Some perspective on Free

[waldoputty]

I expect they don't think there's a FA RT out there who's an upgrade and a salary-cap neutral move. You may disagree, but I don't think that's how the team sees it. I look at Free as a position we're capable of upgrading, and we should look to do it basically the same way we flirted with bringing in a vet CB last season. Ie, not a priority, but great if they think they can make it happen or if looking at a few vets helps them solidify things. If nothing else, we can always upgrade Emmett Cleary's roster spot if the right guy is there.

I'm in favor of doing the beancounter thing. It's worked to build the competitive roster we've got now. Zeke's a rookie playing on a contender, so there's no wasting of his prime going on. Tough to make good cap moves overspending at premium positions in free agency. Much better to become adept at finding, developing, and signing your own guys who you know can play. I won't mind a strategic splurge or two once Romo's cap hit is absorbed and before we have to do a big deal for Prescott, but that's pretty much a one-off kind of deal there.

If you want to do the bean counter thing, at least do it accurately.

To have this discussion without diving into the specifics does not make sense.
If you dive into the specifics, you will see that Dak's cap impact does not really start until 2020.
Furthermore, the year 1 of Dak's multi-year contract does not even have a large impact until 2021 or 2022 because year 1 of a multi-year contract is small.

I already shown that 3 FAs can be had and the cap would work out.
What we are doing now is throwing away Dez's remaining prime and wasting the best years of Zeke's prime.

 

[waldoputty]

Their are 3 OT's with 1st round grades. only 2 if u believe what some of the NFL scouts are saying about Cam Robinson not being able to play OT in the NFL. OT is treated like DE. They will always be reached on due to need. Their are multiple teams ahead of us that need a OT. We actually have a much better chance of getting a DE then we do a OT this year.

You dont seem to get it.
Get a free agent RT.
If all the war daddies are franchised, then fix the offense and dedicate the draft to the D.
Even if the value table says a trade is negative, trade up as much as you can to get the DE and CB worth drafting.
Not another rotation player.

 

[gimmesix]

Because Free is terrible....he sticks out like a sore thumb every Sunday.......he has been the Freeloader since he signed the 32m deal and all his fans keep looking the other way

IF CGreen and Cleary are terrible they will at least save us 5m......Free is as bad as it gets...he always gets help, always gets beat and has terrible penalties misses...... I have seen both guys play and they were as good as if not better than Free

I usually like your posts, but this is all exaggeration. Free is not terrible. He's terrible at times, and it's relatively only a few times per year, which is why he's starting. He is not as bad as it gets. He's bad sometimes, but he's good far more often than he's bad, which is why he's starting. He doesn't always get help, and in fact, he is often left on an island by himself.

I don't know how Green or Cleary could do as a full-time starter. Frankly, I don't want to find out if we're in a position of no choice but to hand one of them the job. I'd rather they prove that they are better than Free and beat him out for the job.

 

[RandyOh]

You dont seem to get it.
Get a free agent RT.
If all the war daddies are franchised, then fix the offense and dedicate the draft to the D.
Even if the value table says a trade is negative, trade up as much as you can to get the DE and CB worth drafting.
Not another rotation player.

And you don't get it that we are not looking to spend big money in free agency no matter if the money can be freed up. The best OT in free agency is a 35 year old Andrew Whitworth. After that their a few ok OT options who will be overpaid then after that they are no better then what we already have on the roster in Chaz Green or Emmit Cleary. Trust me i know that free agent list very well at this point. I have put alot of time studying it to put together offseason mocks down in the draft zone.

 

[waldoputty]

And you don't get it that we are not looking to spend big money in free agency no matter if the money can be freed up. The best OT in free agency is a 35 year old Andrew Whitworth. After that their a few ok OT options who will be overpaid then after that they are no better then what we already have on the roster in Chaz Green or Emmit Cleary. Trust me i know that free agent list very well at this point. I have put alot of time studying it to put together offseason mocks down in the draft zone.

