Stephen Jones On Free Agency

[Nightman]

That's pretty dumb.. Sign a player who will be on IR by the time camp comes to an end?

thanks Nostradumas

 

[TwoCentPlain]

Sorry Stephen it’s not working. ET would of been a perfect addition to this team. He didn’t break the budget. He wanted to come here and he would of instantly made this team better. Sure we’re not one player away but we could of been one step closer. We’re just walking up the down escalator at this point.

Last I saw of this 'perfect addition' was him giving his coach (and Seattle front office and upper management?) the middle finger as he was carted off the field.

 

[Montanalo]

This was actually a good article. I knew the bust rates were high but I didn't realize only 30-40% of high-end players reach their previous production even in their first year.

This team has made attempts to spend big money on key FA before, case and point the bullet they dodged last year when Watkins signed with the Chiefs instead of the Cowboys. The idea that they never attempt to sign high end FA is wrong, but they are much more cautious than they used to be.

No superbowls but I would say the overall talent level of the team has been consistently higher since we shifted to the more cautious approach.

I agree; it is a pretty good article. Setting aside, for the moment, the visceral response that comments from Jerry or Stephen often elicits, there is really nothing in the article that deviates from the Cowboy's FA approach the past several years. You can debate, ad naseum, the merits of their approach... but it is consistent with their recent behaviors. In fact, I would go so far as to suggest that the article hints that the Cowboys are applying "analytics" or, more appropriately, money ball when it come FA. More power to them.

My other takeaway is that it appears the Cowboys are "hording" player cap money... the easy answer as to "why?" would be to sign players such as Prescott, Zeke, etc.

 

[JayFord]

To do what?

Play spot downs and for depth so lee smith and lve can extend their careers

 

[DallasCowboysRule!]

Did anybody commenting here read the article?

I read it after seeing your post. I thought Steven did a good job of defending his philosophy

 

[vlad]

Funny hearing a guy who has never had to earn a living in his life use that phrase.

Dude..come on what are you talking about? He interviewed at a fast food place once...if that isn't earning your keep I don't know what is.

 

[LittleD]

thanks Nostradumas

Have you ever heard the term "the past is prologue".

 

[Proof]

I'm all for getting FA I am not for breaking the bank as if it is the cure all it isn't. I for one would have loved to get Earl Thomas but not at the price tag Balt was willing to pay, to me that made no sense to get a player who is dealing with injuries over the last 3 years and is over 30. To me that is a foolish move and costly one at that. Seeing what NY spent for Tate? again foolish in my opinion. FA market tend to over price many players who are no more than names of past greatness not players who are currently great.

If they’d given him an offer early on Balt wouldn’t have had a chance to overpay. He was on the verge of signing a one yr deal with kc

 

[Proof]

This was actually a good article. I knew the bust rates were high but I didn't realize only 30-40% of high-end players reach their previous production even in their first year.

This team has made attempts to spend big money on key FA before, case and point the bullet they dodged last year when Watkins signed with the Chiefs instead of the Cowboys. The idea that they never attempt to sign high end FA is wrong, but they are much more cautious than they used to be.

No superbowls but I would say the overall talent level of the team has been consistently higher since we shifted to the more cautious approach.

That’s one singular example and it was only out of sheer desperation due to their own stupidity. Stop it

 

[Sydla]

I read it after seeing your post. I thought Steven did a good job of defending his philosophy

He starts by stating you can't make a living in FA. Right there you know he's kind of being disingenuous because no one has ever suggested the Cowboys make their living just diving into FA. He once again seems to show that he views FA very simply - you either pay out the nose or you bargain shop for cheap leftovers no one wants.

That's a downright idiotic way to view FA.

 

[Mobinvans]

Stephen has a PROVEN record of building a Superbowl team...

...oh wait....

 

[Rockport]

You still patrolling a fan forum and asking why people complain about parts of the team?

Just the ones like yourself who do nothing BUT complain about everything the Cowboys do.

 

[Doomsday101]

If they’d given him an offer early on Balt wouldn’t have had a chance to overpay. He was on the verge of signing a one yr deal with kc

Why he was looking to be the highest paid safeties and Dallas was not going to do that. Thomas as he said was not giving a home town discount and got top 5 money. He did visit with Dallas before going to Baltimore, I'm sure they were not discussing the weather but there was no way Dallas was going to pay what Thomas was looking for.

