Boyzmamacita
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October 17, 2008
Mike Florio Starting with the moment in which Sean Morey mangled Mat McBriar's foot on the last play of that overtime loss to the Cardinals, the Dallas Cowboys embarked on the worst 48 hours that the franchise ever has experienced.
McBriar? Gone for the year. Tony Romo? Broken pinkie. Felix Jones? Strained hamstring. Sam Hurd? Out for the year. Adam "Pacman" Jones? Suspended for at least a month. Terrell Owens? Still an idiot.
So it's hard not to conclude that owner Jerry Jones set his sights on receiver Roy Williams in part to reverse the flow of bad news, regardless of the cost.
And the cost was significant. In addition to a five-year, $45 million contract with $20 million guaranteed, the Cowboys also gave up a first-round pick, a third-round pick, and a sixth-round pick.
Hey, at least the Lions threw in a seventh-round pick, which apparently was intended to create the perception of level scales.
The Cowboys gave up too much. Williams isn't a superstar. He's good, but he's not worth a one, a three, and a six (minus a seven). If Williams had finished the year in Detroit and the Lions had applied the franchise tag, a first-round pick at most would have been the price.
But Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wants to christen that new stadium not with a bottle of Dom Perignon (or a whole bunch of Mums) but with a Vince Lombardi Trophy. And so Jones is willing to give up a couple of extra picks if it enhances his chances of making it happen.
To the extent Jones thinks that a clear connection exists between adding Williams and winning a championship, Jones might want to think again. The last time we checked, the offense still uses only one ball. And the Cowboys already have T.O. and Jason Witten and Marion Barber and Felix Jones to clamor for it.
While the Colts have managed a similar situation without incident, none of Indy's various highly-skilled skill-position players get testy when they aren't getting enough attention. Guys like Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, and Dallas Clark realize that in some games the ball will come their way and that, in others, it won't.
T.O. has yet to master the ability to take a backseat to other players. Sure, he can say that he's not bothered by Williams' new $9-million annual average (which matches Owens' yearly take), but only because Owens thinks that this boost to the passing game will result in more footballs flying in his direction. When opposing defenses continue to focus on taking T.O. out of the game plan and Williams ends up with eight catches for 130 yards, Owens might be singing (or crying) a far different tune.
Besides, if the Cowboys needed another receiver, why didn't they make a play for Anquan Boldin? Or Chad Johnson? Or T.J. Houshmandzadeh? Each, in my view, is better than Williams.
The reality is they didn't need another receiver. Patrick Crayton has been solid, and Witten has been putting up wideout numbers. With Pacman and Terrence Newman each gone for a month (Pacman possibly even longer), the Cowboys would have been wiser to make a play for cornerback Lito Sheppard. (Though the Cowboys and Eagles are in the same division and thus possibly not inclined to make trades, they've done business in the past, as recently as last year.)
If Jones acquired Williams in an effort to shake things up and focus the team on winning more games than it loses, the better approach would have been to dump that glorified defensive coordinator serving as the team's head coach. Everyone knows Wade Phillips really doesn't have any juice; why not drop the charade and give the whistle to Jason Garrett?
OK, so that probably would have been a bad idea.
But no worse than mortgaging next year's draft and paying $9 million per year to an overhyped receiver who'll only put more pressure on the Dallas offense.
Does this idiot know how many draft picks we have next year?
