Rebuilding the defense might take a couple years

[Risen Star]

Wait...so we're not going to have a good defense this year?

 

[EPL0c0]

2 years? It was 2 years, 5 years ago.

 

[Kaiser]

I think they should build the defense with the mindset of peaking in 2015.

I think "peaking in 2015" is exactly the right way to put it. I think the back 7 will be fine from 1) the rookie safeties improving and 2) more consistency from Carter and/or Claiborne.

The DL is obviously the issue but a week from now we could have Melton and Spencer in the mix and we have already solved the depth issue by Crawford and Bass coming back and adding Mincy and McCLain.

Then we obviously add guys from the draft. If you think about the value Frederich, TWill and Holloman added last year and hit on value for your 1st, 3rd and 6th picks - your DL is OK at that point.

DE - Spencer (once healthy), Selvie, 6th round pick
DT - Crawford, McClain, Hayden
DT - Melton, Bass, 3rd round pick
DE - Barr in 1st round, Selvie, Mincy

 

[daveferr33]

This was not planned. The idea was not to rebuild in Garrett's fourth year. This is simply a FO reacting to a bad cap situation of their own making.

And if it is a planned rebuild, then those doing the rebuilding seriously thought they had a contender on thier hands the last three seasons. Doesn't instill a whole lot of faith going forward.

 

[Risen Star]

This was not planned. The idea was not to rebuild in Garrett's fourth year. This is simply a FO reacting to a bad cap situation of their own making.

And if it is a planned rebuild, then those doing the rebuilding seriously thought they had a contender on thier hands the last three seasons. Doesn't instill a whole lot of faith going forward.

Outstanding post.

 

[TwoDeep3]

And then the defense is rebuilt and Romo is old.

What a concept.

 

[Bullflop]

Oh. This entirely psychological phenomenon of adjusting your own take on the object in focus (on these pages anything Dallas Cowboys), so that you feel better about your outlook and remove yourself from unpleasant feelings, anger etc. I guess this is what I hate the most about fan culture.

This franchise is all in on its aging QB, it has a fairly good offense and only missed the playoffs due to a piss poor defensive performance.........and now we are talking about the obvious perspective of rebuilding (and not being a contender) the next two or three years?

Sorry, but it's a losers outlook. Adjusting your psychology to whatever Jerry's seemingly about to do.

How long have you been a "shrink," sir? Assuming you're not, you seem to believe you know infinitely more about me than you actually do, my friend. I have not embraced a homer's mentality for several decades and in fact, have contributed my share, if not more than my share of criticism over the way this franchise has conducted business for the past 17 years plus.

I don't believe I issued anything suggestive of a guarantee things would work out as you seem to think. What I DID do was simply offer a best-case scenario of the amount of time that may be required for our defense to return to a reasonably competitive stature. Would you have felt better if I had cast a black cloud over any and every chance for this team's recovery? Apparently so.

 

[Alexander]

Wait...so we're not going to have a good defense this year?

Now? Yes. Ask that same question two weeks ago to some people and you would have got a totally different response.

 

[Idgit]

This was not planned. The idea was not to rebuild in Garrett's fourth year. This is simply a FO reacting to a bad cap situation of their own making.

And if it is a planned rebuild, then those doing the rebuilding seriously thought they had a contender on thier hands the last three seasons. Doesn't instill a whole lot of faith going forward.

It wasn't planned well. They expected to have Ratliff and Spencer leave, and I don't think they were worried about Hatcher walking. The killer was Ware's play deteriorating as injuries caught up. Now, instead of being down one DL in a deep draft, we're down four. Ouch.

 

[Idgit]

Now? Yes. Ask that same question two weeks ago to some people and you would have got a totally different response.

Not on any board I was reading.

 

[Alexander]

Not on any board I was reading.

You must have a lot of people on ignore or something. "Nowhere but up" and "Marinelli will be better than Kiffin" have been theme around for a while.

Now, oh well, we are rebuilding.

 

[Bullflop]

2 years? It was 2 years, 5 years ago.

Two would be the best case scenario for a reasonable degree of defensive recovery with decently acceptable acquisitions. If you'd prefer to think it'll never happen, then knock yourself out and believe it. Who knows, you just might be right. Happy now?

 

[xwalker]

This was not planned. The idea was not to rebuild in Garrett's fourth year. This is simply a FO reacting to a bad cap situation of their own making.

And if it is a planned rebuild, then those doing the rebuilding seriously thought they had a contender on thier hands the last three seasons. Doesn't instill a whole lot of faith going forward.

If Ware was healthy last year and had 12+ sacks, he would still be here without a pay cut.

If Ratliff didn't flake out, he would still be here without a pay cut.

They're were not forced to cut Ware due to the cap. It's just the best decision for a team that didn't make the playoffs the previous year.

 

[Galian Beast]

It wasn't planned well. They expected to have Ratliff and Spencer leave, and I don't think they were worried about Hatcher walking. The killer was Ware's play deteriorating as injuries caught up. Now, instead of being down one DL in a deep draft, we're down four. Ouch.

They tried to sign Spencer long term, they just recently resigned Ratliff. Hatcher's performance was more a pleasant surprise than anything else.

When they had to franchise spencer a 2nd time they probably thought, this year they would replace him in the draft. Then you would still have Ware and Ratliff at least. They weren't planning on retooling the entire line in a year, but their plan was to retool it, absolutely.

 

[daveferr33]

They're were not forced to cut Ware due to the cap. It's just the best decision for a team that didn't make the playoffs the previous year.

They created a situation (due to past restructures) where Ware was too expensive for his production, especially in light of their dire cap situation. They looked at 2015 and realized they already have 40 million in dead money for Romo and Carr [if for some reason those players don't work out] and thought it prudent to get Ware off the books this year.

I don't doubt that declining production played a role, but the cap also played a major role as well.

Let me put it this way. If Ware had not been restructured all those times, and had a healthy cap number (e.g., 7.5 million) I think he is still on the Roster despite being injured last season. The FO would have just hoped he would be better (like the hope they placed on Ratliff last year).

 

[xwalker]

They created a situation (due to past restructures) where Ware was too expensive for his production, especially in light of their dire cap situation. They looked at 2015 and realized they already have 40 million in dead money for Romo and Carr [if for some reason those players don't work out] and thought it prudent to get Ware off the books this year.

I don't doubt that declining production played a role, but the cap also played a major role as well.

Let me put it this way. If Ware had not been restructured all those times, and had a healthy cap number (e.g., 7.5 million) I think he is still on the Roster despite being injured last season. The FO would have just hoped he would be better (like the hope they placed on Ratliff last year).

Ware's previous base salaries were 6M or less. His 2014 base jumped to 12.25M. The 2014 and later salaries were placeholders to stretch out the length of the contract. Many teams structure contracts like this and rarely pay the full base in those later years unless they are very close to contending for a Super Bowl.

The Cowboys could have restructured Ware, Carr and a few other contracts and would have been 21M under the cap. They could have gained another 5.5M on June 1st by cutting Austin. That is a total of 26.5M that they could have had free and kept Ware on the roster. They were not forced to cut Ware due to the current cap situation. They made a wise move to not pay huge money to an aging player in a year where they have a low probability of being Super Bowl contenders.

A team in the Cowboys current situation, regardless of the cap, would be wise to plan to be good in 2015, not 2014. Why waste 12.25M on 2014 when it's realistically going to be a retooling year? The probability that Ware was going to be completely healthy and worth the money in 2015 was very low.