Should we re-sign Leary?

[conner01]

I doubt the Cowboys will be able to be competitive with what he could get on the open market.

If this line continues to play like it is now through the end of the year, then he will be looking at a massive payday on the open market.

Dallas will be squeezed out financially and they have a cheap fallback with Collins. You can't pay all five OL top money. You have to have a few of them cheap/reasonable.

I suspect everyone would love to keep Leary but he is a very good player and will get paid. We have holes on the D and our own guys to pay so I don't see him coming back.

 

[Sasquatch]

Controversial question, I know. We have a beast in La'el, but La'el is still raw and Leary is clearly the better of the two right now (just watch @Idgit's Green Bay clip posted in this Zone).

Leary has been a pro bowl level guard in his time here, but because of the splash signing of Collins, and the fact that he plays with Smith, Martin, and TFred, he is often overlooked and brushed aside.

He hits the second level like a boss on run plays and punks DT's in pass-pro.

Due to his knee would it be viable to sign him to a decent contract (around 6-8aav) and keep Collins and push him (Collins) out to RT? Free hasn't been bad, but as @xwalker has said many times, the Oline and coaching staff often have to send coverage over to his side, especially in pass-pro.

This guy isn't a Parnell type, he is actually an incredibly effective guard, every game he plays. Look at how Zeke has performed with this beast back in.

What say you guys? Is it too much cap allocated to one unit, to keep all five? Am I dreaming at the thought of Leary taking a 6-8aav (@bkight13) deal with teams like IND and TEN out there that need Oline?

What do you think, Zoners?

First, I just want to say that I admire your courage for broaching such a controversial subject and bringing it into the open.

To answer your question, yes, if possible.

 

[gimmesix]

Problem is, you've got to pay Martin huge money soon.

You can't invest too much in guards.

But yes, I'd like to because I think he's far superior to Collins.

We're setting them up like dominoes so that one contract can be used to write the next one through restructures.

If we do Leary's this offseason, we'll do Martin's the next year. The only fly in that ointment is Collins, but right now, he hasn't done enough to warrant a big contract. If he does, it will be difficult to re-sign both him and Martin the same year.

We could choose to extend Martin before his contract runs out, though, which would mean we'd have to sign both him and Leary next year, and like you, I'm not sure we

So:

2017 Leary
2018 Martin

We should be ready for a mass exodus of players after this year, just like after 2014.

How many of these guys do you see being resigned all in one offseason?

Leary
Williams
T. McClain
Butler
Claiborne
Carr
Church
Wilcox
Durant
McFadden
J. Crawford
Dunbar
Escobar
Davis
Gachkar, Moore, Sanchez, etc.

Free is likely a cap casualty. No telling what's going to happen with Romo or even Witten, either.

I bolded the four I would re-sign. For the right (low) price, I'd also consider Williams and Jack Crawford.

I think Jaylon Smith replaces Durant. McFadden and Dunbar are out because of Morris and Jackson. Scandrick returns to form to replace Carr. Hanna replaces Escobar.

Moore will probably return as the third quarterback. Sanchez would only return if something happens with Romo.

 

[LittleD]

Why isn't he playing at a pro bowl level this year? What have you seen, D?

He misses some blocks and without support from Fredbeard would have some continued trouble keeping his man off
Dak. If you look at the film for the Packer game, I would judge him the worst performer in the OL for that game. Now
I'm not saying he's bad or that he's not better than last year cause he is. I'm so glad we kept him and I think he's
much better than Collins right now. I'm not sure he's going to make "All Pro" at guard though.

 

[JoeyBoy718]

I think we're overblowing how much better Leary is than Collins. I also said last year we were overblowing how much better Collins was than Leary (which many people seemed to believe). Collins is cheaper, younger, has far more upside, is almost as good, and doesn't have a degenerative knee. We have a rookie QB and RB, and three elite linemen who are only 25 years old. We have to start thinking about the future. That means moving forward with 23 year old La'el Collins and 24 year old Chaz Green, and taking advantage of the two of them still being on rookie contracts. We have to resign Mo Claiborne, Zack Martin and Terrell McClain, and we'll eventually have to resign guys like Byron Jones and Demarcus Lawrence. We need to start getting ready for this.

 

[Alexander]

It is too much cap room to devote to the OL.......we have Collins for LG and Green for RT....then we have to extend Martin in 2018

Let him test FA and get the comp pick......he still has time bomb knees

Reasonably you can only POTA for three top OL and afford to spread money across the rest of the roster. One is Smith, Frederick is two and Martin is next. Everyone else needs to be on the cheap or at least not top of the tier.

 

[Trouty]

He misses some blocks and without support from Fredbeard would have some continued trouble keeping his man off
Dak. If you look at the film for the Packer game, I would judge him the worst performer in the OL for that game. Now
I'm not saying he's bad or that he's not better than last year cause he is. I'm so glad we kept him and I think he's
much better than Collins right now. I'm not sure he's going to make "All Pro" at guard though.

He destroyed his assignment in the Pack game, please guide me to footage of him needing double team from the Bearded One.

Also, no one here is calling him an all pro, broham.

Other than that, I agree with the rest of your post, respectfully

 

[Bullflop]

We should be ready for a mass exodus of players after this year, just like after 2014.

How many of these guys do you see being resigned all in one offseason?

