Ryan Shazier: 5 Toughest Guys I've Ever Faced (Cowboys related)

Section446

Section446

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jday said:
Aaron Donald was my pet cat that year. I also happened to be at Cowboys Stadium for that draft and I remember going down the line of guys I wanted with the guy sitting behind me with his kids. I know I wanted Aaron Donald, Ryan Shazier and one other defensive player I can't recall at this moment. But I also liked Zack and remember telling the guy once all those guys were off the board that it would likely be Zack. I was pretty plugged into that draft.
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I was there too, still remember the reaction when it wasn't Johnny.
 
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Section444 said:
Hey, I hope you're right. Personally, I've never thought highly of Green, going back to college... Bell is just a journeyman type, and I think he's better off at OT... Cooper is what he is, a guy with a ton of talent, but has been a monumental bust to this point in his short career. If nothing else, we had a proven commodity at LG last year, and that makes me sleep better at night than a couple guys out of position and a bust. BUT! I hope you're right and I'm dead wrong.
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Dude...training camps a few days away. You need to tone down that realist talk!!! We don't take kindly to that kinda thing around here!:muttley:
 
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Section444 said:
At the time, I wanted anyone but Romo, so I wasn't all that happy... glad to be wrong. As soon as he went to the Browns, I knew his career was over.
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It's funny you should mention it, because as I was responding to your last post about being thrilled we didn't pick him, the thought did cross my mind, "What if, though?"

Would Johnny's career be any different had he being drafted by the Cowboys versus the Browns? For starters, he wouldn't have been the starter for at least 2 years. He would sit on the bench. Learn the system. And be forced to earn playing time. I don't think that was ever the situation with the Browns. It looks like the position was handed to him by default and he never appreciated it. Here, at the very least, he would have been forced to appreciate every snap he got behind Romo.

So who knows what would have happened...I'm just glad it worked out the way it did. I can't imagine Dak in another uniform and I never want to. In my book, he's already a Cowboy for life.
 
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Silver Surfer said:
Can you imagine not having a guy like Martin? Its hard to project, but I don't know if Zeke or Dak (or Free for that matter) are nearly as effective without him.
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That's a really good point, Surfer. The holy trinity of that line: Smith/Martin/Frederick. Without them, 2014 and 2016 go alot differently.
 
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Silver Surfer said:
Can you imagine not having a guy like Martin? Its hard to project, but I don't know if Zeke or Dak (or Free for that matter) are nearly as effective without him.
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I'm all about Martin, but if you told me right now that I could trade Martin for Donald, I'd do it yesterday.
 
visionary

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jday said:
It's funny you should mention it, because as I was responding to your last post about being thrilled we didn't pick him, the thought did cross my mind, "What if, though?"

Would Johnny's career be any different had he being drafted by the Cowboys versus the Browns? For starters, he wouldn't have been the starter for at least 2 years. He would sit on the bench. Learn the system. And be forced to earn playing time. I don't think that was ever the situation with the Browns. It looks like the position was handed to him by default and he never appreciated it. Here, at the very least, he would have been forced to appreciate every snap he got behind Romo.

So who knows what would have happened...I'm just glad it worked out the way it did. I can't imagine Dak in another uniform and I never want to. In my book, he's already a Cowboy for life.
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Only ones that wanted Johnny are ones that don't know the first thing about football or human nature

That guy was a dumpster fire looking for more oxygen
 
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jday said:
It's funny you should mention it, because as I was responding to your last post about being thrilled we didn't pick him, the thought did cross my mind, "What if, though?"

Would Johnny's career be any different had he being drafted by the Cowboys versus the Browns? For starters, he wouldn't have been the starter for at least 2 years. He would sit on the bench. Learn the system. And be forced to earn playing time. I don't think that was ever the situation with the Browns. It looks like the position was handed to him by default and he never appreciated it. Here, at the very least, he would have been forced to appreciate every snap he got behind Romo.

So who knows what would have happened...I'm just glad it worked out the way it did. I can't imagine Dak in another uniform and I never want to. In my book, he's already a Cowboy for life.
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There are a couple places where QB's go to die; Buffalo and Cleveland. Had he been drafted by anyone other than those two, I think his career would have looked differently.
 
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Section444 said:
I'm all about Martin, but if you told me right now that I could trade Martin for Donald, I'd do it yesterday.
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Would you trade Donald for Martin and a confident, successful Dak?

Is Donald a game changer - definitely, but if you can keep your rookie QB upright when he's thrust in to a very precarious situation and give him the chance to develop some confidence, that's HUGE.
 
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Section444 said:
There are a couple places where QB's go to die; Buffalo and Cleveland. Had he been drafted by anyone other than those two, I think his career would have looked differently.
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I'll agree that it might have looked different, but I'm not sure if it would have ever been much better and here's why:

Rich dad. That's it. Manziel had a trampoline to land on if things didn't work out. And when a player has a fallback plan like that, they have a tendency to not work as hard or want it as much as the guy who has nothing else but football to live for. It's football or "Welcome to McDonalds how can I serve you?" for alot of players out there, so they give the game their all. From the start, you could tell things had just been handed to Manziel throughout his life and he was a cautionary tale waiting to happen because of it.

Of course, you might be right. He may have been just fine had he gone to a team that's not notorious for destroying players careers. But I doubt it. There's no substitution for want to because you have to. That simply wasn't the case for Johnny.
 
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Silver Surfer said:
Would you trade Donald for Martin and a confident, successful Dak?

Is Donald a game changer - definitely, but if you can keep your rookie QB upright when he's thrust in to a very precarious situation and give him the chance to develop some confidence, that's HUGE.
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Clearly it worked out for the better in the long run. Hindsight is 20/20 after all. But if I had it all to do over again without the benefit of knowing what was going to happen, I'd have taken Donald if he was still there and not even think twice about it.
 
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Silver Surfer said:
Would you trade Donald for Martin and a confident, successful Dak?

Is Donald a game changer - definitely, but if you can keep your rookie QB upright when he's thrust in to a very precarious situation and give him the chance to develop some confidence, that's HUGE.
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An elite DT is a lot harder to come by than an OG. Donald is on his way to being one of the greatest to play his position.
 
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