Off Season Primer

[Hostile]

The day after the game all year I have done a Primer thread for the upcoming game. Well, now the upcoming game is the off season. I've been thinking about it a lot over the last 24 hours.

The Senior Bowl will take place on January 30, 2010. Kickoff is scheduled for 4:00 PM Eastern Time Zone. It will be televised by NFL Network. Ladd Peebles Stadium in Mobile, AL is once again the site.

The NFL Combines begin on February 24 and run through March 2, 2010. The deadlien for underclassmen to declare for the NFL Draft passed on January 15, 2010. So we now have a list of the underclassmen who declared eligibility to be Drafted with the outgoing Seniors.

Mock Drafts will heat up seriously once the Senior Bowl and Combines are over.

On March 5, 2010 Free Agency will begin. I know these Free Agent lists are always slightly wrong, so take this information with a grain of salt. For now, these are our Free Agents per NFL.com.

Miles Austin, WR
Stephen Bowen, DE
Cletis Gordon, CB
Jason Hatcher, DE
Sam Hurd, WR
Pat McQuistan, OT
Duke Preston, C
Cory Procter, OG
Gerald Sensabaugh, S
Marcus Spears, DE
Pat Watkins, S
Shaun Suisham, K

For now given the tenuous nature of the Collective Bargaining Agreement I don't want to speculate on which players will be Restricted or Unrestricted.

I will leave it to you to decide who you think we should keep or flush. The purpose of this post isn't to share my Couch GM thoughts. That can happen later.

Per our resident cap guru, AdamJT13, as of December 8, 2009 we were $4,247,329 under the Cap. We know the 2010 cap will be moved, but we don't know where yet. We also will likely have some cap room rolled into the coming year. Translation...cap wise we are not in trouble. It is likely that some high salaries may be re-worked or a couple of players could end up waived to clear cap room.

As I understand it if the CBA is not re-worked we can sign Free Agents without losing anyone. There is possibly a dollar amount limit on any Free Agent we can sign.

I think that we will once again focus on re-signing our own Free Agents more than fishing for a missing piece Free Agent.

Sometime in late March or early April the 2010 Schedule will be announced. Here are the Cowboys 2010 opponents.

HOME
Giants *
Eagles *
Commanders *
Bears *
Lions
Jaguars
Titans
Saints *

AWAY
Giants
Eagles
Commanders
Packers
Vikings
Texans
Colts
Cardinals

* Potential Thanksgiving game on Fox.

For the first time ever the NFL Draft is going to be a Prime Time event. This will be met with seriously mixed views. Round 1 of the NFL Draft will happen on Thursday April 22, 2010 at 7:30 PM Eastern Time Zone.

The 2nd and 3rd rounds of the Draft will then happen on Friday April 23, 2010 at 6:30 PM Eastern Time Zone.

The 4th through 7th rounds will happen on Saturday April 24, 2010 at 10:00 AM Eastern Time Zone.

Dallas picks #27 in the 1st round. They have a total of 6 picks. Every round except the 5th which belongs to Denver for the Montrae Holland trade 2 years ago. They will not have any Compensatory picks in 2010.

Purely speculation on my part at this point, but I expect the Cowboys to open their Training Camp on Thursday July 29, 2010.

Well, now you have been primed. Are you ready?

 

[utrunner07]

I hope we don't have to play the aints on Thanksgiving, having to watch the disgusting franchise on thanksgiving would be a disgrace to the holiday. Give me the Commanders or Bears.

 

[dadymat]

not diggin the new draft times at all......i like revolving my whole weekend to the draft not thurs, fri and Sat......

 

[utrunner07]

not diggin the new draft times at all......i like revolving my whole weekend to the draft not thurs, fri and Sat......

Agreed. I don't mind the first round on Thursday night, thats kind of cool. But having anything on Friday night is stupid. I doubt it lasts more than this year.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

I hate the new draft format. I liked it just the way it was.

 

[Hostile]

I added some Draft information that I forgot earlier.

