CFZ Time to get real!

stiletto

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I think it is safe to say that it has been a long off-season for all of us. The result of the playoff game against the 49ers might have been the worst feeling we've had this side of "a knee to Tony Romo's back" in the 2016 pre-season game against the Seahawks. (In recent times)

With that said, a lot has happened (or not happened) this offseason. It's really elusive to judge how this off season has gone. The team lost 2 or 3 starters on offense including a receiver that I think generally scared the bejesus out of opposing defenses, a starting caliber O-lineman, flawed for sure but when in shape he was capable... Then we get the terrible YouTube videos of Tyron Smith going down on a seemingly mild play and hear that his "hamstring ripped from his bone", made everyone shutter. Injuries happen but DAMN. No one wanted THAT. We all know he was going to be out 4 or 5 games but that was just brutal.

Once the dust cleared, 99.9% of all fans realized...wow, the Front Office is really in question. They pinned all hopes on Tyron Smith staying healthy and drafting Tyler Smith to bolster the line. Good idea BUT...cheap and not realistic. There was absolutely no plan-B after that. Am I the only one that finds that insane as hell?

I think it took a a couple hours hilariously, but Cap Boy and his Dad realized their mistake pretty fast. They were on the phone for sure.

Enter...Jason Peters.40 year old guy that had a good season with the Bears last year. Started 15 games and his YouTube film and PFF scores were something we could only dream of after seeing the video of Tyron going down. Let's hope it goes like that after a couple games.

Many today are trying to give the "Jones boys" all the credit but I am thinking, why weren't they shaking trees in the off-season to bring in a known commodity or two for the OL? They knew they didn't want Collins, they knew they were going to draft a guy and they absolutely knew that Tyron Smith has been injured for some part of the season for 3 years straight! Didn't they?!! Crazyness.

Well here we are.Tom Brady is coming to town Sunday night. He's one of the best to ever do it. He and his team have their own issues but the great ones can always compartmentalize. That's what they do.

We are again stuck with a team that we aren't sure about.

Will last ditch "Flex-Tape" level moves be enough? Will a well coached and up & coming defense be enough?

I do like Defense...
 

DogFace

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This is the best all around—Offense, Defense, Special Teams, adequate coaching, and some depth that we’ve had since…I don’t know how long, maybe the 90’s?

I’m excited every year, but this is the first year I can remember with a very talented D and a franchise changing player on it.

Compare this team to any in the last 10 years and I can’t see a better all around team. So yeah. I’m excited.
 

plymkr

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I'm excited for this year for 2 reasons. 1- hope that a miracle can happen. Any given Sunday and given year a team can win. Reason 2 is this has been one of the worst offseasons I can remember. The offseason Michael Irvin got arrested may have been the worst and the offseason when Troy retired and we drafted Quincy and signed Tony Banks and then cut Tony Banks in TC was bad as well. This offseason started off with an embarrassing loss to the niners, bad press conference, then the Rich Dalrymple situation, KJ situation, Jerry's love child, some questionable personal decisions, and Tyron probably having a career ending injury. Let's get the season going and play some games, been so much negativity.

I'm hopeful we can win every year but my expectations are pretty low considering how last year ended and how the offseason went. But I'm excited football is starting like I am every year.
 

glimmerman

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I think it is safe to say that it has been a long off-season for all of us. The result of the playoff game against the 49ers might have been the worst feeling we've had this side of "a knee to Tony Romo's back" in the 2016 pre-season game against the Seahawks. (In recent times)

With that said, a lot has happened (or not happened) this offseason. It's really elusive to judge how this off season has gone. The team lost 2 or 3 starters on offense including a receiver that I think generally scared the bejesus out of opposing defenses, a starting caliber O-lineman, flawed for sure but when in shape he was capable... Then we get the terrible YouTube videos of Tyron Smith going down on a seemingly mild play and hear that his "hamstring ripped from his bone", made everyone shutter. Injuries happen but DAMN. No one wanted THAT. We all know he was going to be out 4 or 5 games but that was just brutal.

