What is the plan to upgrade this roster?

[DUO_CORE]

I hear we're counting on Ro Mclain at to step in at MLB. I hear he's been working out is is very "lean"

And let's be "blunt" about Randy Gregory: He'll be an All Pro when he gets here.

 

[Aven8]

Or, they think that Wilson is a good replacement.

Good one....

 

[blueblood70]

I don't think that they're planning on upgrading the roster much. I think they're hoping that guys currently on the roster take the next step: Dak, Dez, Wilson, Collins, etc... We don't have a great history of developing players, so I'll hold my breath.

seriously LMAO you guy make me laugh..most of our SBS were won by Core players that were all drafted, and the years like 2007/2014/2016 and eras in between those teams were primarily made up of drafted players..

sure there were failures in both the draft and the FA choices but that the norm around the NFL..most of the failures have been injury prone players who never lived up to their draft position and hype..the entire oline, Zeke, Smiths(Rod, Kevin), Dak, dez, witten , bease, twill, Switzer, etc all drafted and in 2016 all damn good and even at years end that rebuilt and oft injured back end of our defense seem to gel abit and come together, Dlaw, Sean lee, hitchens, Smith all drafted.Dan Baily?drafted?developed?.. the last 6 years a lot of guys have shown promise and are starting or playing key roles.. Gregory was weed but he may have some start potential they took risk but for every one of those there are 4 that did work out..

funny a ton of threads are crying over some of our player losses that other teams are grabbing , seems odd if we done develop players? you think Mo cliabust was our fault? his talent was there but injuries and sometimes his work ethic giot in the way..its our fault as an organization he didn't live up to the hype? Tnew is still playing Demarcus ware, spears? they sucked? seriously this outlook we cant develop players is ridiculous..

again sure a few don't catch on and look like terrible choices but all teams have those..

 

[Mobinvans]

seriously LMAO you guy make me laugh..most of our SBS were won by Core players that were all drafted, and the years like 2007/2014/2016 and eras in between those teams were primarily made up of drafted players..

sure there were failures in both the draft and the FA choices but that the norm around the NFL..most of the failures have been injury prone players who never lived up to their draft position and hype..the entire oline, Zeke, Smiths(Rod, Kevin), Dak, dez, witten , bease, twill, Switzer, etc all drafted and in 2016 all damn good and even at years end that rebuilt and oft injured back end of our defense seem to gel abit and come together, Dlaw, Sean lee, hitchens, Smith all drafted.Dan Baily?drafted?developed?.. the last 6 years a lot of guys have shown promise and are starting or playing key roles.. Gregory was weed but he may have some start potential they took risk but for every one of those there are 4 that did work out..

funny a ton of threads are crying over some of our player losses that other teams are grabbing , seems odd if we done develop players? you think Mo cliabust was our fault? his talent was there but injuries and sometimes his work ethic giot in the way..its our fault as an organization he didn't live up to the hype? Tnew is still playing Demarcus ware, spears? they sucked? seriously this outlook we cant develop players is ridiculous..

again sure a few don't catch on and look like terrible choices but all teams have those..

Ever hear of Charles Haley or Deion Sanders

 

[KJJ]

I don't think that they're planning on upgrading the roster much. I think they're hoping that guys currently on the roster take the next step: Dak, Dez, Wilson, Collins, etc... We don't have a great history of developing players, so I'll hold my breath.

You can’t be serious. Trust me with 10 draft picks the FO is hoping that a few of those picks upgrade the roster. You build great teams through the draft and nothing upgrades your team like making solid draft picks. You won’t find a championship team that wasn’t built through the draft. We went 13-3 in 2016 mainly because two rookies we drafted at QB and RB had outstanding seasons.

The best players on our roster we drafted. When you draft a player you’re bringing in a young, hungry motivated player who’s about to embark on living their dream. We’re banking on this draft and that the players we drafted previously take the next step.

 

[KJJ]

Ever hear of Charles Haley or Deion Sanders

Ever hear of Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith? The 90s teams wouldn’t have gotten very far with Charles Haley, Deion and Jay Novacek without the triplets who we drafted.

 

[Section446]

You can’t be serious. Trust me with 10 draft picks the FO is hoping that a few of those picks upgrade the roster. You build great teams through the draft and nothing upgrades your team like making solid draft picks. You won’t find a championship team that wasn’t built through the draft. We went 13-3 in 2016 mainly because two rookies we drafted at QB and RB had outstanding seasons.

