Twitter: Stephen on signing our own players to long-term deals

[Alexander]

How the heck is Stephen supposed to maintain the standard of excellence this franchise has set in the cap era if he doesn't keep the players who make it possible. You guys think 8-9 wins a year grow on trees. Just be glad we aren't the............Browns.

As long as they are relevant, 8 wins and a chance for the postseason is a successful campaign for this organization.

 

[Cowboysfan917]

Rookie high draft pick QB would be cheaper and more than likely have more arm talent than Dak...

 

[Roadtrip635]

The key is drafting well if you draft well then there will be some of your own that you will have to let go because you have drafted well therefore you dont have to pay the big contract right? So if we should only have to give each player maybe one new contract if they are playing above average? Thats the only way it makes any sense IMO you cant give out big contracts to your own players all the time thats why you need to draft well so that you dont have to? You give out your big contracts ONLY to players who are playing ABOVE average. Thats how you manage the cap. Thats how the Patriots have stayed competitive putting their money in above avg players.

"Drafting well" is only a piece of the puzzle in assembling a team. You cannot hit on enough players consistently enough or fast enough before you start losing players because you can't pay everyone or waiting for younger players to develop, if they develop. This team does not do a good job in finding or signing effective players in FA or in making trades for effective players. That is something the Pats have done very well through the years, identifying players that fit into a scheme and can fill a role on the team.

 

[Hawkeye0202]

I agree and it will probably be for more then some of us will like! lol

This is where it gets tricky but I'm guessing he gets some alone the tag range, which is now $23M of QBs inside a deal with two/three years of guaranteed money.

 

[cristglo]

T

They like what they have. And they will continue to like what they have. That is a philosophy they live by. That is a problem when you don't know what you are looking at. This is one franchise that really could use a consulting firm to look at it objectively.

That is correct I for the life of me dont understand Dallas's way of thinking.This year they had all the hype from off season and camp about the chemistry about Lance yet he doesnt make the team goes to practice squad????. All the bad crap about Rico and he makes the team???? Noah who suddenly goes MIA who really was coming along IMO. They let Dez go to make it Dak friendly then after the first round of the Draft Witten retires???? Does that sound like something Witten would just up and do without telling anyone??? They fire all assistants but not the ones who actually make the decisions You know the ones who tell the assistants what to do????? We hire a inexperienced QB coach who couldnt even beat out the QB he is suppose to be coaching up or the second and 3rd string he couldnt beat out hmmmm??????? We go out and hire an OL coach who does the total opposite techniques of a pretty darn good OL who came from a team whose OL digresses?????? You need a WR safety TE LB during free agency you do nothing at TE to bring in a Vet with blocking and catching experience???? FS who signed for a lot less then ET go to other teams even when ours were dropping like flies. We let cheaper WR go to other teams because our WR by committee was working just fine but we give our #1 away for Cooper hmmm????? I could go on and on Someone tell me does any of this cluster crap sound like any good business decisions?????????
They do need to hire a consulting Firm to look at this organization Cause nothing they do makes any sense any more LOL LOL

 

[CCBoy]

He should really stop mentioning Dak Prescott and maybe even Zeke. I don't like the idea of giving a RB a 2nd deal. Just use the 5th year option and franchise tag him once or twice.

What kind of message does that send to one's own players and the league. Care to have Pittsburgh's rep, now?

 

[CCBoy]

T

That is correct I for the life of me dont understand Dallas's way of thinking.This year they had all the hype from off season and camp about the chemistry about Lance yet he doesnt make the team goes to practice squad????. All the bad crap about Rico and he makes the team???? Noah who suddenly goes MIA who really was coming along IMO. They let Dez go to make it Dak friendly then after the first round of the Draft Witten retires???? Does that sound like something Witten would just up and do without telling anyone??? They fire all assistants but not the ones who actually make the decisions You know the ones who tell the assistants what to do????? We hire a inexperienced QB coach who couldnt even beat out the QB he is suppose to be coaching up or the second and 3rd string he couldnt beat out hmmmm??????? We go out and hire an OL coach who does the total opposite techniques of a pretty darn good OL who came from a team whose OL digresses?????? You need a WR safety TE LB during free agency you do nothing at TE to bring in a Vet with blocking and catching experience???? FS who signed for a lot less then ET go to other teams even when ours were dropping like flies. We let cheaper WR go to other teams because our WR by committee was working just fine but we give our #1 away for Cooper hmmm????? I could go on and on Someone tell me does any of this cluster crap sound like any good business decisions?????????
They do need to hire a consulting Firm to look at this organization Cause nothing they do makes any sense any more LOL LOL

Who are you listening to? Makes a difference, apparently...

