Who thought Newman had that much left

[NJ22]

It just astounds me. He could barely walk his last season or two for Dallas. The guy I saw tonight was real good. Heck, I might even take Newman over Mo to be honest. Anticipated well, speed still there and was playing with confidence. Now that DL for Cincy might be best in football and that helps. But can someone please explain to me why Dallas Cowboy players become frail mentally and physically while in Big D.

I am with you. I thought he would be retired at this point.

 

[Idgit]

Let me start by saying I was always a Newman fan. I think he was very under appreciated while he was here, mainly over his last few years. That said, while he did miss a few games, that was not really his problem. He was tough and played hurt quite often, but that was the actual problem. He seemed to be dinged up or hurt every week. When you combine that with his age and salary, I'm sure the Cowboys (I know I did) started looking at the odds of those dings getting worse and taking longer to heal as he got older.

Sometimes you guess right and sometimes you guess wrong, but once a player hits 30, if you think the odds are against him giving you 16+ solid games, you are better off letting him and his higher cap hit leave. It's sad when that means letting someone go like Ware who has been a great player, teammate and person for the team for so long, but in the end, the system leaves you few choices. You cannot expect a player, who probably has one last great contract in their career, to take a fraction of their salary nor should you blame the team for not being willing or able to risk the cap hit for keeping them.

It was definitely the right decision to let him go when we did. I bet, if you were to look up his Cincy stats, he's probably playing fewer snaps/season than he did around here. One argument I remember making re his time in Dallas was that it seemed like his legs would give out late in the year, when we most needed him to step up. That last Giants game his last year here, for instance, where he was just brutalized. He's a guy who probably would have benefitted from a pitch count, on a team that didn't have enough decent pitchers.

 

[DandyDon1722]

He was always a quality cornerback for us, who was constantly playing through injuries. A very undervalued player while he was here. That being said he is just playing until he doesn't have a job anymore, Mo is better.

I'm not saying he wasn't but -- he blew one of the most important plays in the last ten years. Eli threw him a perfect pick six that he dropped in the flat that would've beat the Giants and they would've never made the playoffs and win their Super Bowl against New England. He let us down and let Eli off the hook.

 

[Jenky]

Here's some perspective:

1) If Carson Palmer didn't over throw Michael Floyd twice, that would have been 2 touchdowns given up by Newman.

2) If Carson Palmer and Larry Fitzgerald were on the same page when Newman sat on a route and made that pick, that would have been another touchdown given up by Newman.

Larry's route looked to be an option route, where he could choose to go inside or run the go route depending on what the DB did. If they connect, it's a TD.

 

[ZappaFrank]

Mo is better.

 

[cowboyschmps3]

Last days in days in Dallas looked old slow but yeah a good Dline helps

 

[Yakuza Rich]

At this point I would probably take Jacques Reeves over Mo Claiborne. At least one will play.





YR

 

[JohnnyHopkins]

Newman would be toasted and toasted often if he was still in Dallas. That is not a knock on Newman, just the reality of the weak-sauce that Dallas rolled out last season and will continue to roll out this one. That Cincy front seven is legit.

 

[Idgit]

Newman would be toasted and toasted often if he was still in Dallas. That is not a knock on Newman, just the reality of the weak-sauce that Dallas rolled out last season and will continue to roll out this one. That Cincy front seven is legit.

It's like any defense in the league: offenses will find your weak links, and they will exploit them. You can't hide an old CB on a team with good DL, and you can't hide a bad DL on a team with good CBs. You need to be pretty good, everywhere, in order to have a pretty good defense. And if you're bad, anywhere, well, you have a bad one.

 

[mahoneybill]

He looked like the declining player that he was before he left.

Torched on the deep ball.

The only difference is he didn't drop a ball thrown right to him (like he did more than once against Eli.)

To say that he was real good is comical at best. Has he got something left in the tank? Yeah. Real good? Those days are behind him.

Thing that always bothered me was he played the D. Campo " dog chase cat " technique. Rarely did they ever look back for the ball. It was all about watching the receiver and trying to break up the pass based on what the receivers eyes/motion showed....

 

[DanTanna]

I was a Newman fan too until WRs started out jumping him for catches and then running 50 yards for touchdowns. After they started doing that I didn't like him as much.