Stephen Jones: TE a priority in the draft

[ItzKelz]

Exactly, so would other teams scramble to jump ahead of the Cowboys every round to take a TE in every round not knowing if the Cowboys even have an interest in a TE in that round? Suggesting they will draft a TE somewhere in the draft isn't really a revelation.

Eagles jumped in front of us last season.

 

[AbeBeta]

I never understood telling the world what your type priorities where in the draft before the draft. Not too smart IMO.

I never understand how priorities are not onvious. Even a casual fan would know TE, S, DT, and slot WR are priorities. No one is giving away secrets here

 

[OmerV]

Eagles jumped in front of us last season.

Last year the Cowboys didn't know they were going to be without Witten until just as the draft started, and Hanna had retired, so at that time the returning the only returning TE with an NFL reception was Swaim, and I think he only had 7 career receptions. Accordingly, the belief was that replacing Witten at TE would be an almost panicked and desperate situation for the Cowboys, and they would be using one of their first two picks to get a TE. That's not the case now. The TE's this year replaced Witten's production, and are still young and gaining experience, so there is no sense that the Cowboys have to take a TE with a top of the draft pick.

 

[NextGenBoys]

My man. You may be cheap Stephen, but you know who we need to draft.

His name is TJ Hockenson by the way. He's LVE part 2, only the Tight End version.

Go Hawks!

 

[AsthmaField]

Eagles jumped in front of us last season.

Correct, but that is because they saw that Witten retired just before the draft... not because of anything that the Cowboys said.

 

[silvrNblue]

Didn't he make this SAME claim last draft?? And didn't that force the egirls to move ahead of us to take whats his name...

 

[ItzKelz]

I never understand how priorities are not onvious. Even a casual fan would know TE, S, DT, and slot WR are priorities. No one is giving away secrets here

Well you know for sure that the people that pick players for us now know that TE is a priority for us. Also, we've been a team that selected players based on BPA on our board for awhile now.

 

[ItzKelz]

Last year the Cowboys didn't know they were going to be without Witten until just as the draft started, and Hanna had retired, so at that time the returning the only returning TE with an NFL reception was Swaim, and I think he only had 7 career receptions. Accordingly, the belief was that replacing Witten at TE would be an almost panicked and desperate situation for the Cowboys, and they would be using one of their first two picks to get a TE. That's not the case now. The TE's this year replaced Witten's production, and are still young and gaining experience, so there is no sense that the Cowboys have to take a TE with a top of the draft pick.

I have no idea what you are trying to say. However, if teams know that you have a certain need and you may select a player that they covet then said team will jump in front of you to that player before you do.

 

[ItzKelz]

Correct, but that is because they saw that Witten retired just before the draft... not because of anything that the Cowboys said.

Right they knew it was a definite need due to Witten retiring....now they know it is a definite need again because SJ just let the world know.

 

[Ddisco22]

I thought the free agent route at TE could be an idea, but there seems to be slim pickens there.

yeah and you heard SJ say that they don't do too much in FA

 

[CowboysExchange]

He must've worked so hard on blocking that he forgot how to catch... lol
Dak throws him a ball that any 7 year old could catch and he drops it.
(I realize it happens... just messin' around, but, wow, that was bad.)

He plays all those snaps and finally gets a crumb and just like the one target fb it's an oopsplay. But of any te on this team he's still the most likely to hit his head on the goal post imo if he was playing the everydown te role swaim and Jarwin were playing. Either way that's all coulda shoulda wouldas who is the best te because between the entire group they put up subpar passing numbers that solidified a lack of potency as a passing offense. That's all that matters is the core of te numbers sunk the ship because they played all the critical passing downs and they put up zeros when it mattered.

It infuriated me to watch us pass out of an 11 and 12 formation as if this was part of some winning formula when every week they put up zeros moving the chains, catching deep passes, and Scoring .

I'm not forgiving Jerrah for making us watch Swaim all year. I wanted to see more of Beasely, Tavon, rod Smith, and any other position then these non Scoring tes.

It was all about spreading the ball around to players who could average 35 points a game and we just simply didn't have enough firepower at the te position to elevate our offense to a playoff caliber Level. In the big scheme of things the wr core couldnt cover for the lack of yards, first downs, and Scoring production from the tes week in and week out. The tes played all the CRITICAL PASSING PLAYS BUT THEY DIDNTD MAKE ANY PLAYS DOWN AFTER DOWN, GAME AFTER GAME, SEASON AFTER SEASON, FOR 5+ YEARS AND WERE STILL DOMINATING THE LEAGUE IN TE PASSING SNAPS IN A DUAL THREAT RB AND DUAL THREAT SLOT WR LEAGUE.

WE NEED A ROTATION OF SCORING THREATS AND OUR TES JUST DIDNT MEASURE UP AT MAKING PLAYS AND WE WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER SERVED WATCHING A DUAL THREAT RB OR SLOT WR FORMATION ON CRITICAL PASSING PLAYS

 

[AsthmaField]

Right they knew it was a definite need due to Witten retiring....now they know it is a definite need again because SJ just let the world know.

Everyone in the universe knew it was a need before Stephen said anything.

 

[OmerV]

I have no idea what you are trying to say. However, if teams know that you have a certain need and you may select a player that they covet then said team will jump in front of you to that player before you do.

What I'm trying to say is teams aren't going to spend 7 rounds in the draft jumping over themselves to trade up ahead of the Cowboys. If they do, then they are screwing themselves much more than they are the Cowboys, because they are giving up draft picks for something that they have no idea if they even need to. The reality is, every team knew even before Stephen said anything that TE was likely a spot the Cowboys would target in the draft, and that's all they still know. They aren't any closer to knowing what round the Cowboys may look for a TE.

