What "Window"?

[Jkyle]

Have we missed whatever "Window" we supposedly had?
The time to strike was when our main contributors were under cheap contracts.
Now, all of them are wanting to get "Paid" and that is resulting in drama and distractions.
This season seems to be the last season before things really come off the rails financially/cap-wise.
The Cap will be way out of kilter having to pay 4 or 5 player over 50% of the cap (Dak, Lawrence, Zeke, Cooper). There will be other players after this season seeking extensions (J. Smith, Chido).
There is no way to retain all of these players. The team has done a great job drafting but they will have to keep that streak going to replenish the roster to compensate for players that will leave via FA.
I don't mind paying the players what their value is but they haven't accomplished much of anything of significance so we are basically forced to pay for without any tangible results beside individual achievements.

 

[Future]

The window is wide open, this team hasn't missed anything.

 

[Jake]

I'm not putting $70 million into these so-called "Triplets" with nothing more than a WC win on their resume'.

 

[sean10mm]

Nobody is forcing the Cowboys to pay for anything, and if they overpay anybody it's just their fault. No matter how good somebody is, at some point there's a price that's too high for them. We can disagree on where that line is, but it surely exists for everybody.

The idea that you need to keep every big name your team has is stupid. It's how a casual fan who doesn't understand the sport sees things - everything is about the handful of guys that get headlines. Meanwhile the Patriots have spent the last 20 years purging "indispensable" guys who were 1st Team All-Pros whenever they got greedy and/or lost a step. After a while even the obnoxious Boston chowderheads saw the pattern and quit worrying about OMG WE LOST WELKAH or whatever, because it's never really about one guy.

It's not about having the handful of stars, it's about the overall quality of the team top to bottom. If a guy wants a contract that threatens that, you purge them. This also has the benefit of discouraging other people from trying to soak you for too much money. One of the constant problems of the 21st century Cowboys is that they have a handful of stars on top and nothing behind them, so the second one of those guys gets hurt the whole team just implodes.

 

[GenoT]

As long as we have our current coaching “structure” (virtually all staff hire & fire decisions made by committee, with heavy owner-input), we’ll always be in danger of missing whatever our current window might be. Maybe we get lucky and everything comes together in the same season, maybe not.

One thing’s for certain: 23 seasons and counting of not getting past the div-round with one constant (owner/GM) doesn’t lie.

 

[Bob-Lillys-War]

I'm not putting $70 million into these so-called "Triplets" with nothing more than a WC win on their resume'.

agreed, thats jason garrett though .

 

[JoeKing]

There is a huge misconception out there that the Cowboys are facing cap space problems in the near future. Nothing could be further from the truth. The current salary cap allows for Dak and Amari to get raises this season. 2020, being the last year of the CBA, we have added tools to secure salary cap solvency. Plus we have to anticipate the trend will continue of an increased salary cap. The FO should be able to take advantage of those considerations to keep all the talent they want to keep. Zeke is scheduled for negotiating a new deal in 2020, his holdout has not changed the FO's schedule.

 

[Direwolf63]

Nobody is forcing the Cowboys to pay for anything, and if they overpay anybody it's just their fault. No matter how good somebody is, at some point there's a price that's too high for them. We can disagree on where that line is, but it surely exists for everybody.

The idea that you need to keep every big name your team has is stupid. It's how a casual fan who doesn't understand the sport sees things - everything is about the handful of guys that get headlines. Meanwhile the Patriots have spent the last 20 years purging "indispensable" guys who were 1st Team All-Pros whenever they got greedy and/or lost a step. After a while even the obnoxious Boston chowderheads saw the pattern and quit worrying about OMG WE LOST WELKAH or whatever, because it's never really about one guy.

It's not about having the handful of stars, it's about the overall quality of the team top to bottom. If a guy wants a contract that threatens that, you purge them. This also has the benefit of discouraging other people from trying to soak you for too much money. One of the constant problems of the 21st century Cowboys is that they have a handful of stars on top and nothing behind them, so the second one of those guys gets hurt the whole team just implodes.

I agree with most of this, but comparing the situation with the Patriots is apples and oranges.

The Patriots have Bill Belichek and Tom Brady. We have Jason Garrett and Dak Prescott.

Belichek can coach almost any 53 guys and make it to the AFC Championship Game with Brady as his QB. Garrett needs as much on field talent as humanly possible to overcome his coaching liabilities to drag him to any playoff success.

So just tossing away All Pro players won't work for the Cowboys like it does for the Patriots.

 

[Ranching]

I'm not putting $70 million into these so-called "Triplets" with nothing more than a WC win on their resume'.

