CFZ This off-season has made the offense more of a gamble

[Bobhaze]

This has been one of the craziest off-seasons I’ve seen in Cowboys history. (I won’t rehash all the craziness like upskirt shots, a love child revealed, fender-benders, a weak FA haul, etc) Let’s just say it has been at the very least an interesting off-season.

But honestly, until the live bullets of the regular season start flying in September, we won’t really know if this team is better or not. But as we always do this time of year- we can speculate.

I want to start with the offense- After the off-season we’ve had so far- is it better than it was at the end of last year? To me, we are rolling the dice on several guys. Let’s look at some indicators:

• OL- We lost 2 starters with a combined 10 years of NFL experience and replaced them with a rookie and a 3rd year UFA. To be clear, I’m glad we parted ways with Connor Williams and his holding penalty parade and Collins with his wacky undependable ways. But questions remain.
  • Will rookie Tyler Smith be able to upgrade what we got at LG last year? Maybe he can but it is an assumption until he proves it. I like Tyler Smith as a project but I would have felt better if the team wasn’t counting on him day one. It’s a risk.
  • Losing La’el Collins was somewhat understandable with his undependability but he certainly had talent. I like Terrance Steele but can we confidently say we are as good as we used to be at RT? It’s a gamble.

• WR- Amari Cooper was deemed too expensive, and his production has dropped off the last two years. Let’s look at Coop’s downturn in production:

• He only averaged 57 yds per game last year and was only 6th on the team in YAC behind Lamb, Schultz, Cedric Wilson, Pollard, and Zeke. Wow.
• He only averaged about 12 yds per reception the last 2 seasons. Down from nearly 15 yds per catch the previous seasons. Those are slot receiver numbers, not star receiver stats.
• It’s not true that he wasn’t thrown the ball enough. He was 2nd on the team in number of passing targets behind only Lamb.

• We've replaced Cooper and Cedric Wilson with 3rd round rookie Jalen Tolbert and FA James Washington. Is that an upgrade? Maybe. But It’s also a gamble.

IN SUMMARY: Between Amari Cooper, Cedric Wilson, Connor Williams and Lael Collins, we lost 21 years of NFL experience and replaced them with 6 years of NFL experience. If the talent is better, the experience numbers won’t matter. But it is somewhat of a gamble.

Is our offense better as a result of this off-season? Maybe it will. But it’s a gamble.

 

[atlantacowboy]

This has been one of the craziest off-seasons I’ve seen in Cowboys history. (I won’t rehash all the craziness like upskirt shots, a love child revealed, fender-benders, a weak FA haul, etc) Let’s just say it has been at the very least an interesting off-season.

But honestly, until the live bullets of the regular season start flying in September, we won’t really know if this team is better or not. But as we always do this time of year- we can speculate.

I want to start with the offense- After the off-season we’ve had so far- is it better than it was at the end of last year? To me, we are rolling the dice on several guys. Let’s look at some indicators:

• OL- We lost 2 starters with a combined 10 years of NFL experience and replaced them with a rookie and a 3rd year UFA. To be clear, I’m glad we parted ways with Connor Williams and his holding penalty parade and Collins with his wacky undependable ways. But questions remains.
  • Will rookie Tyler Smith be able to upgrade what we got at LG last year? Maybe he can but it is an assumption until he proves it. I like Tyler Smith as a project but I would have felt better if the team wasn’t counting on him day one. It’s a risk.
  • Losing La’el Collins was somewhat understandable with his undependability but he certainly had talent. I like Terrance Steele but can we confidently say we are as good as we used to be at RT? It’s a gamble.

• WR- Amari Cooper was deemed too expensive, and his production has dropped off the last two years. Let’s look at Coop’s downturn in production:

• He only averaged 57 yds per game last year and was only 6th on the team in YAC behind Lamb, Schultz, Cedric Wilson, Pollard, and Zeke. Wow.
• He only averaged about 12 yds per reception the last 2 seasons. Down from nearly 15 yds per catch the previous seasons. Those are slot receiver numbers, not star receiver stats.
• It’s not true that he wasn’t thrown the ball enough. He was 2nd on the team in number of passing targets behind only Lamb.

• We've replaced Cooper and Cedric Wilson with 3rd round rookie Jalen Tolbert and FA James Washington. Is that an upgrade? Maybe. But It’s also a gamble.