3rd worst OT in terms of sacks and pressures.
37.5% of the dak turnovers in 2016.
it is hard to do worst.

what you are saying is the FO refuses to spend any more.
they keep doing that, they will have so much cap in 2019 that they will not know what to do with it.
they may have to front contracts like:
---------yr 1-----yr 2------yr 3-----yr 4----yr5
base---$10M--$8M----$6M----$4M----$2M
bonus---$5M---$5M---$5M-----$5M----$5M

 

[gimmesix]

Being the weak link (by far) on a good offense isn't a good argument that he is "good enough". Dude is flat out awful. If you want to say we can't afford an upgrade, fine. If you want to say no one else currently on the roster would be an upgrade fine. But trying to argue he isn't flat out awful is sheer lunacy

Again, a clear exaggeration that the facts do not support.

He's far from being irreplaceable, but he's a starting-caliber offensive lineman. Get me a better starting-caliber offensive lineman and I'm OK with that. I can't see Dallas doing it, though. If Free does retire, we're liable to be stuck with Green or Cleary as his replacement, and that would concern me since neither has proven anything. Unproven players sometimes prove themselves, sometimes they turn out like Alan Ball when he was just handed the starting safety spot.

 

[Kaiser]

I usually like your posts, but this is all exaggeration. Free is not terrible. He's terrible at times, and it's relatively only a few times per year, which is why he's starting. He is not as bad as it gets. He's bad sometimes, but he's good far more often than he's bad, which is why he's starting. He doesn't always get help, and in fact, he is often left on an island by himself.

I don't know how Green or Cleary could do as a full-time starter. Frankly, I don't want to find out if we're in a position of no choice but to hand one of them the job. I'd rather they prove that they are better than Free and beat him out for the job.

I agree on Free, I think he has games where he grades out at (for example) 85 and others at 60, so over the season he is a little below average. But the question is inconsistency and the development of Green and Cleary.

I thought they would have cut him by now, but at this point I could see them bringing him to camp and cutting him then unless they see improvement from Free - or improvement from Green or Cleary.

 

[waldoputty]

I usually like your posts, but this is all exaggeration. Free is not terrible. He's terrible at times, and it's relatively only a few times per year, which is why he's starting. He is not as bad as it gets. He's bad sometimes, but he's good far more often than he's bad, which is why he's starting. He doesn't always get help, and in fact, he is often left on an island by himself.

I don't know how Green or Cleary could do as a full-time starter. Frankly, I don't want to find out if we're in a position of no choice but to hand one of them the job. I'd rather they prove that they are better than Free and beat him out for the job.

Ok, well the QB is only terrible at times - when he throws the INTs...

 

[waldoputty]

I agree on Free, I think he has games where he grades out at (for example) 85 and others at 60, so over the season he is a little below average. But the question is inconsistency and the development of Green and Cleary.

I thought they would have cut him by now, but at this point I could see them bringing him to camp and cutting him then unless they see improvement from Free - or improvement from Green or Cleary.

the reasonable thing to do is to cut Free now and get a FA RT.
green is completely undependable.
cleary looked good in the 1 game, so that is not enough to go by.

 

[waldoputty]

Again, a clear exaggeration that the facts do not support.

He's far from being irreplaceable, but he's a starting-caliber offensive lineman. Get me a better starting-caliber offensive lineman and I'm OK with that. I can't see Dallas doing it, though. If Free does retire, we're liable to be stuck with Green or Cleary as his replacement, and that would concern me since neither has proven anything. Unproven players sometimes prove themselves, sometimes they turn out like Alan Ball when he was just handed the starting safety spot.

Well for those who are for the Patriots way, what would they do.

 

[RandyOh]

3rd worst OT in terms of sacks and pressures.
37.5% of the dak turnovers in 2016.
it is hard to do worst.

what you are saying is the FO refuses to spend any more.
they keep doing that, they will have so much cap in 2019 that they will not know what to do with it.
they may have to front contracts like:
---------yr 1-----yr 2------yr 3-----yr 4----yr5
base---$10M--$8M----$6M----$4M----$2M
bonus---$5M---$5M---$5M-----$5M----$5M

It doesn't matter if they can spend more. They are not going to pay an above average to good player great to elite money just so they can upgrade a position that i can argue is just outside our current top 5 needs. They have said so many times this offseason that they will not overpay. They want to use the draft to find their long term talent and use free agency for depth and stop gap veterans. They are much more interested in getting compensatory picks then filling the roster with expensive free agents. Lets not forget the talent is just really not their in free agency. Its a sad free agent class all around.

