What to do with crowded DL options?

[DRella]

I understand what the Jones's are attempting to do with our DL. I get more pressure on the QB causes less stress on the defensive backfield and linebackers. But with that said, why go out and sign Covington and Hyde in free agency, and still go out and draft Hill, Jackson and Jelks this past draft with all the options already available in camp?

Lawrence and Quinn are shoe ins.

Collins, Woods, Covington and Hill should be shoe ins.

But the latest draft has really put us in a pickle. What do we do with Crawford and Taco? What about Hyde? We still have Gregory that is an unknown. Armstrong was drafted last season and hasn't played yet.

We can only take 8-9 DL with us out of camp to fill roster. What happens? Im afraid we wasted one too many picks on the DL when we needed the obviously safety. Only for us now to have all these numbers on DL that we may have to lose for nothing.

What are your thoughts?

 

[xwalker]

I understand what the Jones's are attempting to do with our DL. I get more pressure on the QB causes less stress on the defensive backfield and linebackers. But with that said, why go out and sign Covington and Hyde in free agency, and still go out and draft Hill, Jackson and Jelks this past draft with all the options already available in camp?

Lawrence and Quinn are shoe ins.

Collins, Woods, Covington and Hill should be shoe ins.

But the latest draft has really put us in a pickle. What do we do with Crawford and Taco? What about Hyde? We still have Gregory that is an unknown. Armstrong was drafted last season and hasn't played yet.

We can only take 8-9 DL with us out of camp to fill roster. What happens? Im afraid we wasted one too many picks on the DL when we needed the obviously safety. Only for us now to have all these numbers on DL that we may have to lose for nothing.

What are your thoughts?

They wanted to have enough options that they wouldn't feel pressure to force a pick at DL in the draft.

Hyder is very cheap with only 300K guaranteed.

Covington only got 117K guaranteed.

Hyder can play DE or DT. He was very good at DE when he last played in a 4-3.

The DE draft picks were late rounders and Taco is still a question mark. They as much about 2020 as 2019 because late round rookie DEs usually take time to develop.

Covington is the only other decent option at 1-tech besides Woods.

Covington would have been great to have against the Rams. The 4th DT in that game was Reid who was a street free agent that was signed then cut then signed again last season. He struggled in the Rams game and Woods got injured.

 

[jazzcat22]

Covington and Hyder were brought in to fill holes prior to the draft. And are good signings. Both are one year deals, and if traded or released, are not a huge cap hit.
But in the draft if you get players that will be long term and competitive. If the draft falls your way, you are then not reaching for need so much.

And if those 2 were not signed, and you draft Hill. Then do you still feel comfortable with ross and some other guy competing for that 8th spot.
also they have kept as many as 10 or 11 on the DL before.

Right now they can keep 10 decent, or on paper decent DL, and still have 2 or 3 others competing. This is a good problem. The FO did this one right.

 

[Zimmy Lives]

Competition. I'm all for it.

 

[Stash]

I understand what the Jones's are attempting to do with our DL. I get more pressure on the QB causes less stress on the defensive backfield and linebackers. But with that said, why go out and sign Covington and Hyde in free agency, and still go out and draft Hill, Jackson and Jelks this past draft with all the options already available in camp?

Lawrence and Quinn are shoe ins.

Collins, Woods, Covington and Hill should be shoe ins.

But the latest draft has really put us in a pickle. What do we do with Crawford and Taco? What about Hyde? We still have Gregory that is an unknown. Armstrong was drafted last season and hasn't played yet.

We can only take 8-9 DL with us out of camp to fill roster. What happens? Im afraid we wasted one too many picks on the DL when we needed the obviously safety. Only for us now to have all these numbers on DL that we may have to lose for nothing.

What are your thoughts?

I'm trying to trade Taco - preferably for Karl Joseph. And Crawford is either traded or cut. It saves money, frees up a roster spot, and stops this cycle of a round peg in a square hole and trying to find "somewhere" to play the guy. Just end it already.

 

[DRella]

But why reach in mid to later rounds on DL when you have little to no depth with LB and DB and Safety. You already signed Covington and Hyder that were better then what we had last season. Why not look to the future in other areas because Lee is done after this season, uncertainty around our DBs with Lewis, Brown and possibly Jones gone. We signed no FAs in those areas. But instead we keep drafting DL prospects. Sorry doesn't make sense to me.

They try to tell us that the McGovern pick was for the future. What about DB and LB?

 

[JD_KaPow]

I understand what the Jones's are attempting to do with our DL. I get more pressure on the QB causes less stress on the defensive backfield and linebackers. But with that said, why go out and sign Covington and Hyde in free agency, and still go out and draft Hill, Jackson and Jelks this past draft with all the options already available in camp?

