Perfectly fine with Inactivity...

[CowboysLaw87]

Our FA's are the following:

Sean Lee
Barry Church
Jay Ratliff
Orlando Scandrick
Matt Johnson
Phil Costa
Chris Jones
Danny Coale
Orie Lemon

Even guys like Johnson, Coale and Lemon may very well turn into key contributors (especially on ST's). They are cheaper, younger versions of what these other teams are largely signing right now.

Another point I'd like to make: giving a guy solid FA dollars eliminates/reduces competition at a given position. Example 1- Dan Connor. Orie Lemon outperformed him, is younger, etc. but we left him off the 53-man roster in favor of Connor because too many $ were tied into #52. I realize Pool didn't keep Church from the field, but that was a vet minimum deal. I would much prefer letting Albright and Wilbur duke it out for the SAM job rather than hand a 30-year-old JAG $1M (Blackburn). I want young guys currently on the roster to be given the chance to shine. We need to be more open to this, as it took guys like Miles, Murray, Lee, etc. way too long to get on the field at the beginning of their ascent to prominence as Cowboys.

Keep to the course, let the young guys play, get a year closer to cleansing ourselves of the aging/bad contracts of Rat, Scandrick, Free, etc. and hit that draft with a purpose and an eye on the lines. I'm 100% fine with this.

 

[5Stars]

I don't mind it...good thoughts!

 

[gimmesix]

Another point I'd like to make: giving a guy solid FA dollars eliminates/reduces competition at a given position. Example 1- Dan Connor. Orie Lemon outperformed him, is younger, etc. but we left him off the 53-man roster in favor of Connor because too many $ were tied into #52. I realize Pool didn't keep Church from the field, but that was a vet minimum deal. I would much prefer letting Albright and Wilbur duke it out for the SAM job rather than hand a 30-year-old JAG $1M (Blackburn). I want young guys currently on the roster to be given the chance to shine. We need to be more open to this, as it took guys like Miles, Murray, Lee, etc. way too long to get on the field at the beginning of their ascent to prominence as Cowboys.

That's fine, but you still need qualified depth and one of the best ways to get it is bring in vets who have proven they can play. Ideally, you want those guys to be knocked off the roster by younger players, but it's hard to just field a 53-man roster with young guys you bring in through the draft and as UDFAs.

 

[kiheikiwi]

Sort of OK with it... here's what I don't want.
Now that most of the upper eshelon of players have been snapped up, I don't want us to resign Romo or Spencer and decide to now pick up some 3rd or 4th tier free agents with that money. Like say, LAST YEAR ! With Ber. and Livings. Lets not do that again - we are right where we were 2 years ago - (on the line) with 2 more contracts we don't need ...

 

[SWG9]

Our FA's are the following:

Sean Lee
Barry Church
Jay Ratliff
Orlando Scandrick
Matt Johnson
Phil Costa
Chris Jones
Danny Coale
Orie Lemon

Even guys like Johnson, Coale and Lemon may very well turn into key contributors (especially on ST's). They are cheaper, younger versions of what these other teams are largely signing right now.

Another point I'd like to make: giving a guy solid FA dollars eliminates/reduces competition at a given position. Example 1- Dan Connor. Orie Lemon outperformed him, is younger, etc. but we left him off the 53-man roster in favor of Connor because too many $ were tied into #52. I realize Pool didn't keep Church from the field, but that was a vet minimum deal. I would much prefer letting Albright and Wilbur duke it out for the SAM job rather than hand a 30-year-old JAG $1M (Blackburn). I want young guys currently on the roster to be given the chance to shine. We need to be more open to this, as it took guys like Miles, Murray, Lee, etc. way too long to get on the field at the beginning of their ascent to prominence as Cowboys.

Keep to the course, let the young guys play, get a year closer to cleansing ourselves of the aging/bad contracts of Rat, Scandrick, Free, etc. and hit that draft with a purpose and an eye on the lines. I'm 100% fine with this.

I'd be fine with it if we consistently applied this mindset, but we don't. If we're going to go that route, franchising Spencer makes no sense. We just went through this with Spears, Free, Sensi, and Scandrick. We signed all four of these guys after the lockout, all four are (rightly) considered bad contracts and two of the four are already gone.

Spencer will be thought of the same way in no time flat.

At some point the Cowboys just have to stop handing out bad contracts, it's that simple.

 

[Section446]

A good draft will make everyone forget about the FA inactivity.