IN SUMMARY: Between Amari Cooper, Cedric Wilson, Connor Williams and Lael Collins, we lost 21 years of NFL experience and replaced them with 6 years of NFL experience. If the talent is better, the experience numbers won’t matter. But it’s is somewhat of a gamble.

Is our offense will be better as a result of this off-season? Maybe it will. But it’s a gamble.

Bingo. It is not about the guys we lost so much as the guys replacing them.

 

[CowboyRoy]

This has been one of the craziest off-seasons I’ve seen in Cowboys history. (I won’t rehash all the craziness like upskirt shots, a love child revealed, fender-benders, a weak FA haul, etc) Let’s just say it has been at the very least an interesting off-season.

But honestly, until the live bullets of the regular season start flying in September, we won’t really know if this team is better or not. But as we always do this time of year- we can speculate.

I want to start with the offense- After the off-season we’ve had so far- is it better than it was at the end of last year? To me, we are rolling the dice on several guys. Let’s look at some indicators:

• OL- We lost 2 starters with a combined 10 years of NFL experience and replaced them with a rookie and a 3rd year UFA. To be clear, I’m glad we parted ways with Connor Williams and his holding penalty parade and Collins with his wacky undependable ways. But questions remain.
  • Will rookie Tyler Smith be able to upgrade what we got at LG last year? Maybe he can but it is an assumption until he proves it. I like Tyler Smith as a project but I would have felt better if the team wasn’t counting on him day one. It’s a risk.
  • Losing La’el Collins was somewhat understandable with his undependability but he certainly had talent. I like Terrance Steele but can we confidently say we are as good as we used to be at RT? It’s a gamble.

• WR- Amari Cooper was deemed too expensive, and his production has dropped off the last two years. Let’s look at Coop’s downturn in production:

• He only averaged 57 yds per game last year and was only 6th on the team in YAC behind Lamb, Schultz, Cedric Wilson, Pollard, and Zeke. Wow.
• He only averaged about 12 yds per reception the last 2 seasons. Down from nearly 15 yds per catch the previous seasons. Those are slot receiver numbers, not star receiver stats.
• It’s not true that he wasn’t thrown the ball enough. He was 2nd on the team in number of passing targets behind only Lamb.

• We've replaced Cooper and Cedric Wilson with 3rd round rookie Jalen Tolbert and FA James Washington. Is that an upgrade? Maybe. But It’s also a gamble.

IN SUMMARY: Between Amari Cooper, Cedric Wilson, Connor Williams and Lael Collins, we lost 21 years of NFL experience and replaced them with 6 years of NFL experience. If the talent is better, the experience numbers won’t matter. But it’s is somewhat of a gamble.

Is our offense will be better as a result of this off-season? Maybe it will. But it’s a gamble.

not sure it’s important to be better. More consistent and less penalties would be fine with me.

personally I could care less about anyone we lost on offense. Good riddance.

 

[Bobhaze]

not sure it’s important to be better. More consistent and less penalties would be fine with me.

personally I could care less about anyone we lost on offense. Good riddance.

I don’t care who we lost either but on one condition- we win some playoff games.

 

[CowboyRoy]

I don’t care who we lost either but on one condition- we win some playoff games.

We didn’t win with the ones we lost.

defense needs to take the next step. Offense needs better blocking. Getting rid of Collins and Williams and the draft we had is all about that. Furgeson too. Now whether that happens this year or not is a guess. Either way you had to get rid of those players.

 

[75boyz]

If they can run the football effectively they can win a decent amount of regular season games. If no run game, this offense will struggle to win.

The first 6 or 7 games last year showed the way for this offense to win. Same as it was in 2014 and 2016. I have seen the blame for the offense's decline placed on the OL, RB health, Dak health, the OC and the Denver game.
So whatever and however all of the above can be fixed to get them back to having a decent ground game will dictate the season imo.

Again to me, If they can't run they will struggle playing even .500 ball.

jmo

 

[Praxit]

..I'm kinda excited,Bullet. I mean, with all the changes on offense, it will be certain something will change.

 

[jazzcat22]

On paper to some it is a loss and we will be worse. To others it is a gain, as those players needed to go.
I just wonder what the comments would be if they allowed Gallop to leave or if he would have got any offers with his knee injury, and we kept Cooper. With and without, as to his contract being restructured. As to comments if kept and not restructured, as opposed to kept and restructured.
I still do not have an opinion on it, but I think there is potential to at least be the same, if not better by mid season.