The best players on our roster we drafted. When you draft a player you’re bringing in a young, hungry motivated player who’s about to embark on living their dream. We’re banking on this draft and that the players we drafted previously take the next step.

Two rookies, one of which has been exposed and will likely continue to regress.

 

[Mobinvans]

Ever hear of Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith? The 90s teams wouldn’t have gotten very far with Charles Haley, Deion and Jay Novacek without the triplets who we drafted.

And vice versa..

 

[KJJ]

All the top teams during the 70s were built through the draft. The only way to upgrade your roster back in those days was through the draft or through trades. The Steelers 1974 draft was arguably the greatest in NFL history. They came away with 4 HOF players including Swann and Stallworth. That draft led to their 4 Super Bowl wins during the 70s. Arguably the Cowboys greatest draft ever was the 1975 draft that saw 12 rookies (the dirty dozen) make the team.

That draft couldn’t have come along at a better time because the Cowboys had missed the playoffs for the first time in years the previous year. The team appeared to be in decline and that draft led to 3 more SB appearances including their 5th championship in 1977.

 

[Jake]

We’re probably the best drafting team in the NFL. If anybody can bank on primarily building through the draft, it’s us. We don’t spend big in FA because we draft so well and have to spend our cap space to resign our own guys.

So where are the results?

 

[Rayman70]

We got the draft down pat...I'm ok with how we draft.Problem we have is two fold. One...we lack a plan it seems in Free agency,for whatever reason its not a priority. Secondly, the danger of focusing just on drafting is you risk losing the player after their contracts run out...meaning, you spent all the time,effort,dollars and resources coaching up said draftee...implementing him to a system and visa versa...only to see him leave and having to begin at square one once again.A vet..or bridge-gap player fills this void for that inevitability. We fail in this department and are woeful. Great at drafting,poor in free agency.

 

[KJJ]

Two rookies, one of which has been exposed and will likely continue to regress.

The only way Dak doesn’t have a bounce back season is if we continue having struggles on the OL and our receiving corp doesn’t improve. Dak played solid the first half of last season check his numbers. It wasn’t until Zeke was suspended and Tyron started having injury issues and missing games that things started falling apart. Dak was sacked only 8 times the first 8 games and 22 times the final 8 games. He was sacked only 25 times his entire rookie season.

He was being constantly pressured and our receivers weren’t getting open. He was on pace for a very productive, solid 2017 season the first eight games until the floor started caving in during the Atlanta game. We completely fell apart the next three games which did our season in.

 

[Dylan88Wilson]

Steelers, Jags. Hous pretty close, though Kevin Johnson hasn't panned out. Possibly the Bears.

Thing is, aside from our 1st round OL's, not sure we've done all that well.

Legitimate arguments can be made for Jacksonville and Pittsburgh — both snake a lot of my favorite players — but Jacksonville has also picked in or near the top 5 for a majoroty of the past decade. Even still, we’ve drafted more Pro Bowlers than they have. The Steelers have also benefited from picking ahead of us. They stole Ryan Shazier, Martavius Bryant and Bud Dupree from us, we had to “settle” for Zack Martin, Anthony Hitchens and Byron Jones. And in general, they’ve also drafted fewer Pro Bowlers than us. I feel confident saying we’re the best drafting team in the NFL.

 

[G2]

You can’t be serious. Trust me with 10 draft picks the FO is hoping that a few of those picks upgrade the roster. You build great teams through the draft and nothing upgrades your team like making solid draft picks. You won’t find a championship team that wasn’t built through the draft. We went 13-3 in 2016 mainly because two rookies we drafted at QB and RB had outstanding seasons.

The best players on our roster we drafted. When you draft a player you’re bringing in a young, hungry motivated player who’s about to embark on living their dream. We’re banking on this draft and that the players we drafted previously take the next step.

That's great IF you draft the right players.

 

[Dylan88Wilson]

So where are the results?

They weren’t arguing results, they were arguing talent acquisition. Specifically, they were criticizing our front office for being conservative in free agency. The counter argument to that is we’re the best drafting team in the NFL and don’t need to be big spenders in FA.

 

[KJJ]

And vice versa..

We made the playoffs and won a playoff game with our backup QB without Charles Haley in 91. We won two of our three SB’s without Deion. You take away all the key draft picks we made from 89 to 92 and we win nothing! We don’t win anything without Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, Alvin Harper, Moose Johnston, Ken Norton, Leon Lett, Russell Maryland, Jimmy Jones and Larry Brown who saved SB XXX. All those players were key contributors in those 3 Super Bowl wins. Some of the most memorable plays during those Super Bowl years were made by our draft picks. Our drafts built those teams.