Just keep paying Garrett!

 

[sean10mm]

I agree with most of this, but comparing the situation with the Patriots is apples and oranges.

The Patriots have Bill Belichek and Tom Brady. We have Jason Garrett and Dak Prescott.

Belichek can coach almost any 53 guys and make it to the AFC Championship Game with Brady as his QB. Garrett needs as much on field talent as humanly possible to overcome his coaching liabilities to drag him to any playoff success.

So just tossing away All Pro players won't work for the Cowboys like it does for the Patriots.

Everybody is spending the same amount of money on talent under the cap, more or less, so it's completely unsustainable to have a strategy of "just get more talent" because nobody has more money to spend on it than anybody else. The question is how do you do it more efficiently.

The Patriots actually have excellent rosters almost every season, even excluding Brady - they are just more selective about what stars to sink money into vs. spending on guys who are less expensive but still have value to the team.

Again, you're confusing how many "big names" are on a team with its overall quality. They're not the same thing.

 

[AbeBeta]

Really? 2 threads of this rehashing 12 others?

 

[CouchCoach]

I think the window is open because while I have the Cowboys at 5th in the NFC, they're really not that far out of 1st or 2nd and PHL is just a smidgeon better than the Cowboys as long as Wentz can play at 100%.

The NFC seems to be a tighter race to me with as many as 8 teams that could be standing at the end. The AFC? Nah, 3 or 4, if the Chargers show up and Luck is 100%.

 

[Cowfan75]

We've had a wide-open window two other times over the last 9 years. The one consistent that stood in the way was a fake head coach. If the FO is going to take a huge leap of faith on Zeke and Dak carrying this team for the foreseeable future, you better get a new HC in here or it won't matter if they really are worth overpaying.

 

[OmerV]

Have we missed whatever "Window" we supposedly had?
The time to strike was when our main contributors were under cheap contracts.
Now, all of them are wanting to get "Paid" and that is resulting in drama and distractions.
This season seems to be the last season before things really come off the rails financially/cap-wise.
The Cap will be way out of kilter having to pay 4 or 5 player over 50% of the cap (Dak, Lawrence, Zeke, Cooper). There will be other players after this season seeking extensions (J. Smith, Chido).
There is no way to retain all of these players. The team has done a great job drafting but they will have to keep that streak going to replenish the roster to compensate for players that will leave via FA.
I don't mind paying the players what their value is but they haven't accomplished much of anything of significance so we are basically forced to pay for without any tangible results beside individual achievements.

I wasn't aware that teams only win when their top players are on rookie contracts. I'm fairly certain history wouldn't back that up.

Besides, I don't believe in definite windows. The point of the draft is to maintain a competitive team rather than just lose playersand start all over every few years. There will always be a flow of players in and out, with free agency, injury and retirement taking some away, and free agency and the draft bringing some in.

 

[Direwolf63]

Everybody is spending the same amount of money on talent under the cap, more or less, so it's completely unsustainable to have a strategy of "just get more talent" because nobody has more money to spend on it than anybody else. The question is how do you do it more efficiently.

The Patriots actually have excellent rosters almost every season, even excluding Brady - they are just more selective about what stars to sink money into vs. spending on guys who are less expensive but still have value to the team.

If the Cowboys used the Patriots approach to collecting talent, they would be a 6 win team with Jason Garrett has HC.

Do you think Tom Brady would have 6 rings if Jason Garrett was his HC? He would have been out of the league 5 years ago ringless. Belichek has more football acumen than the entire Cowboys leadership combined. The Patriots are a complete anomaly in the salary cap NFL era. How things are run there cannot be modeled by any other team.

 

[ShiningStar]

I get a kick that some fans think there is a window from a team that shows the fans, its not their goal.

yes, after 22 years, its open, there, ready for more disappointment. stay tuned, you ll be well rewarded.

 

[Jake]

I get a kick that some fans think there is a window from a team that shows the fans, its not their goal.

yes, after 22 years, its open, there, ready for more disappointment. stay tuned, you ll be well rewarded.

"Window" sounds more promising than "hope" for a fan base starving for a title game appearance in this century.

 

[PA Cowboy Fan]

"Window" sounds more promising than "hope" for a fan base starving for a title game appearance in this century.

And that's really all I hear around here. It's hope. Why get your hope up? After the first 3 or 4 times I want them to show me it's different.

 

[BotchedLobotomy]

Window is wide open and there is one thing blocking the view..................

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

The window is wide open, this team hasn't missed anything.

Yeah I don’t know what he’s talking about. The majority of our team is in rookie deals.