The simple facts

[ActualCowboysFan]

I'm not acting any particular way, I'm just naming the players lost and the players gained.[/quote]

That only works with people who haven't seen "you're" hot takes in other threads.

 

[DandyDon52]

They are trying the Green Bay method without Green Bay's scouting department. i understand what they're trying to do, but it's not going to work if you don't have the right personnel department. The drafting recently has been overrated by the majority of this site.

Well they hit on some, but some are busts and or head scratchers.
We could have had sherman in the 5th round, but our FO did not think he was any good lol,
so they chose a guy who wound up never playing.
They just resigned that guy, I forget his name but he is a CB.
That is bad evaluating, and other teams also didnt see much in sherman either, or he would have went earlier,
but those are the ones they need to be able to spot.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Well they hit on some, but some are busts and or head scratchers.
We could have had sherman in the 5th round, but our FO did not think he was any good lol,
so they chose a guy who wound up never playing.
They just resigned that guy, I forget his name but he is a CB.
That is bad evaluating, and other teams also didnt see much in sherman either, or he would have went earlier,
but those are the ones they need to be able to spot.

His own head coach Harbaugh stayed away from him. Everyone missed on Sherman. Including the Seahawks who waited until the 5th round to draft him.

 

[Shinaoi]

Teams are valuing draft picks more and more these days due to the salary cap, but the main problem with trades is the cap hits most teams take due to guaranteed contract money acceleration. Teams either have to have serious cap issues or are in rebuilding mode (Eagles for example) to want to absorb an abrupt cap hit by releasing or trading a high salary player.

The fact that the Cowboys's drafting has improved over the last few years is evident because of the focus on retaining their draft picks beyond their rookie contracts. A lot of fans focus on "free agent" signings as only the ones that come from other teams. However, the Cowboys have resigned would-be free agents Sean Lee, Tony Romo, Orlando Scandrick, Tyron Smith, etc. and also re-signed actual free-agent, Dez Bryant.

When you sign a free agent that played for another team last season, there are many variables that come into play. There's the Spagnola's mantra of "If they were so good, why did their team release them?" There are also concerns such as will they fit into the Cowboys systems and schemes? Will they continue to play at the same level or better than they did the previous season with their former team? Do they have a history of injuries and just had one good year (which is why a lot of teams didn't even talk about signing Murray last year)?

The best teams are focusing more and more on building their teams through the draft and even rookie free agents, and only filling a couple of holes using free agents.

The other issue is that teams don't know what they are going to get in the draft, so they are hesitant to sign free agents when they may end up filling that position with a capable drafted player.

Some of these guys the Giants signed were in contract years playing their top end game and even then it wasn't that impressive. I wished for a day when we didn't sign these type of guys, and it's here. I'm happy with it. I'll take my draft picks and let them learn to work.

 

[Reality]

"The other issue is that teams don't know what they are going to get in the draft, so they are hesitant to sign free agents when they may end up filling that position with a capable drafted player."
True, and why the draft should be before FA ?

I really wish the draft was first. There may be some logistical reasons why they can't do that. For example, I doubt they could move the draft up very much given the Combine and other research teams must do to build their draft boards. And delaying the start of free agency would likely impact and limit participation by free agents in OTAs and learning the playbook and schemes effectively. That's not even considering the time crunch it would cause on the player and his family with regards to moving, selling their old house, buying a new one, transferring kids to new schools, etc.

 

[DandyDon52]

I really wish the draft was first. There may be some logistical reasons why they can't do that. For example, I doubt they could move the draft up very much given the Combine and other research teams must do to build their draft boards. And delaying the start of free agency would likely impact and limit participation by free agents in OTAs and learning the playbook and schemes effectively. That's not even considering the time crunch it would cause on the player and his family with regards to moving, selling their old house, buying a new one, transferring kids to new schools, etc.

Well your right about delaying the start of free agency, for the reasons you state, but I think teams could adjust to a shorter period
to build their boards.

 

[reddyuta]

IMO this strategy works if you are good at drafting (not just in the first RD).you need to draft players who can be starters or atleast good backups in all Rds.we have consistently failed to do that even in the Mcclay era.Its just good enough to get 2 good players a draft and draft all junk in the rest of the Rds,,this leads to bad depth and ultimately dooms you due to attrition in the NFL.classic example is last year we wasted 2 late RD picks on a freaking TE who had 5 college catches to his credit ,we could have used one of those picks on the RB Rawls and we wouldnt be in the predicament of looking for another RB right now.we think we are really more clever then other teams but what we are is the worst drafting team in late Rds in the whole of NFL.any other GM and scouting team with that kind of record would be fired long time ago.