Bluestang
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It's good to see that Marinelli is going to be back to coach this defense. You can measure his coaching abilities by the way he has made these "Joes" play at high levels for stretches of the year. If you compare what JG did as an OC with about the same amount of talent on the OL before Frederick/Martin it's easy to see why Marinelli is easily a fan favorite and why JG wanted to keep him on the staff. There is no question that Rod was given a turd to work with, but he managed to make them look respectable and our offense could rely on them during critical points of games to make stops.
The offense played with a philosophy that certainly coincided with Murray's running style. My signature is what JG envisioned his team being long before they overhauled the OL with 1st round picks. Our offense would just pound away at the opposing defense and Murray was a huge part of that because he never shied away from contact. That kind of play is infectious, and it established the identity of the 2014 team. JG has always been adamant that each team is different, and heading into 2015 that little fact is looming over their heads heading into the offseason.
We obviously all agree that the defense needs help but that is going to cost you some serious money/draft picks. We also need to pay two important players on the offense - Dez and Murray - but as of this current time there isn't a viable way that we know of to keep both. The salary cap era has certainly put this franchise in plenty of binds because you can't have your cake and it eat too as they say, more so when you make terrible decisions with that money.
I absolutely admire Murray, but I have serious reservations about handing a 27 year old back, that just set the single season franchise record, a lot of money. The Cowboys have a policy in place, or at least that's what Mike Fisher has said multiple times, not to pay for aging backs. Murray has also suffered injuries throughout his career because of his running style. This year though he stayed pretty healthy but that might be because the holes that he ran through were the biggest he's ever seen and he didn't have to fight guys that were 60-80+ lbs his weight carrying the rock. He also had a curious case of the fumbles this year but I'll go out on a limb and say that's directly related to the way he runs and how he swings his arms. Pay attention to his arms when he's outside the tackle box, he's incredibly loose with the football and that's something that won't change. On the flip side you'd have to be an idiot to believe that what he single handedly did can be reproduced with a draft pick or FA. Murray is the definition of a "complete back", his blitz pickup is the most underrated aspect of his game. Gronkowski's brother was quickly shown the door when his blown assignment led to Romo's broken collarbone. Randle and Dunbar are not good enough to be 3rd down backs consistently and I'm not sure they will figure it out this offseason. So if you decide to pay Murray, the pot of money has shrunken to pay Dez and/or a defensive FA and you might not end up with either.
Think about that for a second, no Dez...no 4th and 2 circus catch that almost gave you the go ahead score in the playoffs. You can complain all you want about Dez "disappearing" in games but that is because no defense is going to ever, ever single Dez the entire game. That's just plain dumb and no DC is going to seriously install a game plan to do that. That 4th and 2 no-catch was one of the few times that GB singled him up and we all saw what Dez did with that opportunity. So you want to pay Dez now instead, well good bye Murray it's been a great year but we can't afford you and/or you don't even see Suh's name brought up in a twitter feed linking him to Dallas.
And my final paragraph, I promise. The defense needs help, Rod just signed for 3 years here and the worst thing you could tell the guy is that we spent all the money on our own FAs and he's got to make Nick Hayden play like Warren Sapp again. "Making chicken salad out of poop" is the phrase of the year I think is what has been said here. We are probably going to go defense in the first round, but how many rookie All Pro's have come from the 27th pick in the draft? Last year's draft didn't go as planned but Martin was the right choice given the options and that led to desperation on Lawrence's selection. We can't do the same thing this upcoming draft and expect Marinelli to produce a better unit, he needs the talent and he needs those "waves" to be consistent in order for the team to take the next step.
So all that being said...what's your choice? You only get 2. Me, I go with Dez and defensive FA. Thanks Murray but we had a RB committee in 2009 and that worked.
The offense played with a philosophy that certainly coincided with Murray's running style. My signature is what JG envisioned his team being long before they overhauled the OL with 1st round picks. Our offense would just pound away at the opposing defense and Murray was a huge part of that because he never shied away from contact. That kind of play is infectious, and it established the identity of the 2014 team. JG has always been adamant that each team is different, and heading into 2015 that little fact is looming over their heads heading into the offseason.
We obviously all agree that the defense needs help but that is going to cost you some serious money/draft picks. We also need to pay two important players on the offense - Dez and Murray - but as of this current time there isn't a viable way that we know of to keep both. The salary cap era has certainly put this franchise in plenty of binds because you can't have your cake and it eat too as they say, more so when you make terrible decisions with that money.
I absolutely admire Murray, but I have serious reservations about handing a 27 year old back, that just set the single season franchise record, a lot of money. The Cowboys have a policy in place, or at least that's what Mike Fisher has said multiple times, not to pay for aging backs. Murray has also suffered injuries throughout his career because of his running style. This year though he stayed pretty healthy but that might be because the holes that he ran through were the biggest he's ever seen and he didn't have to fight guys that were 60-80+ lbs his weight carrying the rock. He also had a curious case of the fumbles this year but I'll go out on a limb and say that's directly related to the way he runs and how he swings his arms. Pay attention to his arms when he's outside the tackle box, he's incredibly loose with the football and that's something that won't change. On the flip side you'd have to be an idiot to believe that what he single handedly did can be reproduced with a draft pick or FA. Murray is the definition of a "complete back", his blitz pickup is the most underrated aspect of his game. Gronkowski's brother was quickly shown the door when his blown assignment led to Romo's broken collarbone. Randle and Dunbar are not good enough to be 3rd down backs consistently and I'm not sure they will figure it out this offseason. So if you decide to pay Murray, the pot of money has shrunken to pay Dez and/or a defensive FA and you might not end up with either.
Think about that for a second, no Dez...no 4th and 2 circus catch that almost gave you the go ahead score in the playoffs. You can complain all you want about Dez "disappearing" in games but that is because no defense is going to ever, ever single Dez the entire game. That's just plain dumb and no DC is going to seriously install a game plan to do that. That 4th and 2 no-catch was one of the few times that GB singled him up and we all saw what Dez did with that opportunity. So you want to pay Dez now instead, well good bye Murray it's been a great year but we can't afford you and/or you don't even see Suh's name brought up in a twitter feed linking him to Dallas.
And my final paragraph, I promise. The defense needs help, Rod just signed for 3 years here and the worst thing you could tell the guy is that we spent all the money on our own FAs and he's got to make Nick Hayden play like Warren Sapp again. "Making chicken salad out of poop" is the phrase of the year I think is what has been said here. We are probably going to go defense in the first round, but how many rookie All Pro's have come from the 27th pick in the draft? Last year's draft didn't go as planned but Martin was the right choice given the options and that led to desperation on Lawrence's selection. We can't do the same thing this upcoming draft and expect Marinelli to produce a better unit, he needs the talent and he needs those "waves" to be consistent in order for the team to take the next step.
So all that being said...what's your choice? You only get 2. Me, I go with Dez and defensive FA. Thanks Murray but we had a RB committee in 2009 and that worked.