 

[Proof]

Why he was looking to be the highest paid safeties and Dallas was not going to do that. Thomas as he said was not giving a home town discount and got top 5 money. He did visit with Dallas before going to Baltimore, I'm sure they were not discussing the weather but there was no way Dallas was going to pay what Thomas was looking for.

He didn’t visit. They spoke to his agents at the combine. Again. He was preparing to take a one yr deal from the Chiefs and the Ravens offer came out of nowhere.

 

[visionary]

Why 2018’s Power Teams Are Sitting Out 2019 Free Agency
The Cowboys—loaded with young talent that they want to be able to take care off down road—are an example of why last season’s playoff teams have mostly avoided making a free agency splash so far. Why spend big (read: overpay) in what’s seen as a weak year for free agents?
By Albert Breer
March 18, 2019

all the craziness.

It is, quite honestly, what the Jones family has learned, through success and failure, about running a team in the NFL’s salary cap era, now in its 26th year.

“The biggest thing is just that free agency, I just don’t think you can make a living there,” Dallas COO Stephen Jones said over the phone around lunchtime on Sunday. “That’s what we’ve always said. I think you’re overpaying in free agency most of the time. [Free agents] are overvalued, because you’re competing in a market where you’ve got teams that don’t have as many players they have to spend on, have to use cap space on.

“And the other thing is, I don’t think you’re ever one player away. It’s a building process. You’ve got to have some really good quarterbacking to win championships, but you’ve got to put a good team around him. That whole theory that you’re one player away, it’s one that we don’t buy into like you might’ve in the past.”

Here’s the genesis of my conversation with Jones and a handful of other teams over the weekend: I spent some time looking at which teams have and haven’t spent since the market opened in earnest last Monday (and earlier than that on street free agents). What I found was staggering. And it’s so simple that you can really explain it in five words.

Most good teams didn’t spend.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/03/18/f...l&utm_campaign=themmqb&utm_source=twitter.com
----

My big question is why is this argument dumbed down to thinking if you don't go crazy in free agency that you are somehow smart?

There is a thing called a happy medium.

Once you have built the foundation, there can always be a roof added to the top to finish quickly.

People should not get upset that the Cowboys didn't get three or four expensive free agents.

But a well-placed precision strike is not the end of the world either.

The claim made in the article that good teams don't spend is not exactly true.

Teams like New England (Gilmore) and the Rams (Suh) added impact players that aided their cause.

Just call this what it is. Being cheap and thinking you are smarter than everyone else and you can just outwit everyone in April.

All I will say in response is

"How can anybody say Mr Jones doesn't want to win"?

 

[JayFord]

All I will say in response is

"How can anybody say Mr Jones doesn't want to win"?

Gee willikers guys he’s doing the best he can like gah

 

[Doomsday101]

He didn’t visit. They spoke to his agents at the combine. Again. He was preparing to take a one yr deal from the Chiefs and the Ravens offer came out of nowhere.

So if Dallas offered him a deal and Raven come out of nowhere to offer up the contract they did he would have turned it down? This after he had said he was looking to be paid top money and not giving any hometown discount? I'm sorry you are right they talked to his agent in my book the man representing the player is pretty much talking to the player since that is the person the player has hired to talk on his behave

 

[Proof]

I'm sorry you are right

Thanks.


They wouldn’t have had an opportunity had Dallas signed him.

And there is a big difference in informally speaking to representatives in passing because you happen to be in the same location, and an actual player visit for working out / negotiation.

 

[Doomsday101]

Thanks.


They wouldn’t have had an opportunity had Dallas signed him.

And there is a big difference in informally speaking to representatives in passing because you happen to be in the same location, and an actual player visit for working out / negotiation.

You assume that, again he was looking to be the highest paid safety and Dallas was not going to be in that neighborhood. Thomas had already indicated he was not giving Dallas any home town deal but you assume Dallas could have made an offer which you also assume was not made and Earl would have signed on the spot? There is not really a difference in the agent and the player after all it was the agent who was also talking to the Ravens and contacted Earl of what they were offering. Earl did not go to Balt until after he was contacted by his agent

 

[Bullflop]

Jerry and Stephen regurgitate the same old BS every year about being determined to reach SB status, minus doing what it takes to do so. It takes better management than they are willing to provide to get to the required level to be a honest-to-God SB contender. Let's not fall for their con job. Their perennial failure to meet what it takes to get there just isn't happening. It takes more than mere backup scrubs to bolster positions of need.