What a joke to claim that going into 2010, a team that returned virtually everyone from a division and playoff game winning team had to be rebuilt.
I guess Phillips was one great coach.
I don't like to go back and forth with you Lab because we've been posting a long time together and I've always respected your views, but you can't possibly think that 2009 squad was anything other than mediocre.
As Idgit said, that team got old, and it got old in a hurry. Flozell Adams wasn't resigned before the 2010 season, Kyle Kosier was old and injured, Marc Colombo's knees finally retired that year, Andre Gurode was striving to reach 400 lbs., and Leonard Davis pretty much forgot how to move at anything more brisk than a snail's pace. Regardless of what happened in 2009 (and it was that OL that effectively ended the season in Minnesota when they gave the Vikes a free run at Romo), that OL was done. Period. And when you can't pass protect or open holes in the running game, your team is going to be severely limited.
The defense caught fire in the last 6 games that year (Wade Phillips finally started running the defense and he is a very good DC) and luckily for Dallas a team that was getting older, faster (Philly) was not only the final game of the season that year, but they were the first playoff game too. Had Philly had a semblance of a pass rush that year, Dallas probably would have not made it to Minnesota to be slaughtered, although I'm not sure because that Philly team had many issues.
The Cowboys needed not only a new OL, but there were several units that, in retrospect, needed a lot of help.
Of the WR's, only Miles Austin was decent. Roy Williams was a fraud, Crayton should be no more than a 4th or 5th guy, Ogletree was even less useless than normal as a rookie, and Sam hurd was probably stoned most of the season. If you took over in 2010 would you want to stand pat with that group?
The RB's had Barber, who was still pretty good then and Felix (who I never really liked). Maybe you would have wanted to go forward with those guys, but if it were my team, I would want to change Felix, who always managed to come up small.
At TE there was Witten, but Bennett and Phillips were nothing worth writing home to mom about.
On the DL Ratliff was good and Bowen and Hatcher were solid enough. I probably would have rolled with that group well enough.
At LB there was Ware and Spencer, so we were set outside... but Bradie James and Keith Brooking inside were a dumpoff pass waiting to happen. Honestly, with those two inside I can't believe every team didn't throw the ball over the middle 50 times a game. Two new ILB's were a must have IMO.
In the secondary, Newman was old and getting older. Jenkins finally played up to his ability the last half of 2009 but regularly didn't. Hamlin and Sensebaugh were average to below average.
This is getting too long for my lunch break, but when Garrett took over this is what needed to be changed at the very least:
The entire OL
All but probably 1, maybe 2 WR's.
A RB
A backup TE
Both ILB's
A CB
Both Safeties
Not to mention that the team psyche was screwed from 3 years of Phillips' Camp Cupcake, and the high priced guys who were getting too old to play was going to limit the team no matter what.
Really, just having that old, decrepit OL would have been enough to stop the team from succeeding... but there was way more wrong with that team than just an old, overpriced OL.
In hindsight, it is easy to see why that 2009 team was lucky to make the postseason at all. They were lucky to run into a crappy Philly team... twice... and had they not got on that small run to end the season, they were on pace to do pretty bad.
We all talk here like we know something when really, we just have opinions and precious few facts... however, I feel pretty confident that the 2010 Dallas Cowboys were not a very good team and that considering the age of the players and their salaries, a complete rebuild was pretty necessary if you wanted to build a team the right way.