Leary
Williams
T. McClain
Butler
Claiborne
Carr
Church
Wilcox
Durant
McFadden
J. Crawford
Dunbar
Escobar
Davis
Gachkar, Moore, Sanchez, etc.

Free is likely a cap casualty. No telling what's going to happen with Romo or even Witten, either.

I could see perhaps seven of those 20 being re-signed next year and possibly no more. It would include Free, Romo and Witten.

 

[conner01]

I think we're overblowing how much better Leary is than Collins. I also said last year we were overblowing how much better Collins was than Leary (which many people seemed to believe). Collins is cheaper, younger, has far more upside, is almost as good, and doesn't have a degenerative knee. We have a rookie QB and RB, and three elite linemen who are only 25 years old. We have to start thinking about the future. That means moving forward with 23 year old La'el Collins and 24 year old Chaz Green, and taking advantage of the two of them still being on rookie contracts. We have to resign Mo Claiborne, Zack Martin and Terrell McClain, and we'll eventually have to resign guys like Byron Jones and Demarcus Lawrence. We need to start getting ready for this.

Every player you sign impacts the next guy you have to sign. I would love to have the best player we can get but sometimes you have to balance the talent and money and the best guy is not always the one you can keep
That's just the nature of the cap era. Very tough decisions have to be made and the long term impact has to be factored in

 

[JoeyBoy718]

Every player you sign impacts the next guy you have to sign. I would love to have the best player we can get but sometimes you have to balance the talent and money and the best guy is not always the one you can keep
That's just the nature of the cap era. Very tough decisions have to be made and the long term impact has to be factored in

Yep. That's why you have to take things into consideration. You need to resign Zack Martin. That's not debatable. So that gives you 3 OLmen who are the highest paid at their position. Leary will also be highly paid, and he's 4 years older than Collins, and has a degenerative knee issue. You have to consider these things. You take advantage of having guys at position X still on rookie contracts so you can pay a guy at position Y. Going with Collins/Green over Leary/Free lets you address other areas of need with hopefully little to no drop off in production.

 

[jrumann59]

Leary can have a awesome career if he never has a bad injury to that knee, which he has not. But if he does have a bad injury that can trigger the degenerative part of his disorder all bets are off. So the question is do you bet that signing the guy to a 5 year deal he will never have bad injury to that knee?

 

[Nightman]

Leary can have a awesome career if he never has a bad injury to that knee, which he has not. But if he does have a bad injury that can trigger the degenerative part of his disorder all bets are off. So the question is do you bet that signing the guy to a 5 year deal he will never have bad injury to that knee?

Leary will make more next year than he has his entire career and it won't be here

He can come back in 3 years when Collins wants big bucks

 

[Silver Surfer]

Haven't we learned the value of continuity?

Jones forces out Johnson, the Cowboys struggle.
They let Murray go, the Cowboys struggle.
Callahan leaves, the Cowboys struggle.

When you have a good thing going..... ya keep it going until its no longer good.

Sign Leary.

 

[CF74]

Short answer yes but Collins is better when healthy. Still disappointed Collins isn't playing RT though..

 

[dallasdave]

Controversial question, I know. We have a beast in La'el, but La'el is still raw and Leary is clearly the better of the two right now (just watch @Idgit's Green Bay clip posted in this Zone).

Leary has been a pro bowl level guard in his time here, but because of the splash signing of Collins, and the fact that he plays with Smith, Martin, and TFred, he is often overlooked and brushed aside.

He hits the second level like a boss on run plays and punks DT's in pass-pro.

Due to his knee would it be viable to sign him to a decent contract (around 6-8aav) and keep Collins and push him (Collins) out to RT? Free hasn't been bad, but as @xwalker has said many times, the Oline and coaching staff often have to send coverage over to his side, especially in pass-pro.

This guy isn't a Parnell type, he is actually an incredibly effective guard, every game he plays. Look at how Zeke has performed with this beast back in.

What say you guys? Is it too much cap allocated to one unit, to keep all five? Am I dreaming at the thought of Leary taking a 6-8aav (@bkight13) deal with teams like IND and TEN out there that need Oline?

What do you think, Zoners?

I think you need a TV show called the TROUT REPORT !!! Then you can have me, Haley, Locimus Prime and some others as co-hosts and we can drink beer and talk Cowboys.

 

[Cowboy06]

Yes.

 

[DallasDomination]

Should we resign Leary?

Yes!

 

[mattjames2010]

Wouldn't make any sense for Leary unless he has some odd love for this team. We can't offer him the contract he wants, he's playing at his usual good level (not great) and a team will overpay for him.

Have some of you actually watched some O-lines in this league? I would say about half of this league is in need of a really good guard. There are teams out there with their franchise QBs getting killed weekly that will need to patch up their offensive lines.

He's gone, will get a nice contract, and good for him. Wish him all the best.

 

[mattjames2010]

Short answer yes but Collins is better when healthy. Still disappointed Collins isn't playing RT though..

....because he has no upside at RT.

 

[mattjames2010]

Haven't we learned the value of continuity?

Jones forces out Johnson, the Cowboys struggle.
They let Murray go, the Cowboys struggle.
Callahan leaves, the Cowboys struggle.

When you have a good thing going..... ya keep it going until its no longer good.

Sign Leary.

You think pushing out a backup guard is going to have our team collapse? Come on.