 

[OmerV]

yeah and you heard SJ say that they don't do too much in FA

They may not have to do too much to help with the TE position. One reasonably priced veteran to go with the up and comers in Jarwin and Schultz might be all they really need.

 

[Ddisco22]

They may not have to do too much to help with the TE position. One reasonably priced veteran to go with the up and comers in Jarwin and Schultz might be all they really need.

I'm thinking Rico will be gone this year

 

[CowboysExchange]

Last year the Cowboys didn't know they were going to be without Witten until just as the draft started, and Hanna had retired, so at that time the returning the only returning TE with an NFL reception was Swaim, and I think he only had 7 career receptions. Accordingly, the belief was that replacing Witten at TE would be an almost panicked and desperate situation for the Cowboys, and they would be using one of their first two picks to get a TE. That's not the case now. The TE's this year replaced Witten's production, and are still young and gaining experience, so there is no sense that the Cowboys have to take a TE with a top of the draft pick.

We did better trading our #1 pick for Cooper. At

Last year the Cowboys didn't know they were going to be without Witten until just as the draft started, and Hanna had retired, so at that time the returning the only returning TE with an NFL reception was Swaim, and I think he only had 7 career receptions. Accordingly, the belief was that replacing Witten at TE would be an almost panicked and desperate situation for the Cowboys, and they would be using one of their first two picks to get a TE. That's not the case now. The TE's this year replaced Witten's production, and are still young and gaining experience, so there is no sense that the Cowboys have to take a TE with a top of the draft pick.

They replaced the washed up 82's production if you want to call it that. The first 15 games they had one td.

The problem is you're giving #82 too much credit for his production over his last 5 years. Lol. What we've been watching hasn't been a steak at te in several years regardless of what #82 was in his prime.

The problem is the everydown te led offensive scheme requires the te to make critical passing plays. He's playing every passing snap which is limiting other skilled players involvement.

Yes you are right you can't have a steak at every position. I get that and I'm accepting of that. The problem is first that we haven't had a steak at the position in forever and the scheme requires there to be a steak at the position or you're trying to win w chopped liver far too often . Lol.

We've been watching chopped liver for 5 + years Omar. Otherwise we wouldn't have a problem.

Do you honestly think #82 has been more than chopped liver for the past 5+years . We need a 8-10 TD Scoring te and we got one rinky dink TD from our entire te core through 15 games. Lmao.

That's not even real meat much less chopped liver. Lmao

None of these tes are a steak and are Never gonna rise enough to make any plays on critical passing downs. When they put up something significant on paper when it matters I'll buy into the everydown te scheme. We want steak on the field and not chopped liver.

Until then I'm not buying into the notion that we're gonna have to have a steak at every other skilled position in order to make up for the lack of play making abilities at the te position. Sorry for my difference of opinion. But all I see is chopped liver on critical passing snaps from our te core for 5+ years. And I'm not for sure I can stomach it for one more game much less another 22 years

 

[OmerV]

I'm thinking Rico will be gone this year

Me too. Even with Swaim out and Rico on the field more they still didn't trust him to be part of the passing game, and the experiment can't just go on forever.

 

[OmerV]

We did better trading our #1 pick for Cooper. At


They replaced the washed up 82's production if you want to call it that. The first 15 games theythad one td.

The problem is you're giving #82 too much credit for his production over his last 5 years. Lol. What we've been watching hasn't been a steak at the in several years regardless of what #82 was in his prime.

The problem is the everydown te led offensive scheme requires the te to make critical passing plays. He's playing every passing snap which is limiting other skilled players involvement.

Yes you are right you can't have a steak at every position. I get that and I'm accepting of that. The problem is first that we haven't had a steak at the position in forever and the scheme requires there to be a steak at the position or you're trying to win w chopped liver far too often .

We've been watching chopped liver for 5 + years Omar. Otherwise we wouldn't have a problem.

Do you honestly think #82 has been more than chopped liver for the past 5+years . We need a 8-10 TD Scoring te and we got one rinky dink TD from our entire te core through 15 games. Lmao.

That's not even real meat much less chopped liver. Lmao

None of these tes are a steak and are Never gonna rise enough to make any plays on critical passing downs. When they put up something significant on paper when it matters I'll buy into the everydown te scheme.

Until then I'm not buying into the notion that we're gonna have to have a steak at every other skilled position in order to make up for the lack of play making abilities at the te position

No I'm really not giving Witten a lot of credit. What I said was that once he left there was only one TE left on the team with even a single NFL reception, and he only had 7 (I checked and it was actually 9). Saying Witten was more proven than a guy with only 9 career receptions isn't exactly high praise.

My point was only that they were left in uncharted water when the TE that had been a mainstay and fixture for 15 years retired just before the draft last year, so it was natural for other teams to think the Cowboys might draft a TE very high. The situation is different this year. Rather than going into the draft with the TEs on the roster having collective total of 9 career receptions, they will be going into the draft with TE's that totaled 68 receptions this last season (42 if Swaim isn't brought back). With that, and especially with the way the TE's came on later in the season, and also considering the current TE's still very young and gaining experience, other teams won't see the Cowboys in the same situation going into the draft they were in a year ago, because they aren't in the same situation going into the draft they were a year ago.

 

[cern]

Everyone in the universe knew it was a need before Stephen said anything.

Our te's are soft. Swaim injured as often as sean lee. Jarwin misses too much time with nagging injuries. Witten spoiled us.

 

[OmerV]

Our te's are soft. Swaim injured as often as sean lee. Jarwin misses too much time with nagging injuries. Witten spoiled us.

Jarwin was limited in the last game, and even then still caught 2 passes, but I don't remember other parts of the season where he missed significant time.