What Can Cowboys Learn from Giants?

[Chuck 54]

Read a great article this week that went into all the reasons the Giants weren't as good as expected even before the injuries; even explains that they were banking on the same luck and out of the ordinary performances from last year that weren't normal or to be expected to continue.
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/pag...ts-collapse-next-how-got-here-why-trouble-nfl

I thought this quote was relevant to the Cowboys as well.

What to learn
"The biggest lesson from the Giants' fall from grace is simple: If you're a coach or an executive, be honest with yourself when you evaluate your team. If the metrics disagree about your team, as is the case with these Giants, you might want to re-evaluate whether you're actually as good as your record says you are. The most common mistake fans make in evaluating their teams before the season is to count on everything that went right a year ago to stay right while all the problems get fixed. Organizations make the same mistakes sometimes, too."

Amen brother. The OL was incredible last year in the run game and in giving Dak some Romo-like plays where he could just stand and wait, but that's not the normal with or without losing 2 starters. Zeke and Dak had incredible seasons, Dak doing what no rookie QB had ever done, yet we expected him to be even better with no growing pains. Beasley had a career year....hello? The defense was shakey up and down the field, but was really solid in the red zone and great vs. the run, performing better than the talent, so we added talented rookies.

Yes, the front office failed in some ways; yes, the coaches continue to fail in some ways. But we fans expected everything great about last season to remain great and for the weaknesses to be fixed. I guess maybe all NFL fans expect that of their teams, even the Browns.

 

[boyzjunkie]

To say nothing of strength of schedule.

 

[Aven8]

How anyone could think Nolan Carrol and rookies could replace our secondary, and Paea to replace McClain is fools gold!

However, I've always thought we feel this way after winning seasons for years. We don't need Demarco! Lol. Status quo, blah blah. Just not a very smart organization outside of making money.

 

[BlueStar22]

The front office has to take the blame. Sure you can't account for Paea retiring but you cut Carroll and Thornton. That's two failed FA choices. Yet year after year we hear that we're waiting for the 2nd and 3rd tier guys to sign while teams in the division do whatever to upgrade their defense, especially up front. I could see letting the whole secondary walk with the exception of Church. Was he great? Nah, a solid guy? Hell yeah. I also heard today that the Slurs signed Terrell McClain for the same price as we paid Paea. That's a fail on the front office.

 

[Nova]

How anyone could think Nolan Carrol and rookies could replace our secondary, and Paea to replace McClain is fools gold!

However, I've always thought we feel this way after winning seasons for years. We don't need Demarco! Lol. Status quo, blah blah. Just not a very smart organization outside of making money.

I agree about the Carroll and Paea being terrible.

But in this league, it's really hard to be great two years in a row.

Good teams are constantly rebuilding and adapting.

You simply can't fall too in love with your own talent and expect to succeed.

I'd much rather have Elliott than a 29 year old DeMarco Murray at this point.

 

[Nova]

The front office has to take the blame. Sure you can't account for Paea retiring but you cut Carroll and Thornton. That's two failed FA choices. Yet year after year we hear that we're waiting for the 2nd and 3rd tier guys to sign while teams in the division do whatever to upgrade their defense, especially up front. I could see letting the whole secondary walk with the exception of Church. Was he great? Nah, a solid guy? Hell yeah. I also heard today that the Slurs signed Terrell McClain for the same price as we paid Paea. That's a fail on the front office.

McClain signed with the skins for 4-yrs, 21mil, 10.5GTD.

Paea was 1 yr, 2 mil, 500k guaranteed.

But overall I agree. The Cowboys are wasting money by signing a handful of JAGs rather than spending on 1 impact player.

 

[Floatyworm]

We too can tank for Darnold.

 

[csirl]

What we can learn from Giants?

1.Matt grey pants that look like unwashed white pants look terrible.

2. When your star players prefer their 'boat club' to concentrating on their jobs it means your coach has lost his team.

3. If you want first pick in the 2018 draft, put an aging QB behind a poor OL.

 

[Aven8]

I agree about the Carroll and Paea being terrible.

But in this league, it's really hard to be great two years in a row.

Good teams are constantly rebuilding and adapting.

You simply can't fall too in love with your own talent and expect to succeed.

I'd much rather have Elliott than a 29 year old DeMarco Murray at this point.

My point about Demarco is we didn't have a backup plan. We went in that year with Dmac and Dunbar! Lol. We should have franchised him. Zeke is already my favorite Cowboy so no argument there. How could you go into this season with a secondary and the leader is Byron Jones??? Lol.

The good teams like KC and NE are good year after year because they have forward thinking coaches. We go 13-3 and then take the offseason off patting ourselves on the back. I never expected us to go 13-3 again, but at least 11-5. Frustrating as hell!

 

[Nova]

My point about Demarco is we didn't have a backup plan. We went in that year with Dmac and Dunbar! Lol. We should have franchised him. Zeke is already my favorite Cowboy so no argument there. How could you go into this season with a secondary and the leader is Byron Jones??? Lol.

The good teams like KC and NE are good year after year because they have forward thinking coaches. We go 13-3 and then take the offseason off patting ourselves on the back. I never expected us to go 13-3 again, but at least 11-5. Frustrating as hell!

Ah okay, yeah I get what you're saying about DeMarco, bro. But what I'm saying is that it's kind of alright to not have an immediate personnel solution for losing a player like that because it's better than overpaying for a guy that's not going to have a lot of value in the near future -- like Marion Barber.

It's not okay to not have a game plan from a coaching standpoint, though. I agree with that.

 

[Oh_Canada]

With this in mind I sure hope they are planning on replacing Witten next year among other things like finally finding a one tech who doesn't suck.

 

[Teague31]

Tanking for a Top 5 pick?

 

[cowboy_ron]

Tanking for a Top 5 pick?

That's the wrong message you're sending the young players when a team does that.

 

[RJ_MacReady]

Don't hire a coach that looks like a Pedo?

 

[Typhus]

That's the wrong message you're sending the young players when a team does that.

Sometimes it works, like the Jags last year that sucked, but if you looked at their roster one would see that they were already stacked,,
Enter Leonard Fournette, taken 4th overall by the way.
Now they are currently leading their division.

 

[Chuck 54]

Carroll was signed, in my opinion, as a fail-safe. We had to have a veteran CB in free agency to play with Scandrick and Brown before the draft; you never know what will happen there. Then we drafted 4 DBs, Awuzie, Lewis, White, Woods. At that point, Carroll was only going to be a bridge. His injury and subsequent release had more to do with the young DBs and how they were performing than his own play. That lost money was all about making sure you didn't screw yourself by counting on the draft and rookie performance.

McClain was almost never healthy for Dallas. Last season was his best year, and he still missed a game and had only 21 tackles and 2.5 sacks in 15 games. So far in DC, through 4 games he has 1 sack and 5 tackles, so is he really that much better? Paea played sparingly on a sore knee in 4 games and had 3 tackles.

Free agency is a gamble whether you go tier 1 or tier 2 or tier 3. Didn't we prove that with the Hardy and Carr contracts?
Look at the money the Giants put into their defensive free agent signings; it all looked like gold last year, but this year that defense can't seem to stop anyone and are being run on, while last year's darling at safety (Collins) is struggling in the secondary. Great teams build through the draft by developing their own players, including depth, through the draft, keeping them on rookie contracts, and resigning the guys who prove they can get it done in the NFL. Whether we finish in or out of the playoffs, we are definitely going to know all we need to know about our OL and our defenders, especially the young guys, by the end of the season. If Jerry thinks we are close to something special (I think we will be), don't be surprised if he is more active in free agency if we feel we are a Stud DT or a physical LB or a leader in the secondary away.

 

[xwalker]

Read a great article this week that went into all the reasons the Giants weren't as good as expected even before the injuries; even explains that they were banking on the same luck and out of the ordinary performances from last year that weren't normal or to be expected to continue.
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/pag...ts-collapse-next-how-got-here-why-trouble-nfl

I thought this quote was relevant to the Cowboys as well.

What to learn
"The biggest lesson from the Giants' fall from grace is simple: If you're a coach or an executive, be honest with yourself when you evaluate your team. If the metrics disagree about your team, as is the case with these Giants, you might want to re-evaluate whether you're actually as good as your record says you are. The most common mistake fans make in evaluating their teams before the season is to count on everything that went right a year ago to stay right while all the problems get fixed. Organizations make the same mistakes sometimes, too."

Amen brother. The OL was incredible last year in the run game and in giving Dak some Romo-like plays where he could just stand and wait, but that's not the normal with or without losing 2 starters. Zeke and Dak had incredible seasons, Dak doing what no rookie QB had ever done, yet we expected him to be even better with no growing pains. Beasley had a career year....hello? The defense was shakey up and down the field, but was really solid in the red zone and great vs. the run, performing better than the talent, so we added talented rookies.

Yes, the front office failed in some ways; yes, the coaches continue to fail in some ways. But we fans expected everything great about last season to remain great and for the weaknesses to be fixed. I guess maybe all NFL fans expect that of their teams, even the Browns.

The Giants over-focused on defense and ignored their OL.

"Defense wins championships" is rarely true in the modern NFL. A bad one might lose you a championship but without offense winning is rare.

 

[TheHerd]

The Giants over-focused on defense and ignored their OL.

"Defense wins championships" is rarely true in the modern NFL. A bad one might lose you a championship but without offense winning is rare.

And then there's Eli.

 

[DoctorChicken]

Don't hire a coach that looks like a Pedo?

Ben McAdoo looks like he eats ketchup on his well done steak.

 

[mardwin]

Tanking for a Top 5 pick?

we'll find a way to blow it.