As for Williams and Collins, many wanted Williams gone, but now question his replacement. Typical I guess. Well, he can't be any worse, other than some rookie mistakes for a little while.
Collins we could not rely on given the past 2 years of not knowing he will be available or his attitude, seems to have gotten lazy. At least Steele showed some promise to be at least as good more time than not. He will improve.

Get that OL working well, and the WR issues will be fine, along with the run game.

The wild card here is Moore, can / will he get his head out of his butt from the last part of the seasons play calling.

 

[Oz-of-Cowboy-Country]

What do y'all consider better? More yards? More points? All I'm looking for is more stability. Can the run game stop disappearing for games and games at a time. The ups and downs this offense goes through ever year coincides with our rushing attack tanking for a stretch. Maybe it's Zeke. Maybe it's the OL. Maybe it's the play calling. What ever it is we need to become a more reliable running team. Balance was the key to 2016 and it'll be the key to 2022.

 

[Hawkeye0202]

Bit of a gamble, yes but I'd like to think we've replaced what we lost with more talented, hungrier players with the exception of Coop.

 

[jazzcat22]

What do y'all consider better? More yards? More points? All I'm looking for is more stability. Can the run game stop disappearing for games and games at a time. The ups and downs this offense goes through ever year coincides with our rushing attack tanking for a stretch. Maybe it's Zeke. Maybe it's the OL. Maybe it's the play calling. What ever it is we need to become a more reliable running team. Balance was the key to 2016 and it'll be the key to 2022.

Be better against winning teams, get some wins in there as opposed to all the losses.
Learn how to pull those games out. As they were close to winning them, but just could not close it out by making a stop and running out the clock, or scoring at the end, if a stop was made.

 

[Hawkeye0202]

Just me, talent was NOT why we lost the playoff game. Coaches and penalties.....I'm 100% confident w/o these impacts, we beat the 49ers.

 

[xwalker]

This has been one of the craziest off-seasons I’ve seen in Cowboys history. (I won’t rehash all the craziness like upskirt shots, a love child revealed, fender-benders, a weak FA haul, etc) Let’s just say it has been at the very least an interesting off-season.

But honestly, until the live bullets of the regular season start flying in September, we won’t really know if this team is better or not. But as we always do this time of year- we can speculate.

I want to start with the offense- After the off-season we’ve had so far- is it better than it was at the end of last year? To me, we are rolling the dice on several guys. Let’s look at some indicators:

• OL- We lost 2 starters with a combined 10 years of NFL experience and replaced them with a rookie and a 3rd year UFA. To be clear, I’m glad we parted ways with Connor Williams and his holding penalty parade and Collins with his wacky undependable ways. But questions remain.
  • Will rookie Tyler Smith be able to upgrade what we got at LG last year? Maybe he can but it is an assumption until he proves it. I like Tyler Smith as a project but I would have felt better if the team wasn’t counting on him day one. It’s a risk.
  • Losing La’el Collins was somewhat understandable with his undependability but he certainly had talent. I like Terrance Steele but can we confidently say we are as good as we used to be at RT? It’s a gamble.

• WR- Amari Cooper was deemed too expensive, and his production has dropped off the last two years. Let’s look at Coop’s downturn in production:

• He only averaged 57 yds per game last year and was only 6th on the team in YAC behind Lamb, Schultz, Cedric Wilson, Pollard, and Zeke. Wow.
• He only averaged about 12 yds per reception the last 2 seasons. Down from nearly 15 yds per catch the previous seasons. Those are slot receiver numbers, not star receiver stats.
• It’s not true that he wasn’t thrown the ball enough. He was 2nd on the team in number of passing targets behind only Lamb.

• We've replaced Cooper and Cedric Wilson with 3rd round rookie Jalen Tolbert and FA James Washington. Is that an upgrade? Maybe. But It’s also a gamble.

IN SUMMARY: Between Amari Cooper, Cedric Wilson, Connor Williams and Lael Collins, we lost 21 years of NFL experience and replaced them with 6 years of NFL experience. If the talent is better, the experience numbers won’t matter. But it is somewhat of a gamble.

Is our offense better as a result of this off-season? Maybe it will. But it’s a gamble.

Steele has proven ability to start at RT.

James Washington appears to be a better player than Cedrick Wilson and Washington is a veteran.

The difference in physical talent between Tyler Smith and Connor Williams is extreme.
- The probability of Smith being better at LG than CW is very high.