Lawrence and Quinn are shoe ins.

Collins, Woods, Covington and Hill should be shoe ins.

But the latest draft has really put us in a pickle. What do we do with Crawford and Taco? What about Hyde? We still have Gregory that is an unknown. Armstrong was drafted last season and hasn't played yet.

We can only take 8-9 DL with us out of camp to fill roster. What happens? Im afraid we wasted one too many picks on the DL when we needed the obviously safety. Only for us now to have all these numbers on DL that we may have to lose for nothing.

What are your thoughts?

Free agency and the draft have fundamentally different purposes. You use free agency primarily to fill holes. You use the draft primarily to acquire talent. No team's offseason will make sense unless you understand this. (Well, okay, some teams don't seem to understand it themselves).

Specifically, you use free agency to patch your holes. Occasionally you might fill one of them with a long-term solution (when did the Cowboys last do that? Brandon Carr?), but usually it's a one-to-two-year stopgap. But don't confuse the stopgaps for the solutions. You would never ever let a player like Covington or Cobb or Iloka have any influence on your draft. You acquired them specifically to give yourself total freedom in the draft.

 

[John813]

Free agency here is merely about finding guys who can fill the role short term at a cheap price.
They don't use it to necessarily build the team long term. If the player pans out like Woods, great, but the FA are usually stop gap depth guys.

They may of simply overloaded on DL cause they were the BPA, and or the DL has a handful of Free agents in 2020 as well.

At linebacker, we have no need for a starter hopefully for 5-8 years. The depth there is already set and locked in. No one is beating out Lee or Thomas this year.

For corner, the top 3 are locked in and we still have Lewis for now as the 4th guy. They drafted Michael Jackson for depth/competition there possibly.

 

[Jake]

I understand what the Jones's are attempting to do with our DL. I get more pressure on the QB causes less stress on the defensive backfield and linebackers. But with that said, why go out and sign Covington and Hyde in free agency, and still go out and draft Hill, Jackson and Jelks this past draft with all the options already available in camp?
Lawrence and Quinn are shoe ins.
Collins, Woods, Covington and Hill should be shoe ins.
But the latest draft has really put us in a pickle. What do we do with Crawford and Taco? What about Hyde? We still have Gregory that is an unknown. Armstrong was drafted last season and hasn't played yet.
We can only take 8-9 DL with us out of camp to fill roster. What happens? Im afraid we wasted one too many picks on the DL when we needed the obviously safety. Only for us now to have all these numbers on DL that we may have to lose for nothing.
What are your thoughts?

Every thread somehow turns into a safety thread here.

We've seen that even a first round DE isn't a shoe in for anything, so with the importance of pass rush in today's NFL I see nothing wrong with taking some Day 3 fliers in the hopes of improving the rush. Of course they won't all make the team. That's why you have camp and preseason games to decide which ones are worth keeping.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

I understand what the Jones's are attempting to do with our DL. I get more pressure on the QB causes less stress on the defensive backfield and linebackers. But with that said, why go out and sign Covington and Hyde in free agency, and still go out and draft Hill, Jackson and Jelks this past draft with all the options already available in camp?

Lawrence and Quinn are shoe ins.

Collins, Woods, Covington and Hill should be shoe ins.

But the latest draft has really put us in a pickle. What do we do with Crawford and Taco? What about Hyde? We still have Gregory that is an unknown. Armstrong was drafted last season and hasn't played yet.

We can only take 8-9 DL with us out of camp to fill roster. What happens? Im afraid we wasted one too many picks on the DL when we needed the obviously safety. Only for us now to have all these numbers on DL that we may have to lose for nothing.

What are your thoughts?

yes, rather crowded. we know the top 4 are Lawrence, Quinn, Hill, Woods, then the rest. I think we keep Armstrong, he is only in second year. I think Taco is either cut or traded. we are trying to trade. Gregory is a wild card. Hyde is probably safe since he can slide to DT and play DE. I think Crawford may get cut post june 1st. savings on the cap and can Hyde give us what he does? perhaps. don't forget wise.......

my thought is

Quinn, Lawrence, Hill, Woods, Hyde, Gregory, Armstrong, Covington, Collins.

Wise, Jackson, Jelks to PS.

Taco traded

Crawford post June 1st cut.

 

[Dalmations202]

I guess I don't understand the question or problem here. In one sense you are overloaded at every position - it just kind of matters how you see it. Before the draft at TE you have 4 -- no need. QB 3 -- no need. RB 4 -- no needs. OL -- 8 legit + youngsters no need. LB 5 legit - no need. I mean, it all depends upon how you see the players.
The NFL is an upgrade game......everyone is either going up or down in value and ability always.