 

[Gzus]

Miles Austin, WR (should re-sign: long term) MUST MUST MUST
Stephen Bowen, DE (should re-sign: if cheap) Pretty good situational rusher and back up.
Cletis Gordon, CB (ah who cares: bye bye)
Jason Hatcher, DE (should re-sign: if cheap)Pretty good situational rusher and back up.
Sam Hurd, WR (should re-sign: if cheap) Could contribute on ST, and still ok as a WR though you have other young talent to concentrate on (ie. Ogletree)
Pat McQuistan, OT (ah who cares: bye bye)
Duke Preston, C (ah who cares: bye bye)
Cory Procter, OG (ah who cares: bye bye)
Gerald Sensabaugh, S (should re-sign: long term) Played pretty well all season long, if he didn't have a broken thumb could have ended the season with 2-3 more INTs
Marcus Spears, DE (should re-sign: long term) Plays the run really well, which is what you want from a 3-4 DE
Pat Watkins, S (should re-sign: if cheap) Can't discount a great Special Teamer
Shaun Suisham, K (ah who cares: bye bye) We need consistancy

 

[AMERICAS_FAN]

Dallas picks #27 in the 1st round.

I fully expect Jerry Jones to trade down from there. Just a warning for those devoting a Thursday night to day 1, only to find out the Cowboys won't be picking.

 

[Gzus]

I fully expect Jerry Jones to trade down from there. Just a warning for those devoting a Thursday night to day 1, only to find out the Cowboys won't be picking.

It depends on who's available, I think if there are some compelling WRs still on the board they could take a stab @ one.

 

[utrunner07]

It depends on who's available, I think if there are some compelling WRs still on the board they could take a stab @ one.

If Jerry spends our 1st on a WR I will picket outside of his house.

 

[Phoenix]

I fully expect Jerry Jones to trade down from there. Just a warning for those devoting a Thursday night to day 1, only to find out the Cowboys won't be picking.

I would not be surprised to see Barber traded for a 1st round pick, somewhere in the top 5 or 10.... in that scenario, I could see Jerry trading down to 15-20, pick up additional later-round picks, get a stud OLman still, and still have the #27 1st round pick for another OLman...or maybe RB/WR/S.

 

[DasTex]

I would not be surprised to see Barber traded for a 1st round pick, somewhere in the top 5 or 10.... in that scenario, I could see Jerry trading down to 15-20, pick up additional later-round picks, get a stud OLman still, and still have the #27 1st round pick for another OLman...or maybe RB/WR/S.

Insert - This Ain't Madden picture

Even Al Davis wouldn't trade a 1st or 2nd rounder for Barber and his contract.

 

[Rampage]

I would not be surprised to see Barber traded for a 1st round pick, somewhere in the top 5 or 10.... in that scenario, I could see Jerry trading down to 15-20, pick up additional later-round picks, get a stud OLman still, and still have the #27 1st round pick for another OLman...or maybe RB/WR/S.

nobody is gonna give up a 1st round draft pick for Barber. we'd be lucky to get a 4th round pick for him.

 

[RainMan]

I would not be surprised to see Barber traded for a 1st round pick, somewhere in the top 5 or 10.... in that scenario, I could see Jerry trading down to 15-20, pick up additional later-round picks, get a stud OLman still, and still have the #27 1st round pick for another OLman...or maybe RB/WR/S.

Wait, what? Seriously?

 

[DasTex]

Didn't they eat TO's contract on this years cap? So there should be quite a big number coming off the books correct?

 

[Bigdog]

I would not be surprised to see Barber traded for a 1st round pick, somewhere in the top 5 or 10.... in that scenario, I could see Jerry trading down to 15-20, pick up additional later-round picks, get a stud OLman still, and still have the #27 1st round pick for another OLman...or maybe RB/WR/S.

I like your thinking but what team in their right mind would trade our their Top 10 for Barber who was injured this year. If some team is willing to do this then Jerry better jump on it. Even the Raiders are not that dumb. Now if we package Barber and Roy Willams it could happen. Doubt it with their contracts though.

 

[MarionBarberThe4th]

Think the 1st game will be opening up new Giants stadium.
Think were trading up

Cant we let 1 FA go and sign 1? ie let Sensy walk and sign Nick Collins?

 

[Sarge]

So............Dallas will be picking their first pick around midnite on a thursday night. Brilliant.

 

[Joe_Fan]

I would not be surprised to see Barber traded for a 1st round pick, somewhere in the top 5 or 10.... in that scenario, I could see Jerry trading down to 15-20, pick up additional later-round picks, get a stud OLman still, and still have the #27 1st round pick for another OLman...or maybe RB/WR/S.

What kind of joke is this?

Who on earth would give a top 5 or 10 for Barber?

 

[Hoofbite]

The NFL won't schedule the Saints on T-Day. I think it will be the Bears because that looks to be the least popular matchup.

They could schedule any game they wanted and get people to watch on that day.

Won't be an NFCE team because those are ratings bonanzas. Won't be the Saints because that will be a huge rematch.

I think it will be Chicago.