Once the dust cleared, 99.9% of all fans realized...wow, the Front Office is really in question. They pinned all hopes on Tyron Smith staying healthy and drafting Tyler Smith to bolster the line. Good idea BUT...cheap and not realistic. There was absolutely no plan-B after that. Am I the only one that finds that insane as hell?

I think it took a a couple hours hilariously, but Cap Boy and his Dad realized their mistake pretty fast. They were on the phone for sure.

Enter...Jason Peters.40 year old guy that had a good season with the Bears last year. Started 15 games and his YouTube film and PFF scores were something we could only dream of after seeing the video of Tyron going down. Let's hope it goes like that after a couple games.

Many today are trying to give the "Jones boys" all the credit but I am thinking, why weren't they shaking trees in the off-season to bring in a known commodity or two for the OL? They knew they didn't want Collins, they knew they were going to draft a guy and they absolutely knew that Tyron Smith has been injured for some part of the season for 3 years straight! Didn't they?!! Crazyness.

Well here we are.Tom Brady is coming to town Sunday night. He's one of the best to ever do it. He and his team have their own issues but the great ones can always compartmentalize. That's what they do.

We are again stuck with a team that we aren't sure about.

Will last ditch "Flex-Tape" level moves be enough? Will a well coached and up & coming defense be enough?

I do like Defense...
We had the other rookie O-Linemen we drafted that was looking good but the shoulder looks to be a problem. I think he is going to give it a go. They needed to do more to gather a starting O-Line. And have some depth. Ball didn’t look as good as we thought he would.
 

Blackrain

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Before Tyron got hurt we needed a swing tackle and an NFL center.

If we wanted to get better we should have signed JC treater Eric Fisher and Jason Peters since we got rid of Collins and Tyron's injury history was always a looming factor to anyone that wasn't completely blind.

We are not the greatest developers of late round pics on the offensive line so to get over the top we have to be more active in free agency.
 

Blackrain

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It's really pretty simple do you want to learn from the 49ers game and the previous season.

Or do you want to rely on Hope luck and being cheap with the cap while the eagles make good decisions and blast by you in the division. Because make no mistake they have built their trenches strong.
 

MountaineerCowboy

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This team will go as far as the defense takes us in my opinion.

I don't believe this will be some kind of great defense like others seem to think, but probably a top 10 unit, which is more than good enough most years.

I think other parts of the team and players will be exposed this season and be seen by the majority as weak links. We'll have the defense, but we'll be weak in other very important areas and it will ultimately be the reason this team doesn't do anything meaningful.

I still only see at most 9 wins.
 

Blackrain

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This team will go as far as the defense takes us in my opinion.

I don't believe this will be some kind of great defense like others seem to think, but probably a top 10 unit, which is more than good enough most years.

I think other parts of the team and players will be exposed this season and be seen by the majority as weak links. We'll have the defense, but we'll be weak in other very important areas and it will ultimately be the reason this team doesn't do anything meaningful.

I still only see at most 9 wins.

I agree I think our defense is a top 10 unit but I also think it has the potential to be a top five unit depending on how some of these players turn out.

I think the sleeper unit is the special teams at this point I think Turpin gives us an explosive impact player that we have not had and just maybe will be able to reliably kick moderate range field goals this year.

On offense it's really simple okay Zeke's step slower but healthy wide receivers a little bit of a question mark.
For goodness sake bolster the offensive line in free agency and make everybody's job on the offense easier.

They say speed kills well that's 100% true but enormous lineman that can hold their blocks don't get run over or penalized cover a multitude of sins so the skill players can do their best work. Jason Peters was a start but we should have snatched up Fisher and JC treater than I would have said we had done all we could do.
 

Hawkeye0202

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Remember Jimmy saying if your team can win two out of three phases ( offense, defense, special team) you likely win the game. Let's apply it to a season.......I would argue with Turpin, Quinn and Parsons, that we have a good chance at near the top 5 in at least two phases. If that happens, we won't need a top 10 offense stat-wise per se. Just an offense that plays smart with minimum turnovers and penalties.

Maybe this is what Jerry was thinking with his running the ball more comment......safe, ball control, maximizing TOP.
 

jazzcat22

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This team will go as far as the defense takes us in my opinion.

