Successful teams are not afraid to be unconventional

[Verdict]

Touche, congrats on the PSL purchase.. and when are you going to invite me to a game!?!?! Or hell just let me know when you're going and where you're sitting (DM of course) and I will see if I can SeatGeek one close by.. I do think it would be fun to get a bunch of Zoners together for a game or two every year. We used to do it on the old DGMS site way back when and it was always a blast. We used to throw in for a parking pass so we could tailgate all day before and after the game.. We'd even all stay at the same hotel and turn it into a weekend.. Basically we would move the tailgate party from the stadium parking lot to the hotel parking lot after the game. Good times..

That would be a great idea.

 

[JoeKing]

Thanks, bro.. I was just kiddin.. I fully expect that you would have a list a mile long of people you would take to games before you got to "random dude on the internet." But we will absolutely have to figure out how to get a CZ tailgate to happen at some point this season..

Sounds like a blast. If a CZ tailgating event gets organized I'd love to attend.

 

[blueblood70]

Why not? They are not more qualified than the posters on this board. They are not real football people.

not even close to reality, take chill pill, the Jones' with their huge staff of scouts and WM , they know more then this place as group..end of story,,fans are clueless and delusional..period

 

[aria]

If being unconventional wins games the Cowboys should be undefeated.

What other teams that win a lot spend a top 5 pick, or top 10 pick, on a RB and then go on to extend him two years before his contract is up by paying him the most ever for that position? That’s so unconventional it should be worth at least one Super Bowl.

What other teams pay as much as Jerry did for a gimp LB or use a first round pick on a LB with neck injury concerns?

What other teams keep a coach with Jason Garrett’s record around as long as Jerry did?

What other team has wasted as many picks or FA signings as Jerry has on high risk/low value players due to injury or character concerns?

 

[RonnieT24]

That would be a great idea.

Sounds like a blast. If a CZ tailgating event gets organized I'd love to attend.

I will absolutely start putting the word out over the summer as the season approaches to see if we can get this done and then try to make it a at least a once a year occurrence. This does make me kinda regret that I gave away my grill when I moved to TX because my house came with a FABULOUS outdoor kitchen so I had no use for it. Throwing that baby in the back of the pickup and grilling some brats at the game sounds like a slice of heaven right about now!! But if need be I'll buy another one if I have to.

 

[Verdict]

I will absolutely start putting the word out over the summer as the season approaches to see if we can get this done and then try to make it a at least a once a year occurrence. This does make me kinda regret that I gave away my grill when I moved to TX because my house came with a FABULOUS outdoor kitchen so I had no use for it. Throwing that baby in the back of the pickup and grilling some brats at the game sounds like a slice of heaven right about now!! But if need be I'll buy another one if I have to.

Sounds good. I usually attend every game except Thanksgiving. Putting faces with names would be a lot of fun, as would talking Cowboys.

 

[conner01]

I think you overvalue what some of these guys are worth. You aren’t getting a 3rd round pick for a 4th round C one year later, for example.

Even if you did you may not be able to replace him with the pick anyway

 

[gjkoeppen]

It's fair to question the value of the ability to diagram plays and defense however I will disagree with you and here's why. The ability to recognize plays, assignments et al enhance one's ability to know what a player was SUPPOSED to do on a play. And the more you know about what a player is SUPPOSED to do the better you will be to gauge how well they did it. Again, nothing is 100% but I am a firm believer that the more knowledge you have in an area the better able you will be to accomplish what you are trying to accomplish. If I can recognize that a secondary is in cover 2 and the corner follows his man across the field and the other team throws to a wide open man in the zone he abandoned then do I sit there and go "well look he covered HIS man?" or do I recognize that he blew his assignment and allowed a big play because of it. Knowing the X's and O's is important. Yes there is more to being a GM than just that but I think it's big. If all the GM does is execute the playbook handed to him by coaches and scouts then he is at the mercy of said coaches and scouts.. So he ends up giving too much weight to the voice of a Rob Marinelli, who while a very good DC, was a terrible talent evaluator. Now Jerry probably didn't know that when he first hired Rod.. but he should not have taken as long as he did to figure it out.

I know there is nothing I can say that will convince you of what I am saying.. I'm fine with that.. It's what I believe and it's not going to change.. I'm not going to go be an unpaid intern for some team and spend the next 10 years trying to get to be a GM. So I will never be able to prove any of it. But we all get to believe what we want to believe in life.. This one works for me!