 

[ThrowuptheXDez88]

If we went ahead and cut Free and used that money on maybe these players that will likely get short term-low money deals (Kevin Burnett-Roy Miller & if Laurent Robinson is cleared to play) those would be quality moves in my opinion.

 

[Tejano15]

A good draft will make everyone forget about the FA inactivity.

Thats has to be the focus and we can't afford to be cute, I hate to say it we can't draft BPA we have to draft BPA for need positions, such as OL, DL, S, RB and one could argue QB to groom. If we do that and get 2-3 starters and 3-6 contributors on ST and special packages we would have done well. And FA will be an after thought.

Also, there will be street free agents, (quality ones) after June 1st, we can release Free and pick up a couple to help us through the season.

 

[Gameover]

Scandrick returning is not a positive.

 

[Nightman]

I still would like to have to money available to snatch up a couple bargains. A FS and a RB, maybe SLB.

 

[Ren]

Even guys like Johnson, Coale and Lemon may very well turn into key contributors (especially on ST's). They are cheaper, younger versions of what these other teams are largely signing right now.

puff puff pass

 

[Fla Cowpoke]

If we went ahead and cut Free and used that money on maybe these players that will likely get short term-low money deals (Kevin Burnett-Roy Miller & if Laurent Robinson is cleared to play) those would be quality moves in my opinion.

How long will it be before people get it that cutting Free saves us NOTHING against the cap right now?

 

[HappyOnions]

I hope you're okay with it, because we don't have the money to do anything about it.

 

[CyberB0b]

Nearly every person on there has missed significant time with injuries or have barely seen the field. Not really impressed there. I mean the only guy there who could get any kind of money on the open market is Sean Lee.

 

[irishline]

If we went ahead and cut Free and used that money on maybe these players that will likely get short term-low money deals (Kevin Burnett-Roy Miller & if Laurent Robinson is cleared to play) those would be quality moves in my opinion.

Sure...

On June 1st when the money for cutting him now actually comes off the books and becomes available to use...

 

[Wood]

I am willing to bet even Doug Free is puzzled at how much Dallas will pay him again next year.

 

[Stash]

Gotta love the spin that comes out of this board.

Rich Dalrymple had better watch his back!

No matter what this team does or does not do, it somehow garners praise from some folks.

While I am glad that the Cowboys are not overpaying at the onset of free agency, the fact is that it is by necessity, not design.

For all of those that repeatedly said that the Cowboys would never be cap-strapped, welcome to the real world.

The thing that scares me is that if they go ahead with long-term deals for both Romo and Spencer, we may be in this same position for the next several years.

All to keep an 8-8 team together.

 

[visionary]

I'd be fine with it if we consistently applied this mindset, but we don't. If we're going to go that route, franchising Spencer makes no sense. We just went through this with Spears, Free, Sensi, and Scandrick. We signed all four of these guys after the lockout, all four are (rightly) considered bad contracts and two of the four are already gone.

Spencer will be thought of the same way in no time flat.

At some point the Cowboys just have to stop handing out bad contracts, it's that simple.

agree with this

the smart thing would have been to tell spencer's agent well before FA that we will franchise spencer but will only pay 5-6 mil/year on a long-term deal or tender spencer worth a 1 or 2 instead of franchising him

if he wants more, he is free to negotiate with another team and we will trade him for a 1 or 2, let the agent do the hard work

 

[visionary]

Gotta love the spin that comes out of this board.

Rich Dalrymple had better watch his back!

No matter what this team does or does not do, it somehow garners praise from some folks.

While I am glad that the Cowboys are not overpaying at the onset of free agency, the fact is that it is by necessity, not design.

For all of those that repeatedly said that the Cowboys would never be cap-strapped, welcome to the real world.

The thing that scares me is that if they go ahead with long-term deals for both Romo and Spencer, we may be in this same position for the next several years.

All to keep an 8-8 team together.

absolutely agree with you

there is no reason to give either of them a long-term deal at this stage unless it comes with a very significant discount

let them play out their tag and risk getting hurt and try to perform their best in a contract year

unfortunately jerry does not have the gumption to do this just like he did not have the foresight to deal with these 2 players properly

 

[Nova]

I don't mind it either seeing how we're not even a week into the new season. We've already seen that players can be signed on the cheap this year since everyone is strapped for cap space-- making a FA wait even longer in a period when no one is getting paid and you may see some quality signings for peanuts for the Cowboys.