The biggest risk is Gallup's injury. If Gallup were 100%, I wouldn't be overly concerned about WR.
- Once Gallup is 100% the overall WR talent should be very good.

Regardless of who plays WR, this team will not have success unless the running game improves.
- On paper it should be better, but by how much is the question.
- Tyler Smith over Connor Williams.
- A rookie TE that might already be a better blocker than Schultz. Ferguson is definitely a better blocker than Jarwin.
- Pollard coming into his own. His rushing yards per game almost doubled from the previous season.

 

[Creeper]

This has been one of the craziest off-seasons I’ve seen in Cowboys history. (I won’t rehash all the craziness like upskirt shots, a love child revealed, fender-benders, a weak FA haul, etc) Let’s just say it has been at the very least an interesting off-season.

But honestly, until the live bullets of the regular season start flying in September, we won’t really know if this team is better or not. But as we always do this time of year- we can speculate.

I want to start with the offense- After the off-season we’ve had so far- is it better than it was at the end of last year? To me, we are rolling the dice on several guys. Let’s look at some indicators:

• OL- We lost 2 starters with a combined 10 years of NFL experience and replaced them with a rookie and a 3rd year UFA. To be clear, I’m glad we parted ways with Connor Williams and his holding penalty parade and Collins with his wacky undependable ways. But questions remain.
  • Will rookie Tyler Smith be able to upgrade what we got at LG last year? Maybe he can but it is an assumption until he proves it. I like Tyler Smith as a project but I would have felt better if the team wasn’t counting on him day one. It’s a risk.
  • Losing La’el Collins was somewhat understandable with his undependability but he certainly had talent. I like Terrance Steele but can we confidently say we are as good as we used to be at RT? It’s a gamble.

• WR- Amari Cooper was deemed too expensive, and his production has dropped off the last two years. Let’s look at Coop’s downturn in production:

• He only averaged 57 yds per game last year and was only 6th on the team in YAC behind Lamb, Schultz, Cedric Wilson, Pollard, and Zeke. Wow.
• He only averaged about 12 yds per reception the last 2 seasons. Down from nearly 15 yds per catch the previous seasons. Those are slot receiver numbers, not star receiver stats.
• It’s not true that he wasn’t thrown the ball enough. He was 2nd on the team in number of passing targets behind only Lamb.

• We've replaced Cooper and Cedric Wilson with 3rd round rookie Jalen Tolbert and FA James Washington. Is that an upgrade? Maybe. But It’s also a gamble.

IN SUMMARY: Between Amari Cooper, Cedric Wilson, Connor Williams and Lael Collins, we lost 21 years of NFL experience and replaced them with 6 years of NFL experience. If the talent is better, the experience numbers won’t matter. But it is somewhat of a gamble.

Is our offense better as a result of this off-season? Maybe it will. But it’s a gamble.

Good post.

I would not have cut Collins for nothing in return. And I would not have traded Cooper for a 5th round pick. It is more about the compensation for them than the decision to get rid of them. But the discussion is about the offense being more of a gamble this year and I say absolutely it is.

Say what you want about Cooper. I never felt he was right for this team. But he is a quality receiver and at this point it does not look like they replaced him. Maybe Jalen Tolbert turns out to be this year's Justin Jefferson. We will see but at this point the offense looks diminished without Cooper.

I get the idea that La'el Collins was not dependable. I have no idea if he has anymore suspensions looming or not be he was a better right tackle than Steele. I think Steele is still somewhat of an unknown at RT. I like his work ethic and he seems to want to get better. But I cannot forget the way the Cowboys OL did nothing when the WFT put a dirty hit on Andy Dalton. Or when Collins got kicked out of a game last year for protecting Dak. I think Collins has been underrated by some people. But clearly we do not know the whole story because dumping him for nothing tells me the Cowboys really did not like him.

 

[Praxit]

Just me, talent was NOT why we lost the playoff game. Coaches and penalties.....I'm 100% confident w/o these impacts, we beat the 49ers.

...I totally agree. We got few big plays from O called back, could not recover from them.

 

[G2]

I don't see what Cooper & Wilson did that is irreplaceable.

 

[atlantacowboy]

Good post.

I would not have cut Collins for nothing in return. And I would not have traded Cooper for a 5th round pick. It is more about the compensation for them than the decision to get rid of them. But the discussion is about the offense being more of a gamble this year and I say absolutely it is.