IMO, DL is an easy one. You have DLaw and Quinn and a bunch of guys still trying to make this team. I am not sure how they are overloaded here because I don't see any guaranteed guys at inside DL except that they have Hill now that will get a shot at least due to his draft status.

 

[Kaiser]

Competition. I'm all for it.

Exactly, we have a lot of candidates but there are question marks on plenty of guys like Hyder, Taco, Gregory, etc.

And I'm happy getting Jackson and Jelks in this draft, but when did teams start making roster decisions four months before training camp based on 5th round and 7th round draft picks?

 

[DHCBF66]

But why reach in mid to later rounds on DL when you have little to no depth with LB and DB and Safety. You already signed Covington and Hyder that were better then what we had last season. Why not look to the future in other areas because Lee is done after this season, uncertainty around our DBs with Lewis, Brown and possibly Jones gone. We signed no FAs in those areas. But instead we keep drafting DL prospects. Sorry doesn't make sense to me.

They try to tell us that the McGovern pick was for the future. What about DB and LB?

They took a CB and DE in the 5th, a SS in the 6th and another DE in the 7th, its not like they went all DL in the later rounds.

 

[ItzKelz]

Battle it out in camp and go from there.

 

[Outlaw Heroes]

What to do? Feel good about the fact that you have so many options that you’re worried about having to eventually cut a good player or two. It’s the sign of a good team.

 

[big dog cowboy]

But why reach in mid to later rounds on DL when you have little to no depth with LB and DB and Safety.

Chris Covington
Sean Lee
Justin March-Lillard
Jaylon Smith
Joe Thomas
Leighton Vander Esch

Considering the Cowboys only play 2 LB's most of the time, how many do you think they need? I see 3 Pro Bowlers in that group. Plus they signed a couple good UDFA's.

 

[TwentyOne]

I understand what the Jones's are attempting to do with our DL. I get more pressure on the QB causes less stress on the defensive backfield and linebackers. But with that said, why go out and sign Covington and Hyde in free agency, and still go out and draft Hill, Jackson and Jelks this past draft with all the options already available in camp?

Lawrence and Quinn are shoe ins.

Collins, Woods, Covington and Hill should be shoe ins.

But the latest draft has really put us in a pickle. What do we do with Crawford and Taco? What about Hyde? We still have Gregory that is an unknown. Armstrong was drafted last season and hasn't played yet.

We can only take 8-9 DL with us out of camp to fill roster. What happens? Im afraid we wasted one too many picks on the DL when we needed the obviously safety. Only for us now to have all these numbers on DL that we may have to lose for nothing.

What are your thoughts?

I dont think this DL is crowded.

This DL lives from the Rotation. What we did is bolster the 2nd team. That is what hurt us last year. We need 8 players that are on the same level.

And then we need camp bodies too.

 

[buybuydandavis]

I understand what the Jones's are attempting to do with our DL. I get more pressure on the QB causes less stress on the defensive backfield and linebackers. But with that said, why go out and sign Covington and Hyde in free agency, and still go out and draft Hill, Jackson and Jelks this past draft with all the options already available in camp?

Lawrence and Quinn are shoe ins.

Collins, Woods, Covington and Hill should be shoe ins.

But the latest draft has really put us in a pickle. What do we do with Crawford and Taco? What about Hyde? We still have Gregory that is an unknown. Armstrong was drafted last season and hasn't played yet.

We can only take 8-9 DL with us out of camp to fill roster. What happens? Im afraid we wasted one too many picks on the DL when we needed the obviously safety. Only for us now to have all these numbers on DL that we may have to lose for nothing.

What are your thoughts?

You carry extra into the season, and you need extra going into camp, as some guys disappoint and others get hurt.

If we have more great players than we know what to do with, I'll live. Our free agents are insurance policies with one year contracts. It's better if we *don't* have to keep them. That means we have cheap young guys we own into the future who we prefer.

Insurance is not a *waste*. But if everything works out for the best, you don't have to use it.

 

[buybuydandavis]

Chris Covington
Sean Lee
Justin March-Lillard
Jaylon Smith
Joe Thomas
Leighton Vander Esch

Considering the Cowboys only play 2 LB's most of the time, how many do you think they need? I see 3 Pro Bowlers in that group. Plus they signed a couple good UDFA's.

As the league trends toward nickel defenses as the base, you don't need as many LBs.
More DBs. More rushmen.

 

[buybuydandavis]

Covington is the only other decent option at 1-tech besides Woods.

I think Collins is the backup 1tech behind Woods. I doubt we carry 2 pure 1techs. It's been work to get even 1. 3 3techs, 1 1tech.