Tolbert makes the list

One of the immediate benefits of the George Pickens trade: Jalen Tolbert stops getting hate he doesn’t deserve. A third-round pick out of South Alabama back in 2022, Tolbert unsurprisingly needed a couple seasons to find his bearings in the NFL. He broke through in Year 3, though, catching 49 balls for 610 yards and seven touchdowns. Not to say that’s eye-popping production, but it represents encouraging growth. And yet, through the first four months of this year, Tolbert’s name became something of a punchline when Cowboys critics rhetorically asked, “Who are Dallas’ weapons beyond CeeDee Lamb?” With Pickens’ arrival as the new WR2, Tolbert is a more-than-functional WR3, so everyone can get off the man’s case.
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:clap:
 
I get it. Yes he does get unwarranted hate. Yes he's gotten better every year in the league......

But the problem is he was so bad year 1....it was only up from there....and honestly he was so bad year 1 that he could've been cut and no one would've cared. So to deal with him for 3 years......this is not the guy I thought we were getting. Now it's time to get paid, and we still have no idea how good he is.
 
The self-proclaimed Robin?

In his defense he has gotten better each season.

WR2 is going to be interesting next offseason, but it’s easy to see that they are probably backing themselves into having to draft a WR in the first next year.
 
big dog cowboy said:
If only the coaches hadn't screwed him up. Once again, McCarthy and player mismanagement rears its ugly head. At least he has shown good progress.
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If I'm not mistaken, that wasn't a McCarthy thing; that was a Tolbert thing. He was completely lost rookie year. It's a blur now, but mentally, he wasn't prepared for the NFL, it seemed.
 
TheMarathonContinues said:
If I'm not mistaken, that wasn't a McCarthy thing; that was a Tolbert thing. He was completely lost rookie year. It's a blur now, but mentally, he wasn't prepared for the NFL, it seemed.
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It was 100% on the coaches. They knew he wasn't ready for the entire playbook coming from a small school but they shoved it in his face and told him to learn everything. He was so lost he couldn't even to the basic stuff. 2nd year he had to be deprogrammed and reprogrammed and started looking better. Last year was a big leap.
 
big dog cowboy said:
It was 100% on the coaches. They knew he wasn't ready for the entire playbook coming from a small school, but they shoved it in his face and told him to learn everything. He was so lost he couldn't even do the basic stuff. 2nd year, he had to be deprogrammed and reprogrammed, and started looking better. Last year was a big leap.
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Ehhh.....he's not the first small school guy to come into the NFL. But to my knowledge, it was the speed of the game that he couldn't handle...I don't fault him....it happens. They just got NOTHING, which was what was alarming.
 
TheMarathonContinues said:
They just got NOTHING, which was what was alarming.
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Alarming how poorly coached he was. There were articles during the season documenting how poorly coached he was and him complaining about how things were going. The kid from South Alabama just got thrown in the deep end and wasn't ready.
 
McKDaddy said:
I don't recall ever knocking the player. However, I do think it's fair to question the value of waiting three years for meaningful production from a third round pick.

Seems we coulda had someone productive with that pick & grab Tolbert later.
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Sure in a redraft world. Everytram can play that same game.
 
big dog cowboy said:
It was 100% on the coaches. They knew he wasn't ready for the entire playbook coming from a small school but they shoved it in his face and told him to learn everything. He was so lost he couldn't even to the basic stuff. 2nd year he had to be deprogrammed and reprogrammed and started looking better. Last year was a big leap.
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I think that one might be a stretch BDC....Any coaching staff in the league is going to ask a 3rd round pick to know the entire playbook, big school background or not. I mean the guy comes from the sun belt conference, hes still been playing D1 football for 4 years. Its not like a D1 program doesnt have some depth to their playbooks and Tolbert had to learn how to play the position from scratch. This is nothing more than what is asked of every other player drafted to a pro team. If his head was spinning his rookie year, that's fine as a lot of guys go through that, but I don't see how that is on the coaching staff.

If a guy can't process the game quickly you can't get him on the field, and coaches are absolutely going to test a rookie players mental capacity. A WR has to be able to line up, see the sight adjustments as the QB does, and go within seconds....often times quicker than that in todays game between defenses giving delayed looks, and offenses using high motion rates.

Back in the old days you could give a player a package of plays to be proficient in and go from there. Today its pretty rare and what you only do for guys you just traded for a week ago, not players that have been in camp all offseason. Its simply not fair to your QB to have to worry about who is on the field to know if they can audible into that cover 3 beater or not.
 
Forget knowing the entire playbook, Tolbert couldn't even line up his rookie year. That's not Mike McCarthy's fault.

And they said Jalen Brooks knew all three positions by the time camp was over. Same coach.
 
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