Say what you want about Cooper. I never felt he was right for this team. But he is a quality receiver and at this point it does not look like they replaced him. Maybe Jalen Tolbert turns out to be this year's Justin Jefferson. We will see but at this point the offense looks diminished without Cooper.

I get the idea that La'el Collins was not dependable. I have no idea if he has anymore suspensions looming or not be he was a better right tackle than Steele. I think Steele is still somewhat of an unknown at RT. I like his work ethic and he seems to want to get better. But I cannot forget the way the Cowboys OL did nothing when the WFT put a dirty hit on Andy Dalton. Or when Collins got kicked out of a game last year for protecting Dak. I think Collins has been underrated by some people. But clearly we do not know the whole story because dumping him for nothing tells me the Cowboys really did not like him.

Justin Jefferson was a first round pick from LSU not a long shot from a small school. There is no way Tolbert is going to replace the quality of a healthy Amari Cooper.

La'el was not dependable but he was really good and probably the best run blocking right tackle in the NFL. You can't just cut a guy with that talent and potential and get nothing back. At the very least we should have kept Amari and La'El through the draft and used them as trade bait. The market for WRS was HUGE this draft. Those teams trying to find one in round 2 might have parted with that pick for Amari. This team struggles b/c it is poorly managed.

 

[Bobhaze]

Good post.

I would not have cut Collins for nothing in return. And I would not have traded Cooper for a 5th round pick. It is more about the compensation for them than the decision to get rid of them. But the discussion is about the offense being more of a gamble this year and I say absolutely it is.

Say what you want about Cooper. I never felt he was right for this team. But he is a quality receiver and at this point it does not look like they replaced him. Maybe Jalen Tolbert turns out to be this year's Justin Jefferson. We will see but at this point the offense looks diminished without Cooper.

I get the idea that La'el Collins was not dependable. I have no idea if he has anymore suspensions looming or not be he was a better right tackle than Steele. I think Steele is still somewhat of an unknown at RT. I like his work ethic and he seems to want to get better. But I cannot forget the way the Cowboys OL did nothing when the WFT put a dirty hit on Andy Dalton. Or when Collins got kicked out of a game last year for protecting Dak. I think Collins has been underrated by some people. But clearly we do not know the whole story because dumping him for nothing tells me the Cowboys really did not like him.

Regarding Collins and his suspension last year- By the time you get a suspension for physically enhancing drugs (PEDs)in the NFL, you have clearly disregarded a very strict and clear set of rules that are shared multiple times with players each year. In other words, Collins had no excuse for his getting suspended.

The PED policy is in place because the league finds that those substances threaten the fairness and integrity of the game, as not everyone is willing to use them and it can give a physical advantage to the users.

Most violations of the PED policy come from urine samples during both scheduled and random testing. A first violation of the policy can warrant up to a six-game suspension without pay (the average is usually four games). The use of a masking agent is a two-game suspension. The use of steroids, stimulants, or HGH is a four-game suspension. Any attempt to manipulate a test is six games. A second violation is 10 games and a third violation can be a season-long suspension, sometimes two.

I mention all this because Collins was suspended 5 games which shows he must have also tried to mask it as well. A federal judge ruled in favor of the NFL when he appealed in court. He was a knucklehead for not only using PEDs but also costing the team his services for about a third of the season. He became undependable.

 

[Bobhaze]

I don't see what Cooper & Wilson did that is irreplaceable.

You may be right. I agree that Cooper’s production had declined and was not worth the price he was being paid. But thinking Tolbert alone can replace Coop’s production is certainly a gamble. Maybe it will work out.

 

[Reid1boys]

This has been one of the craziest off-seasons I’ve seen in Cowboys history. (I won’t rehash all the craziness like upskirt shots, a love child revealed, fender-benders, a weak FA haul, etc) Let’s just say it has been at the very least an interesting off-season.

The avg. roster turnover rate from year to year is 25%. So this is nothing new to the Cowboys or NFL teams. It is simply the way the NFL world operates. out of the 11 starters from last years team, we lost Amari, Collins(wasnt really a starter last year) and Williams. Seeing how most in here said Williams was awful, Id see that as a good thing.

Replacing Wrs is a never ending thing in the NFL in todays world. So drafting a 3rd round Wr and expecting them to play is the norm. Ultimately, the Wrs will go as Dak goes. Im not worried about it.