erod
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This offseason is like finding 20 forgotten bucks in your jeans pocket, or a well-timed snow day when you didn't crack a book. It doesn't happen like this very often.
The Cowboys are pretty good, if they weren't so fatally flawed. Teams don't win Super Bowls with craptastic offensive lines and no pass rush, no matter how many heads they can turn with pretty paint jobs and flashy rims in the downtown lights.
And don't look now - actually, do look by all means - but the football stars have aligned, almost perfectly, to give Dallas the quick fix it so desperately needs.
The draft is dripping with guards and tackles. GOOD guards and tackles. It's got defensive lineman and safeties, too, in greater numbers than usual. If your team needs a quarterback, receiver, running back, or corner, this isn't your draft. That was last year. Those teams are facing riskier propositions.
This is like recovering a fumble on the first series of the 2013 season for Dallas, and it's a good thing because other alternatives are scarce, if not impossible. Salary cap woes make free agent options slim to none, particularly with tough decisions on homegrown players looming. Jerry's shell-game economics continue to haunt, and will for foreseeable seasons. Can't swim in those waters.
But a couple shrewd picks in the first three rounds could fix the offensive line. It doesn't take five studs to block and protect well, but it takes more than Tyron and the Backstreet Boys to move the ball in Green Bay on a windy January day.
Dallas has to get this right. The first-rounder needs to be an immediate-impact star player, and rounds two and three have to be longtime core contributors. I'd like two offensive lineman and a safety, but whatever. As long as it works.
The 4-3, Kiffin, and Marinelli should be able to instantly upgrade the pass rush with the players on hand. Get Ware (and maybe Spencer) out of pass coverage in the name of all that is holy, please. Get Ratliff off the nose. A draft pick here wouldn't hurt either, but I'm hopeful this has been as much a scheme problem as anything. Teams have learned to get our pass rushers out of pass rushing in the 3-4.
I've maintained that, amidst all the frustrating madness of the past two seasons, there has been a plan. One that wasn't there before. The roster has been purged of old fogies and malcontents, and it's now ripened with solutions to problems. Just not enough solutions yet, until September, once this final offseason of rebuilding is complete.
Say what you will about Garrett, he's quite the trooper. Imagine being a Princeton-educated former NFL quarterback having to bite your lip every time your outhouse-educated hayseed of an accidental owner wanders off the reservation in a drunken rant. Most prideful men, which Garrett is, couldn't swallow their irritation and press on. That's good on Garrett.
So what's left is to hope Jerry will stay out of the cookie aisle, and let the football people go buy the peas and carrots this team needs in the draft. In another bit of good luck, Jerry and Stephen are going to be wrapped up in Romo extensions and Spencer decisions for at least the early part of the process. Here's hoping for a cantakerous negotiation or two on a Monster truck or MMA event that will keep him occupied further.
There is that nagging detail of making sure you get the picks right. Will the two lineman and safety be closer to Larry Allen, Erik Williams, and Darren Woodson....or Stephen Peterman, Jacob Rogers, and Tony Dixon. The latter actually represents the higher draft picks, stunningly.
But recent drafting and roster management have me, for one, hopeful. If Jerry's recent temper tantrum, which I no longer believe effects the players much in his elderly condition, is winding down as it appears, then everybody can get back to solving real football-player problems.
The draft is begging Dallas to address its remaining needs. The solution is no longer full of longshots and Elmer's glue. Important pieces are in place, and they're young. The future should be absolutely bright, next year and beyond.
They'd better not screw it up.
The Cowboys are pretty good, if they weren't so fatally flawed. Teams don't win Super Bowls with craptastic offensive lines and no pass rush, no matter how many heads they can turn with pretty paint jobs and flashy rims in the downtown lights.
And don't look now - actually, do look by all means - but the football stars have aligned, almost perfectly, to give Dallas the quick fix it so desperately needs.
The draft is dripping with guards and tackles. GOOD guards and tackles. It's got defensive lineman and safeties, too, in greater numbers than usual. If your team needs a quarterback, receiver, running back, or corner, this isn't your draft. That was last year. Those teams are facing riskier propositions.
This is like recovering a fumble on the first series of the 2013 season for Dallas, and it's a good thing because other alternatives are scarce, if not impossible. Salary cap woes make free agent options slim to none, particularly with tough decisions on homegrown players looming. Jerry's shell-game economics continue to haunt, and will for foreseeable seasons. Can't swim in those waters.
But a couple shrewd picks in the first three rounds could fix the offensive line. It doesn't take five studs to block and protect well, but it takes more than Tyron and the Backstreet Boys to move the ball in Green Bay on a windy January day.
Dallas has to get this right. The first-rounder needs to be an immediate-impact star player, and rounds two and three have to be longtime core contributors. I'd like two offensive lineman and a safety, but whatever. As long as it works.
The 4-3, Kiffin, and Marinelli should be able to instantly upgrade the pass rush with the players on hand. Get Ware (and maybe Spencer) out of pass coverage in the name of all that is holy, please. Get Ratliff off the nose. A draft pick here wouldn't hurt either, but I'm hopeful this has been as much a scheme problem as anything. Teams have learned to get our pass rushers out of pass rushing in the 3-4.
I've maintained that, amidst all the frustrating madness of the past two seasons, there has been a plan. One that wasn't there before. The roster has been purged of old fogies and malcontents, and it's now ripened with solutions to problems. Just not enough solutions yet, until September, once this final offseason of rebuilding is complete.
Say what you will about Garrett, he's quite the trooper. Imagine being a Princeton-educated former NFL quarterback having to bite your lip every time your outhouse-educated hayseed of an accidental owner wanders off the reservation in a drunken rant. Most prideful men, which Garrett is, couldn't swallow their irritation and press on. That's good on Garrett.
So what's left is to hope Jerry will stay out of the cookie aisle, and let the football people go buy the peas and carrots this team needs in the draft. In another bit of good luck, Jerry and Stephen are going to be wrapped up in Romo extensions and Spencer decisions for at least the early part of the process. Here's hoping for a cantakerous negotiation or two on a Monster truck or MMA event that will keep him occupied further.
There is that nagging detail of making sure you get the picks right. Will the two lineman and safety be closer to Larry Allen, Erik Williams, and Darren Woodson....or Stephen Peterman, Jacob Rogers, and Tony Dixon. The latter actually represents the higher draft picks, stunningly.
But recent drafting and roster management have me, for one, hopeful. If Jerry's recent temper tantrum, which I no longer believe effects the players much in his elderly condition, is winding down as it appears, then everybody can get back to solving real football-player problems.
The draft is begging Dallas to address its remaining needs. The solution is no longer full of longshots and Elmer's glue. Important pieces are in place, and they're young. The future should be absolutely bright, next year and beyond.
They'd better not screw it up.
:beer2:
