What a difference a year makes

jterrell

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Just one year ago this team was being picked last in the NFCE by many.
8 wins was rather the high water mark and that was if we were miraculously lucky with Romo.

But the league basically forces Dallas to take another OL in round 1 and the dude becomes better than any OL we'd been dreaming of. He's arguably the 2nd best Guard in team history and he's played one friggin year. Unbelievable. Who doesn't like Zach Martin now?

The team with a coach arguably on the hot seat, a QB who was considered fat, vastly overpaid and seriously injured was skipping practices all year. It lost it's best pass rusher in team history and probably the guy coming off the best year as well. It's best overall defender was out ALL YEAR. And the team was being mocked for giving Rolando McClain a shot.

Now merely one year later, this team does the impossible. It adds a top coverage guy in Byron Jones. a top pass rusher in Gregory and once again steals an OL that had no business being available to them.
Getting those 3 is pretty insane. You'd have basically been happy with that haul had you started at pick 1 and traded down from there. But adding that to a 12 win team picking 27th with so little cap cost, zero future draft picks forfeited and no real cap effect? God (at least the football version) really does love us!

The board draft nerds (like me) argue endlessly about what the team needs and what you take.
Is it coverage or Pass Rush, is it Safety or CB, is it experienced proven guys in FA or young guys via the draft.

This darn team just grabbed it all. Greg Hardy was the only pass rusher of note available. We started out over the cap and managed to grab him anyway. Everyone else was getting vastly overpaid off mediocrity and Jerry swung the sword and added a guy with issues. But he's committed on a game by game basis for only one season! And then he hedges his bets at pick 60 when a pass rusher falls out of the sky. The NFL pretty much demanded the Cowboys take Gregory just as they had with Zach Martin a year earlier.

But the cherry on top is the flukiest situation in the history of the league happens where timing and circumstance take a R1 guy and push him to UDFA status. The league has all the power and leverage over the poor kid and he is over a barrel so some team gets a sweetheart deal of epic proportions. And this kid picks Dallas where he has no guarantees of starting and must earn everything handed him. He says he looks forward to that? Which is all real good as a sound bite but how many other athletes actually make that decision?

Jerry was regarded as the most useless, pig-headed owner in sports by many just last year. Now he is executive of the year. And he just sat and cried with a prospect and his momma in a recruiting win even Barry Switzer would be impressed by.

I just don't know how to bottle this nor how to be patient with it but these all seem like steps leading to a Lombardi. And quite possibly to the next NFL dynasty.
It is really hard to believe this is all real.

This isn't like the 90s Cowboys. That group was built over about 3-4 years with a few seasons of purgatory to deliver the freight that brought the triplets. This was done off 8 win seasons and largely changed overnight.
 

DBOY3141

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Great post. And some media darlings still say we have no chance at the playoffs because we didn't draft a RB. The fire, passion, work ethic, dedication this team has shown can carry it to great things. As the great Hank would say "ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?????"
 

davey999

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At some point this year, we could have the following 4 guys on the field on 3rd and long.

Lawrence, Hardy, Crawford and Gregory.

Yikes
 

cowboys1981

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Our trenches are being stacked with quality and we'll benefit long term because of it. I expect our GM to win GM of the year again.
 

ThreeandOut

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Jerry has rightfully handed over a lot of the football decisions to others (Stephen, Garrett, McClay). But Jerry is a big reason that a Collins or a Hardy choose to play for the Cowboys over other teams He's the one that sells the Cowboys organization to these players. Free agents also know that Jerry cares greatly for his players as people. Stephen will eventually be a great owner of the Cowboys, there will be a void once Jerry is no longer involved with the Cowboys.
 

jazzcat22

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Great post. And some media darlings still say we have no chance at the playoffs because we didn't draft a RB. The fire, passion, work ethic, dedication this team has shown can carry it to great things. As the great Hank would say "ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?????"

They already have said that. Baldinger said it, and the other 3 guys got up and walked off though. hat was pre Collins signing.
This morning, post Collins signing, even Warner said, without Murray, what good is this signing.
 

DBOY3141

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They already have said that. Baldinger said it, and the other 3 guys got up and walked off though. hat was pre Collins signing.
This morning, post Collins signing, even Warner said, without Murray, what good is this signing.

Wow. Did not hear that. Warner is normally pretty level headed
 

jazzcat22

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Wow. Did not hear that. Warner is normally pretty level headed

yes, that was what I thought, he normally wouldn't say that, and was actually a bit shocked.
Maybe he was just playing devils advocate. It will probably be on again later. I will need to hear the entire discussion, only caught that part as I changed the channel.
 

DBOY3141

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yes, that was what I thought, he normally wouldn't say that, and was actually a bit shocked.
Maybe he was just playing devils advocate. It will probably be on again later. I will need to hear the entire discussion, only caught that part as I changed the channel.

Gotta hope comments like that feed that fire in the belly of Mcfadden, Williams, Randle, Dunbar.
 

jazzcat22

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Wow. Did not hear that. Warner is normally pretty level headed

my apologies, it was not Warner. It was Mark somebody..LOL...Now he did say it was a great move though for the OL...
Like I said, I seen the last part of it, and only glimpsed at the TV.
Still having my 1st cup of coffee.
 

DBOY3141

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my apologies, it was not Warner. It was Mark somebody..LOL...Now he did say it was a great move though for the OL...
Like I said, I seen the last part of it, and only glimpsed at the TV.
Still having my 1st cup of coffee.

Maybe Mark Brunnel, I think he is normally on ESPN. I think to some of these guys, it doesn't matter what the Cowboys do. Trey Wingo made some comment last night about Hardy, Gregory and Collins all being Cowboys and said "good luck with that". Collins by all indications has done nothing wrong.
 

Chuck 54

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The great thing is, you don't have to find and groom the next franchise QB.

We keep saying it's time to find and groom Romo's successor, but it's not that easy unless you can select a top QB in round 1. What happened with Romo was very rare. With this OL and defense, along with the way the front office is operating, there are always quality free agent veteran QB's available who can win with a solid team, and they would all be lined up to play with this line and a receiver like Dez.

Would I like to find the next Romo? Sure, but to be honest, I think we need to find the next franchise TE, the next RB if he isn't already here, and the next WR.
 
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