News: Silver Lining in the Off-Season From Hell for Cowboys

[CCBoy]

Silver Lining in the Off-Season From Hell for Cowboys
http://cowboyszone.com/2017/07/silver-lining-off-season-hell-cowboys.html



There are no words left to say at this point, the Dallas Cowboys have had an embarrassing few weeks leading up to the rookies reporting for the start of training camp. The list of crap that’s happened in the last 15 days alone doesn’t need to be repeated and the level of stupidity is mind boggling.

However, you know who hasn’t done anything wrong? The quarterback, and he’s been more in the limelight than any other player this off-season. Somehow, he has avoided any of the negative news that others haven’t escaped.

That seems extremely noteworthy. In the NFL, games are won or lost because of quarterback play and teams need a quarterback capable of making the right decision in those crucial moments. When the heat is on, you need your quarterback to remain calm and control the moment, not let it get too big for him. Instead of losing his cool, you need someone with good judgement to help you win games.

If we’ve learned anything in this past year, Dak Prescott is that man. He has stayed as far away from trouble as much as Zeke has gotten into it, and when the Cowboys need a leader, its Prescott the team will be following. Not any of the knuckleheads who seems to be in the news every other day for losing their tempers...

 

[Pants]

well, I can "sign" on for this, let's just check for ink first, shall we?

 

[bsbellomy]

The sliver lining is that's its over and we can now talk about football again.

 

[Idgit]

Someone's going to have to remind me what the 'offseason from hell' entailed again. It seems like it's been pretty much par for the course for an NFL offseason around here apart from the SAM LB being an idiot.

 

[jazzcat22]

Someone's going to have to remind me what the 'offseason from hell' entailed again. It seems like it's been pretty much par for the course for an NFL offseason around here apart from the SAM LB being an idiot.

A player can fart and people will want him cut or suspended. That will mean it's an off season in hell.

When in reality it's a hell of an off season.

 

[shabazz]

Belongs in the Drama Zone

 

[Hawkeye19]

The silver lining is that as soon as TC opens all these "news" stories about the Cowboys immediately go away and the "offseason from hell" will be exactly what it should have been all along... a footnote.

 

[NorthwestDallas40]

Someone's going to have to remind me what the 'offseason from hell' entailed again. It seems like it's been pretty much par for the course for an NFL offseason around here apart from the SAM LB being an idiot.

How quickly we forget:

Randy Gregory suspended for the year
Jerry botching Romo trade negotiations, getting nothing for a franchise QB
Doug Free unexpectedly (?) retiring
Losing Ron Leary in free agency...
Signing only Jonathan Cooper and Byron Bell to replace (and moving Lae'l at RT)
David Irving 4-game suspension for PEDs
Zeke exposing a woman's breasts St. Patrick's day float, caught on video
Losing 3/4 of our starting secondary, and signing only Nolan Carroll in free agency...
Nolan Carroll promptly getting a DUI - likely 2 game suspension
Damien Wilson pulling a gun - likely 4+ game suspension
Zeke 100mph speeding ticket
Zeke breaking a DJ's nose in the club (you may disagree that he did it, but I bet Goodell's thinks he did, and wont stop until he "proves" it)
Zeke likely 1-2 game suspension for "pattern" of misconduct; bar fight investigation pending

 

[Idgit]

How quickly we forget:

Randy Gregory suspended for the year
Jerry botching Romo trade negotiations, getting nothing for a franchise QB
Doug Free unexpectedly (?) retiring
Losing Ron Leary in free agency...
Signing only Jonathan Cooper and Byron Bell to replace (and moving Lae'l at RT)
David Irving 4-game suspension for PEDs
Zeke exposing a woman's breasts St. Patrick's day float, caught on video
Losing 3/4 of our starting secondary, and signing only Nolan Carroll in free agency...
Nolan Carroll promptly getting a DUI - likely 2 game suspension
Damien Wilson pulling a gun - likely 4+ game suspension
Zeke 100mph speeding ticket
Zeke breaking a DJ's nose in the club (you may disagree that he did it, but I bet Goodell's thinks he did, and wont stop until he "proves" it)
Zeke likely 1-2 game suspension for "pattern" of misconduct; bar fight investigation pending

I didn't say 'things' didn't happen in the offseason. But players retiring or leaving in FA are hardly what I'd consider events 'from hell.' I definitely don't consider signing players to be 'from hell.' Jerry didn't botch the Romo trade negotiations at all.