 

[KJJ]

That's great IF you draft the right players.

Naturally because the draft is a crapshoot. The one advantage to free agency is you’re bringing in a proven player who you can plug in immediately. The disadvantage to free agency is you have to overpay for that player and they’ve already played out some of their best years. Another disadvantage to free agency is that some of these players lose their motivation once they receive a big free agent contract. If you want to build a great team you have to draft well and re-sign your own players. No one knows a player better than their own team.

 

[Bobhaze]

They weren’t arguing results, they were arguing talent acquisition. Specifically, they were criticizing our front office for being conservative in free agency. The counter argument to that is we’re the best drafting team in the NFL and don’t need to be big spenders in FA.

Dylan, I don’t disagree with you that under Will McClay, this team has done better in drafts. But you made the point that Dallas was The Best at drafting. I’m not here to say my favorite teams sucks at drafting. But the best? I can’t objectively agree with that.

My OP question was centered on what this team’s strategy is to improve the roster. Not saying they aren’t doing anything. In fact I have said they are being smart by not overpaying some of these FA who aren’t worth what they’re getting.

I’m just trying to see what people think the overall strategy is to improve the roster. For example, I think they are thinking a few key thoughts:
1. If Zeke is back without a suspension hanging over him, the team will automatically be better. That may be true.
2. This FO has made a choice to stay young rather than tying up cap space with big money vets who are not likely to outperform their pay. I agree with that.
3. I agree that building through the draft is the best way to improve. Agree 100%.

Here’s my concern: I also think a team MUST also look at improving with some well researched FAs that fit your schemes and have upside with age and performance. This is where the FO has underperformed lately.

 

[Whyjerry]

One of the curious aspects of this offseason so far is that it is not very clear what this FO’s strategy is to upgrade this roster in areas that were clearly problems last year. I’m sure it will be much clearer by late April.

I like the idea of not overpaying for high priced mediocre talent as many teams seem to have done this offseason. I like putting more emphasis on having a quality draft. But if there are no FAs signed that can help this team now, it puts enormous pressure on the draft having immediate impact. That’s not impossible, but it puts all eggs in one basket.

And I’m not saying yet that this front office is blowing it, I’m just curious what they seem to be counting on to upgrade this roster.

Thoughts?

The skeptic in me says no plan. The optimist says it is the draft and a couple value FAs with Randy Gregory getting 10 sacks.

Really though there is no plan

 

[buybuydandavis]

And I’m not saying yet that this front office is blowing it, I’m just curious what they seem to be counting on to upgrade this roster.

Thoughts?

Even with the current roster, we get a lot of automatic upgrades over the full year's performance.

Huge upgrade is not having Zeke suspended for 6 games.
Collins was only getting better at RT all year, so keeping him there is clear upgrade over last year.
LG started lame with Green, and improved as Cooper was put in and he played. Even if we just resign Cooper, I consider that an upgrade.
Whatever you think of Green, having him just train to be our swing T would be an upgrade over having him practice all offseason at G, then have to play T.

The secondary is very young. Not losing anyone. Should only get better.

A fully operational Jaylon should be a significant improvement. We get a top 5 player, but with NFL experience.

Taco time! Again, another guy with the arrow going up over the season means upgrade for this year.
Tapper maybe makes the field.
The Stoner? Could happen.

Rico?

We have a full draft to improve, with a few mid round comp picks added to the usual allotment.

I see a lot of getting better.

Unfortunately, the main weakness is at WR, and that is looking worse.

Play calling was the biggest problem, and we kept the OC. The WRs have own issues. And we've lost Butler. And contracts for WRs have gone crazy.

We apparently are trying to make moves, although the reported 15mil to Watkins they attempted seemed dumb.

With no one banging down his door, maybe Butler comes back, particularly if we move on from Dez and it looks like there can be at least more timesharing, if not full competition for the starting spots.

But the crazy market for WRs makes getting replacements for Dez, even 2nd tier, looking like a bad investment. But there is still the draft.

One big question for upgrades - will Dak be more like 2016 or 2017? That's just hope. We're not going to make a player move there.

Although we did fire our one QB coach with significant QB coaching experience, and the only one with a significant WB career. And we promoted the water boy to replace him. That will surely be a big upgrade, right?

Lots of improvement to be expected, WR needs some help in the draft, and who knows about Dak.