dozen players that they likely already have.

 

[tm1119]

Jack Crawford showed nice flashes last year. He's a good depth piece we should be happy with to have back.
Coples, Andre Branch, and Mike Neal are 3 young, cheap guys with some potential left we should be looking into signing. I'd prefer 2 of them but that seems doubtful. Jason Jones isn't so young anymore, but could be a pretty good rotational piece at SDE that can bring some pass rush as well.

 

[Sydla]

So basically, with arguably our greatest need being pass rush this offseason, we are left scrambling to grab a guy like Andre Branch or Jones who might be able to bring " a little" pass rush.

Their best option of even having an average pass rush this year is re-sign Hardy. And they won't do that. So slice it anyway you want, they have failed to fix a need that they stressed was very important.

Oh and thinking the draft solves the pass rush problem is fool's gold.

 

[Swanny]

Give me Mike Neal. I would rather have him over Long anyways. But I doubt it happens.

 

[Idgit]

Because he's a dime a dozen player. Teams don't waste their time or money scouring for other teams' dime a dozen players that they likely already have.

They do. This is a league built on dime-a-dozen players. Young DLs who can play four spots along the line and get pressure are normally in demand.

I'm not saying Jack Crawford is special, or that he's better than he really is. I'm realistic about him. But he was the free agent on our team I thought was maybe most likely to go somewhere on a deal we would have thought excessive in that first week of FA, and so far, we haven't heard of any interest in him from anybody.

 

[Idgit]

Give me Mike Neal. I would rather have him over Long anyways. But I doubt it happens.

These are the types of guys I'm talking about. Young enough. Solid, but otherwise unspectacular. High effort seat warmers, basically.