Speeding tickets, DUIs, I mean, really. Zeke wasn't suspended for either a bar fight or a pattern of misconduct. There's also zero evidence he broke somebody's nose.

The suspensions suck, but Gregory's happened last yer, and Irving's isn't any different from what we've gone through the last couple of seasons.

Really, as I said, it's the Damien Wilson stupidity and, while that sucks, it hardly constitutes an 'offseason from hell.'

Not to mention, a lot of good things happened, too, including the draft, FA signings, and Jaylon Smith's progress towards recovery.

This is pretty much the same stuff we go through every offseason these days. Players leave, we replace them from the draft, we have a couple suspensions, and otherwise it's business as usual.

 

[NorthwestDallas40]

I didn't say 'things' didn't happen in the offseason. But players retiring or leaving in FA are hardly what I'd consider events 'from hell.' I definitely don't consider signing players to be 'from hell.' Jerry didn't botch the Romo trade negotiations at all.

Speeding tickets, DUIs, I mean, really. Zeke wasn't suspended for either a bar fight or a pattern of misconduct. There's also zero evidence he broke somebody's nose.

The suspensions suck, but Gregory's happened last yer, and Irving's isn't any different from what we've gone through the last couple of seasons.

Really, as I said, it's the Damien Wilson stupidity and, while that sucks, it hardly constitutes an 'offseason from hell.'

Not to mention, a lot of good things happened, too, including the draft, FA signings, and Jaylon Smith's progress towards recovery.

This is pretty much the same stuff we go through every offseason these days. Players leave, we replace them from the draft, we have a couple suspensions, and otherwise it's business as usual.

No offense, but it is sad that so many Cowboys' fans accept this conduct and suspensions as "business as usual." It does not have to be.

 

[Idgit]

No offense, but it is sad that so many Cowboys' fans accept this conduct and suspensions as "business as usual." It does not have to be.

None taken. I have no issues whatsoever with any conduct that doesn't lead to a suspension. They're single guys, and it's none of my business. It may make me like the player less, or dislike him outright, but it has zero affect on how I view the team.

Suspensions, I view pretty much the same way I view injuries. Guys are going to miss a game, or four games. It's part of the league. Now, it sucks, and the players involved are knuckleheads. And they're a bit worse than injuries in that suspensions escalate, but the impact on the team is basically the same. We've lost Gregory again for the year, and Irving is out for a quarter of the season. Like I said, that sucks. It hardly makes an offseason from hell, though. We have other candidates for both their roles. Plug them in, and we'll see what happens.

What I don't get is why people overreact to this stuff every offseason. Could Taco or Tapper give us what Irving gave us? Maybe. Just concentrate on getting the team better overall. The guys who can't follow the rules don't get big contracts. The ones that do need to be coached and nee to get better. Keep collecting good players in the draft and stop worrying about a 30 year old vet who gets a ticket on the way home from his birthday party. In the scheme of things, it's not going to matter.

 

[NorthwestDallas40]

None taken. I have no issues whatsoever with any conduct that doesn't lead to a suspension. They're single guys, and it's none of my business. It may make me like the player less, or dislike him outright, but it has zero affect on how I view the team.

Suspensions, I view pretty much the same way I view injuries. Guys are going to miss a game, or four games. It's part of the league. Now, it sucks, and the players involved are knuckleheads. And they're a bit worse than injuries in that suspensions escalate, but the impact on the team is basically the same. We've lost Gregory again for the year, and Irving is out for a quarter of the season. Like I said, that sucks. It hardly makes an offseason from hell, though. We have other candidates for both their roles. Plug them in, and we'll see what happens.