Again you're confusing what a GM's job is. A GM relies on coaches and scouts to tell him if a player is doing his job and whether to resign him or let him go in free agency or just release him. The GM is the business side of the NFL not the X's and O's part of the NFL. Now even if the coaches say to release a player if his contract is such that it will add to much dead money then the GM will tell the coach he'll have to live with him at least until the end of the season. Other than Elway list all of the GM's that you know for a fact that are X's and O's guys. There is one GM who was a banker before he became a GM , one was a sportscaster before becoming a GM . GM's are the business side of the NFL not the X's and O's guys.
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[RonnieT24]

Again you're confusing what a GM's job is. A GM relies on coaches and scouts to tell him if a player is doing his job and whether to resign him or let him go in free agency or just release him. The GM is the business side of the NFL not the X's and O's part of the NFL. Now even if the coaches say to release a player if his contract is such that it will add to much dead money then the GM will tell the coach he'll have to live with him at least until the end of the season. Other than Elway list all of the GM's that you know for a fact that are X's and O's guys. There is one GM who was a banker before he became a GM , one was a sportscaster before becoming a GM . GM's are the business side of the NFL not the X's and O's guys.
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You have to be kidding me with this.. John Lynch was what a 15? year NFL Player before he became a broadcaster.. and we know that a huge part of being a broadcaster is studying the sport you cover. If you don't you kinda suck at it. We've all heard broadcasters who don't study the game before and we know what that sounds like on the air. There's also this guy in New England who MAY have a decent track record as both GM and coach..Mayock is an ex player and long time draft guru/scout. Rivera has both jobs in DC. If you think the GM's job is to be clueless about X's and O's I am going to question YOUR understanding of the job. Sure they're about the business side and need to work in concert with the coaches and scouts.. but the notion that they can be successful without knowing the game on the field is simply ridiculous. If they don't know the game then they are 100% dependent on somebody else to tell them what a good football player looks like. So if that person's an idiot then so are they.. I don't buy that. Most GMs who were not ex NFL players or coaches have worked their way up to that position doing other jobs associated with the game. It could be argued they have a DEEPER knowledge of the X's an O's because of it.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Teams seem to want to copycat each other. QBs are an example of that. For so long teams only looked at the prototypical QB. Now that teams are willing to get a dual threat QB there are more high quality QBs in the league.

Teams seem to want to “pay their own” and overpay to keep good (not great players). That’s one way to do it, but it kills your salary cap.

For instance Dallas has been very successful drafting OL but not so good at selecting defenders. Dallas might have been better served by churning the OL (even with high round picks) and flipping them for picks, or other players.

Dallas has found a good player in Biadacz, but what if the Cowboys traded Biadacz for say a third round pick and drafted Creed Humphrey in the second. You get one more year of cheap labor and profit from the trade.

Tyrons contract was very team friendly and is even more so now. But Martin is/was the highest paid guard in the NFL. That’s a cap killer. If you could have flipped Martin for a first and a third prior to his massive contract extension would that have been a better deal? It may have hurt the OL a little but would the defense have more assets?

You can lay Hill over whoever, Taco over Watt and Zeke over Ramsey at Marinelli's feet.

 

[gjkoeppen]

You have to be kidding me with this.. John Lynch was what a 15? year NFL Player before he became a broadcaster.. and we know that a huge part of being a broadcaster is studying the sport you cover. If you don't you kinda suck at it. We've all heard broadcasters who don't study the game before and we know what that sounds like on the air. There's also this guy in New England who MAY have a decent track record as both GM and coach..Mayock is an ex player and long time draft guru/scout. Rivera has both jobs in DC. If you think the GM's job is to be clueless about X's and O's I am going to question YOUR understanding of the job. Sure they're about the business side and need to work in concert with the coaches and scouts.. but the notion that they can be successful without knowing the game on the field is simply ridiculous. If they don't know the game then they are 100% dependent on somebody else to tell them what a good football player looks like. So if that person's an idiot then so are they.. I don't buy that. Most GMs who were not ex NFL players or coaches have worked their way up to that position doing other jobs associated with the game. It could be argued they have a DEEPER knowledge of the X's an O's because of it.

I didn't mention or say any of those former players by name because they are former players. I will change and restate my original question of what GM's other than former NFL players are X's and O's guys? Again GM's are the business side of the NFL and rely on what coaches and scouts tell them. I very seriously doubt that Jones doesn't talk to coaches and scouts about every player he goes after and signs or drafts. If he didn't we would hear all sorts of stories from coaches who coached in Dallas and left that Jones just ignored what his coaches and scouts tell him. Yes there have been a couple times where Jones over ruled a coach on draft picks like taking Aikman when Johnson wanted to take Manadrich and when Jones took Emmitt when after James Frances got pick just ahead of the Cowboys who traded up to get him and Johnson then wanted to take Tony Bennett and Jones took Emmitt instead. Johmson had problems with both players because they turned him down on scholarships he offered them. He admitted this on the pregame of Super Bowl XLV in Dallas.
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[TequilaCowboy]

Successful teams usually have a FO that is held accountable. Period.