I don't believe this will be some kind of great defense like others seem to think, but probably a top 10 unit, which is more than good enough most years.

I think other parts of the team and players will be exposed this season and be seen by the majority as weak links. We'll have the defense, but we'll be weak in other very important areas and it will ultimately be the reason this team doesn't do anything meaningful.

I still only see at most 9 wins.

A player or two, their weak links can be helped by very good surrounding players. And we have those players. more so on defense than offense. It is up to the coaches to adjust for that, as the opposing teams coaches try to exploit it.
However can our coaches out coach the other. With a 12-5 record they did, but against SF they blew it when counted. I know it still comes down to players making plays.

The issue is, when you have those starters going down next to the so called weak link, we never had depth, therefore the weak link got weaker. Do they have enough depth to overcome that.
From PS games yes, in real games, we don't know.

I think the defense will be improved, but not so greatly improved it will be like the 2000 Ravens or the 85 Bears. I don't believe any fan thinks that.
Top 10 sounds right. I think they were 8th last season, so most likely around there. As long as by playoff time they are playing like a top 5, I don't care what rank they end up with.

Of course the offense is a bit of a concern to start the season. Way too many unknowns going on. They all been discussed many times.
Will Biadasz be better, Steel full time RT now, Left side we have no idea how they will do. I think they will be better than many believe, it I not the Chaz Green's out there. But I feel there will be a learning curve. Moore best plan some adjustments moving Dak to the right.

How will the WR's do, there could be some timing issues here as well. But I also believe that will improve pretty quick.
How will Moore use both Zeke and Tony. Like the 1st 5 games last year, or the games after.

Overall, the offense will be better than many think, but not without growing pains. Play like a top 5 playoff push time. I don't care about the #1 ranking. It would be nice, but it is not all that important.

I am staying with 10 or 11 wins. NFCE champs.
 

xwalker

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I think it is safe to say that it has been a long off-season for all of us. The result of the playoff game against the 49ers might have been the worst feeling we've had this side of "a knee to Tony Romo's back" in the 2016 pre-season game against the Seahawks. (In recent times)

With that said, a lot has happened (or not happened) this offseason. It's really elusive to judge how this off season has gone. The team lost 2 or 3 starters on offense including a receiver that I think generally scared the bejesus out of opposing defenses, a starting caliber O-lineman, flawed for sure but when in shape he was capable... Then we get the terrible YouTube videos of Tyron Smith going down on a seemingly mild play and hear that his "hamstring ripped from his bone", made everyone shutter. Injuries happen but DAMN. No one wanted THAT. We all know he was going to be out 4 or 5 games but that was just brutal.

Once the dust cleared, 99.9% of all fans realized...wow, the Front Office is really in question. They pinned all hopes on Tyron Smith staying healthy and drafting Tyler Smith to bolster the line. Good idea BUT...cheap and not realistic. There was absolutely no plan-B after that. Am I the only one that finds that insane as hell?

I think it took a a couple hours hilariously, but Cap Boy and his Dad realized their mistake pretty fast. They were on the phone for sure.

Enter...Jason Peters.40 year old guy that had a good season with the Bears last year. Started 15 games and his YouTube film and PFF scores were something we could only dream of after seeing the video of Tyron going down. Let's hope it goes like that after a couple games.

Many today are trying to give the "Jones boys" all the credit but I am thinking, why weren't they shaking trees in the off-season to bring in a known commodity or two for the OL? They knew they didn't want Collins, they knew they were going to draft a guy and they absolutely knew that Tyron Smith has been injured for some part of the season for 3 years straight! Didn't they?!! Crazyness.

Well here we are.Tom Brady is coming to town Sunday night. He's one of the best to ever do it. He and his team have their own issues but the great ones can always compartmentalize. That's what they do.

We are again stuck with a team that we aren't sure about.

Will last ditch "Flex-Tape" level moves be enough? Will a well coached and up & coming defense be enough?

I do like Defense...
A quality LT would not have signed to be the backup to Tyron.

They drafted a LT in the first round.

It feels like they've had Jason Peters as an option for a long time. He wanted to stay in Texas where he lives. I'm not certain that he would have played elsewhere. Bears players and fans wanted him to return.