What I don't get is why people overreact to this stuff every offseason. Could Taco or Tapper give us what Irving gave us? Maybe. Just concentrate on getting the team better overall. The guys who can't follow the rules don't get big contracts. The ones that do need to be coached and nee to get better. Keep collecting good players in the draft and stop worrying about a 30 year old vet who gets a ticket on the way home from his birthday party. In the scheme of things, it's not going to matter.

Fair points. But when it's your best player consistently misbehaving, likely being suspended for at least a key division game, and perhaps more, and possibly another suspension on top of that (if Goodell finds an "eyewitness" to the punch), it is worse than you say. And I think Irving is a huge loss, too. To me, he is our most disruptive DL not named Maleik Collins. I just don't see other teams' best players getting suspended. I think it catches up to us this year.

 

[Idgit]

Fair points. But when it's your best player consistently misbehaving, likely being suspended for at least a key division game, and perhaps more, and possibly another suspension on top of that (if Goodell finds an "eyewitness" to the punch), it is worse than you say. And I think Irving is a huge loss, too. To me, he is our most disruptive DL not named Maleik Collins. I just don't see other teams' best players getting suspended. I think it catches up to us this year.

If Elliott gets suspended for a meaningful number of games, on top of Wilson and Gregory, we're starting to have significant issues, I'd agree. Gregory's just a person with a dependency issue, though. He really just needs to retire from football.

I wish Irving were consistent enough for me to be more worried about his 4 games. He's definitely able to take over a game if your has the word 'Bay' in it's name. But he's far from a consistent threat, and he's had his issues against the run. Honestly, they're different players, but I'm about as interested in seeing what we've got in Tapper as I am in watching Irving continue to develop.

And with the way we play our DEs in rotation, we'll just end up backloading Irving's snaps but having the same rough splits we probably would have had anyway by the end of the season. Irving only played in ~45% of the teams defensive snaps last year, anyway. If he uses the time and gets himself in shape, he won't have trouble matching or beating last year's 485 snaps.

 

[Doomsday101]

How quickly we forget:

Randy Gregory suspended for the year
Jerry botching Romo trade negotiations, getting nothing for a franchise QB
Doug Free unexpectedly (?) retiring
Losing Ron Leary in free agency...
Signing only Jonathan Cooper and Byron Bell to replace (and moving Lae'l at RT)
David Irving 4-game suspension for PEDs
Zeke exposing a woman's breasts St. Patrick's day float, caught on video
Losing 3/4 of our starting secondary, and signing only Nolan Carroll in free agency...
Nolan Carroll promptly getting a DUI - likely 2 game suspension
Damien Wilson pulling a gun - likely 4+ game suspension
Zeke 100mph speeding ticket
Zeke breaking a DJ's nose in the club (you may disagree that he did it, but I bet Goodell's thinks he did, and wont stop until he "proves" it)
Zeke likely 1-2 game suspension for "pattern" of misconduct; bar fight investigation pending

I would actually agree about Gregory if not for the fact he was doing nothing when he was playing. Since then he counts nothing against the cap or cost us a roster spot.
There was no botching of anything with Romo, to make a deal others have to be willing to make a trade you can't force a team to trade. Since Romo was released has anyone signed him? NO
meantime his release frees up more money as a June 1st cut than it would have via trade.
Leary hated to lose him but that is part of FA
Free? what is the problem, people will not have a scape goat to complain about and frankly Collins at the RT was going to happen sooner or later.

Zeke being accused is something outside his control, the so called fight there is no one coming forward not even a victim and others at the club (named sources) have said Zeke was not involved in the fight. Granted I don't care for the negative press.
Losing FA in the secondary? was Dallas to resign them? Mo can't stay on the field is that worth an increase? Carr has 1 int in 3 season?