The unspeakable must be spoken.
The clamor for quarterback chasers and ball toters and pass breaker-uppers will dominate our thoughts and posts for the next three weeks. Even more so, the QB question looms larger, knowing we're unknowingly close to having that nuts-in-a-bench-vice conundrum to fight through if we push it off much further.
The here-and-now versus the uh-oh-later. Such is the enigma wrapped in a riddle for the personnel people.
But are we perhaps burying another pressing problem?
We all agree that Dallas needs an upgrade at WR to go alongside Dez. We know that because, while Williams is pretty good with Dez, he's virtually useless without him, and the rest of the corps are a collection of slot guys and incomplete packages that can't carry the water in a pinch. Witten is 100 years old, and Escobar is a unicorn.
That's critically important because perhaps the real question is, does Dallas actually need a replacement for Dez, not just a better No. 2 receiver?
The scary truth of the matter is that there's no certainty Dez will fully recover from the injury he had last year. Foot injuries are a testy lot for receivers, especially when they involve broken bones that whisper funny French words like Lisfranc. You don't want to hear that word. Dez' break was never fully rendered as such, but it was in the "like Lisfranc" mentions, and that should worry us all. It not only robs speed and quickness, these fractures often re-fracture and never properly heal for the rigors of running routes.
Dez is a tough hombre, and we all know he played through pain. But he wasn't good, and not just because of the quarterbacks throwing to him. Even Weeden managed to find a rhythm with DeAndre Hopkins. Dez wandered through routes and floated through games. He wasn't himself, not by a long shot.
I watched him closely, and there was no explosion, no separation, no crispness to him the entire season. He was an easy cover, and his frustration got to his hands, where many passes were simply dropped. He was rendered a non-factor in a bland season that left Linehan handcuffed and short-staffed. We're all assuming that it was just a temporary season thing, and we get 2014 Dez back soon. I'm not so sure.
If we don't, it presents two problems. First, the rest of the bunch can't function without Dez' threat on the field, so that presence must be replaced with a draft pick. Second, Jerry dumped a lot of money on Dez less than a year ago, and that contract could become an albatross of sorts. A young cheap No. 1 receiver would be needed while the Cowboys ride out Dez' contract.
The dice have to be rolled somewhere. Who would you rather gamble on...Romo, Dez, or Morris/McFadden? Can you muster a pass rush with those on hand? Can you afford to just go Best Player Available this time? (I'm usually a BPA guy.)
The quiet secret may lie in a mended, or not-so-mended, foot.