 

[gimmesix]

I agree on Free, I think he has games where he grades out at (for example) 85 and others at 60, so over the season he is a little below average. But the question is inconsistency and the development of Green and Cleary.

I thought they would have cut him by now, but at this point I could see them bringing him to camp and cutting him then unless they see improvement from Free - or improvement from Green or Cleary.

If he doesn't retire, I expect him to be back as the starting right tackle. I don't necessarily agree with that if Green or Cleary is clearly better. I don't want to make it seem like I'm against replacing Free. It's just not that easy to find starting-caliber tackles.

 

[waldoputty]

If he doesn't retire, I expect him to be back as the starting right tackle. I don't necessarily agree with that if Green or Cleary is clearly better. I don't want to make it seem like I'm against replacing Free. It's just not that easy to find starting-caliber tackles.

lol, you are talking about replacing the OT with the 3rd worst sacks and pressures.

 

[waldoputty]

It doesn't matter if they can spend more. They are not going to pay an above average to good player great to elite money just so they can upgrade a position that i can argue is just outside our current top 5 needs. They have said so many times this offseason that they will not overpay. They want to use the draft to find their long term talent and use free agency for depth and stop gap veterans. They are much more interested in getting compensatory picks then filling the roster with expensive free agents. Lets not forget the talent is just really not their in free agency. Its a sad free agent class all around.

Go take a look at the cap space in the upcoming years.
Come 2019 and 2020, they keep playing this way and they are going to have to do frontloaded contracts...
Unless you are saying what they are really trying to do is to keep the money.
The Cowboys make plenty of money - $700M of revenues with operating income of $300M.

 

[waldoputty]

If he doesn't retire, I expect him to be back as the starting right tackle. I don't necessarily agree with that if Green or Cleary is clearly better. I don't want to make it seem like I'm against replacing Free. It's just not that easy to find starting-caliber tackles.

With his stats, it is hard to do worse.

 

[Nightman]

lol, you are talking about replacing the OT with the 3rd worst sacks and pressures.

that fact is lost on all the Freeloaders.....'he is the leader of the OL' .....even though he might be the 6th best player on the OL

 

[gimmesix]

Ok, well the QB is only terrible at times - when he throws the INTs...

Fair enough. Drew Brees threw an interception on every 45th pass attempt last season. Cut him.

Phillip Rivers threw one in every 27.5 passes. He's definitely got to go because he's terrible.

Blake Bortles? No way Jacksonville should keep him since he throws an interception per every 39 passes.

 

[gimmesix]

With his stats, it is hard to do worse.

No, it's really not.

 

[Longboysfan]

If one of the few good OTs falls into our lap or Emmit Cleary looks like hes a better option then yes draft the player or give the man the position he earned during training camp and preseason. Some want RT to be one of the main focuses of offseason tho. I just dont understand that.

And I agree. OT should not be the main focus.
There are other positions that need to be addressed.

Maybe after FA ends and there is a June 1st or Training camp cut that fits the bill for what the Cowboys need - then go after it.
At this point you would know what $ value you will have to attach to that position.

And if Free retires the Salary CAP $ we get back.

 

[RandyOh]

Go take a look at the cap space in the upcoming years.
Come 2019 and 2020, they keep playing this way and they are going to have to do frontloaded contracts...
Unless you are saying what they are really trying to do is to keep the money.
The Cowboys make plenty of money - $700M of revenues with operating income of $300M.

I understand everything you are saying. Trust me i will be just as happy as you will be when we find a better RT but your wanting to them to do what they have already came out and said they won't do at least 6 times this offeason one of the Jones or Garrett said they wont be big players in free agency. and does it matter how much they make? the man gives his players the best homefield as well as practice facility hands down in the NFL. some of that money has to go to those places. He treats his players like royalty.