The only thing the Cowboys did not do was to sign a swing tackle. Would another Ty Nsekhe or Cam Fleming really have made a difference.

I don't know if you can't use logic or if emotion causes you to avoid using it.
 

McKDaddy

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A quality LT would not have signed to be the backup to Tyron.

They drafted a LT in the first round.

It feels like they've had Jason Peters as an option for a long time. He wanted to stay in Texas where he lives. I'm not certain that he would have played elsewhere. Bears players and fans wanted him to return.

The only thing the Cowboys did not do was to sign a swing tackle. Would another Ty Nsekhe or Cam Fleming really have made a difference.

I don't know if you can't use logic or if emotion causes you to avoid using it.

Thank you sir. I have been asking folks this for weeks. Who have we signed as a backup T in recent memory that was really solid if called upon?

Even if we had signed someone, people would have been clamoring to go sign someone better as soon as Tyron went down.

Signing marginal, stop gap players means you wouldn't have someone on your team right now. Who would you give up to have a guy you really don't trust?

Who knows if they young guys will ever become solid players. But it is clearly an investment that has already been made and for the long term well being of the team, it is better to take shots at young, cheap players who still have a chance. Roster spots full of guys that you pray you don't have to put in a game because you already know what they are gives you no real chance for improvement.
 

ChronicCowboy

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Objectively, this team can’t be expected to repeat 12-5. Too many players that contributed last season are gone and their replacements are largely unproven.

Considering the weakness of the division, a division title isn’t out of reach but I don’t necessarily expect it. I think a playoff spot and loss in the wild card round would be a decent season for this roster but Jerry will expect a postseason win or two.
 

xwalker

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Thank you sir. I have been asking folks this for weeks. Who have we signed as a backup T in recent memory that was really solid if called upon?

Even if we had signed someone, people would have been clamoring to go sign someone better as soon as Tyron went down.

Signing marginal, stop gap players means you wouldn't have someone on your team right now. Who would you give up to have a guy you really don't trust?

Who knows if they young guys will ever become solid players. But it is clearly an investment that has already been made and for the long term well being of the team, it is better to take shots at young, cheap players who still have a chance. Roster spots full of guys that you pray you don't have to put in a game because you already know what they are gives you no real chance for improvement.
The only feasible way to get a quality LT behind Tyron was by drafting one.

The only real option to be more prepared in 2023 would have been drafting the OT Rashawn Slater in 2021 instead of Parsons.

I don't think anybody would make that choice in retrospect.
 

Oz-of-Cowboy-Country

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The one thing that this season will prove...is that this FO needs to restock the offensive line. If we can have a great offensive line and a great defense the skies the limit next year. I'm already thinking about next year's draft. We need to draft a right tackle and another guard in the early rounds.
 

MountaineerCowboy

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The one thing that this season will prove...is that this FO needs to restock the offensive line. If we can have a great offensive line and a great defense the skies the limit next year. I'm already thinking about next year's draft. We need to draft a right tackle and another guard in the early rounds.
We've had a great, not good, but great offensive line for a decade and have nothing to show for it.

The offensive line isn't the problem.
 

BourbonBalz

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Before Tyron got hurt we needed a swing tackle and an NFL center.

If we wanted to get better we should have signed JC treater Eric Fisher and Jason Peters since we got rid of Collins and Tyron's injury history was always a looming factor to anyone that wasn't completely blind.

We are not the greatest developers of late round pics on the offensive line so to get over the top we have to be more active in free agency.
I doubt Peters or Fisher were going to sign to be bench players/swing tackles. And that’s what they would’ve been before Tyron’s injury. It just wasn’t feasible. Some of you seem to think we can just go out and sign anyone at any time. It doesn’t work that way.
 

Aerolithe_Lion

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This is the best all around—Offense, Defense, Special Teams, adequate coaching, and some depth that we’ve had since…I don’t know how long, maybe the 90’s?

I’m excited every year, but this is the first year I can remember with a very talented D and a franchise changing player on it.

Compare this team to any in the last 10 years and I can’t see a better all around team. So yeah. I’m excited.

Dallas had the 19th best defense last year with nearly the same players. How are they suddenly top 5?
 
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