Pro Bowl Offense and Subsequent Theme

[Galian Beast]

If healthy, we now have a pro bowl caliber player at nearly every position on offense. The likely exceptions being Doug Free and Terrance Williams, who should both at least be serviceable here.

If we're not a top 5 scoring offense at the end of the year (again assuming we're healthy), then Linehan and Garrett have a lot of explaining to do. We need to start seeing a lot more creativity based on what we can do with Elliott and moving Bryant around, and taking advantage of.

What this means is that we no longer need to draft for offensive players high in the near future. It means we can take projects like Rico Gathers late and see if they produce anything.

It also means we can focus almost entirely on defense now. The draft next year unless we get a WR early to replace Williams, means we can go cornerback, defensive end, and safety high and we can do it again the subsequent year.

Here are our 2017 free agents
Barry Church - Easily replaceable in my opinion.
Rolando McClain - Jaylon Smith
Morris Claiborne - Big Question
Brandon Carr - Big Question
Ron Leary - No longer a starter
Darren McFadden - Ezekiel Elliott
Terrance Williams - Cole Beasly? Brice Butler? Draft pick?
Gavin Escobar - James Hanna? Rico Gathers?

WR2 should be able to create for themselves with Dez, Witten, and Elliott out there.

 

[Dodger12]

Romo is on borrowed time and chances are, we'll have to sell the farm to get another shot at one of the top QB's in future drafts. Even under Campo, we never lost more than 5 games. A lot of things had to go "right" for us to draft in the top 5, something that hasn't happened here (based on record) since 1989. This whole draft could turn out to be a solid draft and it won't mean a thing when these players develop in a year or two and we're left without a franchise QB. Trust me, we haven't hit rock bottom yet.

 

[Teague31]

We never lost more than 5 games under campo?

 

[MrPeanutbutter]

Romo is on borrowed time and chances are, we'll have to sell the farm to get another shot at one of the top QB's in future drafts. Even under Campo, we never lost more than 5 games. A lot of things had to go "right" for us to draft in the top 5, something that hasn't happened here (based on record) since 1989. This whole draft could turn out to be a solid draft and it won't mean a thing when these players develop in a year or two and we're left without a franchise QB. Trust me, we haven't hit rock bottom yet.

As long as teams are drafting serviceable quarterbacks outside the first round, I am not worried about this yet. Carr, Wilson, and Bridgewater are all quarterbacks we passed on. We didn't have to move anything to take them.

 

[Dodger12]

As long as teams are drafting serviceable quarterbacks outside the first round, I am not worried about this yet. Carr, Wilson, and Bridgewater are all quarterbacks we passed on. We didn't have to move anything to take them.

I find it interesting that folks would accept a "serviceable" player at the most important position in the game but not a serviceable RB in the later rounds when you have one of the best (if not THE best) OL in the NFL.

Don't take that as a slight against Elliot as a player. We've tried a 1st round QB (Weeden), a 2nd round QB (Carter), and a 4th round QB (McGee) and a bunch of long shots in between. You make it sound like it's plug and play.

 

[Dodger12]

We never lost more than 5 games under campo?

Thanks....I got it backwards. Meant to say we never won less than 5 games. You get the idea......

 

[Galian Beast]

I believe I read that since 2011 quarterbacks in the 2nd and 3rd day have better winning percentages than quarterbacks taken in the first...

 

[LocimusPrime]

So our offense has returned to its 2014 form, so will result in the same 2014 outcome. A first round lucky win over detroit and then lose to a hobbled aaron rogers? Or will we be so dominate on offense that we are superbowl bound ( i pray superbow cause im a fan).

 

[RandyOh]

I think next year we go CB, WR, CB day 1 and Day 2 picks. Maybe even trade up to the top of 4th round and take a DE, TE, or RT. Depending on if a top 100 player at those positions falls.

 

[BigStar]

Romo is on borrowed time and chances are, we'll have to sell the farm to get another shot at one of the top QB's in future drafts. Even under Campo, we never lost more than 5 games. A lot of things had to go "right" for us to draft in the top 5, something that hasn't happened here (based on record) since 1989. This whole draft could turn out to be a solid draft and it won't mean a thing when these players develop in a year or two and we're left without a franchise QB. Trust me, we haven't hit rock bottom yet.

And we never inquired about Wentz/Goff from the 4th slot. Proves your point. THAT was the time to do it; bf STL/PHI got in the trade game. Looking forward to trading multiple 1st, 2nd, and 3rd rounders in the future.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

I believe I read that since 2011 quarterbacks in the 2nd and 3rd day have better winning percentages than quarterbacks taken in the first...

My problem with this statement is, it uses cherry picked data to lead one to the wrong conclusion. The first round, and subsequently the higher you pick, is always the place where you have the best chance of landing a franchise QBs. The correct conclusion one should reach with that data (assuming it's correct) is that you *can* get a good QB outside the first round, but your chances get harder, not easier. Let's look at the 2011 draft, and I'm pretty sure the winning % of the guys is higher outside the first round as opposed to the first round and point out one glaring hole in this data. The combined starts of Greg McElroy, Nathan Enderle, TJ Yates, Ricky Stanzi and Ryan Mallet do not really have any combined effect because they quite frankly were not good enough to warrant more than an emergency start or so. If you're going to suggest that you have just as good of a chance at landing a guy later as you do sooner, you have to present something that takes into account the amount of failures in days 2 and 3 and doesn't just highlight the failures of day 1. And yes, day 1 failures hurt a lot more, but day 1 successes tend to be a lot more beneficial, mainly because as good as Dalton, Kaepernick and Taylor are, none of them hold a candle to Cam Newton.