 

[CCBoy]

I like to drink mine. Lol

 

[cristglo]

Who are you listening to? Makes a difference, apparently...

care to explain

 

[cristglo]

"Drafting well" is only a piece of the puzzle in assembling a team. You cannot hit on enough players consistently enough or fast enough before you start losing players because you can't pay everyone or waiting for younger players to develop, if they develop. This team does not do a good job in finding or signing effective players in FA or in making trades for effective players. That is something the Pats have done very well through the years, identifying players that fit into a scheme and can fill a role on the team.

i agree but dont overpay your own who are below avg you use your cap space to fill some of those holes on upgrades and not overpaying. Where I feel we have got into trouble is not drafting good and overpaying players who were avg. Not letting go of players who were in decline. Not making contract more easy to get out of if they werent performing. If a player was then they got paid. We over paid players like Crawford and Lee for the amount of games he played. IMO we will over pay dak but what choice will we have he is a QB.
You are absolutely right we have done a bad job of not identifying players that we get or coaches e get that fit our scheme.

 

[guag]

That's not a smart way to run a franchise though.

In a salary capped league, if you consistently draft really well then theoretically (key word here) you won't ever really need to sign many guys to long term contracts (whether re-signing drafted guys or signing other teams players in free agency). I think the best run team is one that resembles a college team in that new guys are cycled in every 4-5 years. The big exception would be the QB obviously since you want to have as much stability at the position as possible.

Of course you can't expect to fill your entire roster solely with the draft, so free agency must be utilized as well, but mainly to fill holes and ideally not for overpaying for superstars.

The key point of course is consistently drafting well, which many teams aren't able to do.

Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. This is how I run my team in my NFL GM simulation PC game.

 

[Sydla]

Zeke is one of the best players on this team and he's proving to be a leader. HE deserves a 2nd contract here. Whether they give him one is another story.

When it comes to Dak.......I need to see more to warrant big money but if he will re-sign on a favorable contract it may be in their best interest to try and win with that and develop a quarterback along the way if they don't want to ride it out with him.

Zeke also plays a position that shows a steep drop in performance on average after a certain age relative to other positions.

So it doesn't really matter what he deserves. It's what is best for the Cowboys.

 

[Sydla]

People were just fooling themselves thinking that this franchise would use their new found cap space to sign FAs to get better.

 

[Sydla]

What kind of message does that send to one's own players and the league. Care to have Pittsburgh's rep, now?

Their rep?

 

[panchucko]

Only question mark among aforementioned is Dak. Can't imagine Stephen offering more than he's worth.

I thinks Dak’s value is more in Steven’s eye than most

 

[cern]

I can.

What has Stephen done to earn such trust?

He let ware walk. He let Murray walk. He let claiborne, church, wilcox, Hitchens and Leary all walk. He won't overpay dak, either.

 

[Sydla]

That's not a smart way to run a franchise though.

It is if you do it smartly. Resign "you guys" at positions that show longevity. So signing guys like Frederick and Martin were smart (the auto-immune thing with Frederick was just a fluke). I would suspect signing a guy like Jones if he keeps playing well would be smart.

But guys like Elliott? I'd be very worried about handing him the type of TB deal that Bell is wanting.

 

[cern]

I thinks Dak’s value is more in Steven’s eye than most

I don't.

 

[Awakened]

No mention of Jaylon Smith??

There's probably no way we can pay all of our stars after the 2019 season.

Dak
Zeke
Byron Jones
Jaylon Smith
Amari Cooper

Plus starters...
La'el Collins
Jeff Heath
Anthony Brown
Randy Gregory
Maliek Collins

I mean, dang.

 

[TheBigEasy]

I'm starting to like a Zeke second contract less and less personally. I think Zeke's game is going to age very well and I could see him being effective all the way up till 30, but that's only if he takes care of his body. He's had slow starts all of his 3 NFL seasons because he basically tries to play his way into shape during the actual season - which tells me he's not taking workouts that seriously in the offseason.

Look at Darrelle Revis and Dez Bryant. When you don't take care of yourself as you age and your natural talent starts fading, the end can come very, very fast. I just don't trust Zeke right now to do the former.

No disrespect and I'm not looking to argue but Zeke was in PHENOMENAL shape when he go into camp this year. Amazing what an offseason w/o stress can do to a person if they put the time in. I'll give you him being out of shape coming into '17 but I think that his legal trouble, and the stress that comes along with the ordeal, was the root cause. Dude just has a HUGE head, along with all of that hair, so it makes him look a lot heavier than he really is.