Russell Wilson definitely makes the argument a bit more persuasive, considering that unlike Dalton, Kaepernick and Taylor, he's a special player, however, he's not as good as Andrew Luck, who of course was a first round pick. And to be honest guys like Wilson, Brady and Romo are really the exception and not the rule. 21 of the starting QBs next season were first round picks (I'm assuming Goff starts in LA, but my argument works fine with 20), so the remaining 11 were picked in rounds 2-7 or went undrafted. If you want to make the argument with only the "good" QBs, you'll still find that the majority went in round 1. Eli, Rogers, Stafford, Cam, Ryan, Palmer, Rothlisberger, Flacco, Luck, Rivers and Smith were picked in round 1 while Romo, Cousins, Brees, Russell, Brady, Dalton, and Carr were picked in rounds 2-7 as well as UDFA, COMBINED (I could even argue that Bortles, Winston and Mariotta have proven to at least be good).

It's almost like betting against a favorite at the beginning of the season. Yes, a lot of times in sports, the favorite doesn't win, just last season, UNC was the #2 ranked preseason team (Kentucky was #1) and would have been a smart play for a gambler, however, if someone let me bet on the field, in essence every team but UNC, of course I would take those odds and maybe you can find someone who lets you do that, however, in the NFL draft, you can't select every QB outside the first round, so even if the combined odds of all of them were higher than that of a Cam Newton or Andrew Luck, that's not something you can do. Each prospects individual odds of success are much smaller than that of the guys that go early. So while I would never say throw a first round pick at any QB just to fill that hole (which is obviously a mistake), you have a better chance if you do your due diligence on a guy a projected to go in the first round and determine that he has what you want in a QB, because at the end of the day, if Seattle knew that Wilson was going to be as good as he is, there's no way they risk some team scooping him up right before them in the third or even second, same goes for Cousins in Washington (giving him the benefit of the doubt here as well), Romo in Dallas and Brady in New England.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

If we're not a top 5 scoring offense at the end of the year (again assuming we're healthy), then Linehan and Garrett have a lot of explaining to do.

Not necessarily, I think the explosive offenses will still average more points per game, I think we will be incredibly efficient in 3rd down % and time of possession, which given the state of our defense, could be more important.

 

[MrPeanutbutter]

I find it interesting that folks would accept a "serviceable" player at the most important position in the game but not a serviceable RB in the later rounds when you have one of the best (if not THE best) OL in the NFL.

Don't take that as a slight against Elliot as a player. We've tried a 1st round QB (Weeden), a 2nd round QB (Carter), and a 4th round QB (McGee) and a bunch of long shots in between. You make it sound like it's plug and play.

I find it interesting that because they're the Cowboys, you don't think they can do what numerous other teams have done. It's like you're completely unaware of what is happening in the NFL right now.

We have passed on MULTIPLE franchise quarterbacks in the last half decade.

Seriously. What are you watching?

 

[Toruk_Makto]

Focus on defense? That's a new one.

 

[BAT]

Romo is on borrowed time and chances are, we'll have to sell the farm to get another shot at one of the top QB's in future drafts. Even under Campo, we never lost more than 5 games. A lot of things had to go "right" for us to draft in the top 5, something that hasn't happened here (based on record) since 1989. This whole draft could turn out to be a solid draft and it won't mean a thing when these players develop in a year or two and we're left without a franchise QB. Trust me, we haven't hit rock bottom yet.

I think you are romanticizing Campo's time as a HC with Dallas. Campo had 3 straight 5-11 seasons. Never won more than 5 games in a season, 11 losses is more than twice the 5 you are remembering.

**Edit: Ah, someone already beat me to it.

 

[Dodger12]

I find it interesting that because they're the Cowboys, you don't think they can do what numerous other teams have done. It's like you're completely unaware of what is happening in the NFL right now.

We have passed on MULTIPLE franchise quarterbacks in the last half decade.

Seriously. What are you watching?

I'm not sure what you're even talking about. Romo was still relatively in his prime 5 years ago but that has very little to do with what I posted.

And what franchise QB's have we passed on the last half decade?

 

[DFWJC]

I know it's splitting hairs, but the offense has 8 potentially pro bowl caliber players, not 9 of 11.
Smith, Martin, Freddy, maybe Collins, maybe Zeke, Romo, Dez, Witten

 

[DFWJC]

So our offense has returned to its 2014 form, so will result in the same 2014 outcome. A first round lucky win over detroit and then lose to a hobbled aaron rogers? Or will we be so dominate on offense that we are superbowl bound ( i pray superbow cause im a fan).

I really don't think it matters how dominant an offense is unless you at least have a defense that is above average (or even better) come playoff time.

I've seen completely dominant defenses with putrid offenses win super bowls (Tampa Bay comes to mind), but never the other way around.

 

[DFWJC]

I believe I read that since 2011 quarterbacks in the 2nd and 3rd day have better winning percentages than quarterbacks taken in the first...

I don't know about that, but you are dead on right if you're saying you don't need to draft in the top 5.
I think it's 9 of the last 11 super bowl winning QBs were taken later than that, and most much later.

 

[MrPeanutbutter]

And what franchise QB's have we passed on the last half decade?

Russell Wilson, Derek Carr, Ryan Tannehill for sure. You can probably throw in Kaepernick as well.