Why the absence of a running game matters

[Brax]

What you're now talking about is wiggle room and mortgaging/deferring payment for a handful of years. Paying epic percentages of money to a few players limits that wiggle room and costs you quality players on your roster. The lie is saying that those epic contracts don't affect your roster and your team, they absolutely do, especially when those overpaid players are incapable of making up for the lack of a balanced roster. Could Jerry have picked up a better running back, sure. Could he also have replaced the exodus of talent from the defense as well? Nope.

You are correct in my opinion Zeke is costing the team 8 million this season, as an example without the bad contract with 2 years dead money a better RB could be signed. The list goes on, Jerry does it his way but his way hasn’t worked for 29 seasons, maybe a different approach is needed

 

[CCBoy]

Jerry told us the answer “Dak has to do more with less” there’s another big contract coming up so Jerry will be funding it partially with rollover cap and lower end players. He put his money on 4-5 players and expects them to do it all,

He wants fame to be resting on his own picked players - bias, not purely on play.

 

[kskboys]

When it gets blamed for not being able to sign a good RB for cheap (Henry), but you decide to count a washed up RB like Zeke twice against the cap, then yeah, it's one hell of a big lie.

Henry's making 8 mil. Zeke is making 2-3. Not a good example.

 

[kskboys]

What you're now talking about is wiggle room and mortgaging/deferring payment for a handful of years. Paying epic percentages of money to a few players limits that wiggle room and costs you quality players on your roster. The lie is saying that those epic contracts don't affect your roster and your team, they absolutely do, especially when those overpaid players are incapable of making up for the lack of a balanced roster. Could Jerry have picked up a better running back, sure. Could he also have replaced the exodus of talent from the defense as well? Nope.

Very well said.

Think of it this way. Every team is limited as to how much they can spend. Soooooo, spending 20+% on one player doesn't matter? I mean, did some people flunk math?

 

[kskboys]

I just want to revisit the offseason real quick. Jerry n Stephen believed RB was a position that could be filled by a JAG because it wasn't that important.

Ok, now there was several quality starter level RB in FA, and the draft had some guys well into the 3rd Round.

Fast forward to now there's a RB resurgence, and top teams are benefiting from investing in RBs. These guys are in over their head.

I understand that the casual NFL fan believes BSPN spew about RB's, but an NFL GM absolutely cannot fall for the obvious falsehood that RB's don't matter.

 

[kskboys]

You are correct in my opinion Zeke is costing the team 8 million this season, as an example without the bad contract with 2 years dead money a better RB could be signed. The list goes on, Jerry does it his way but his way hasn’t worked for 29 seasons, maybe a different approach is needed

Of course, but that has nothing to do w/ what they paid him this season being equal to what they could've gotten Henry for.

 

[Bobhaze]

Henry's making 8 mil. Zeke is making 2-3. Not a good example.

I think Henry’s cap hit after his $9 mil signing bonus is just $5.1 million. Below are Henry’s numbers on Spotrac…
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/player/_/id/18994/derrick-henry

 

[kskboys]

Well, they’ve already been doing that for years. In fact every team does it to varying degrees. All of the teams winning SBs have been doing it for years. The question to me is this: Does this FO want to win more than it wants to be worried about the cap? Apparently not.

Know what else they've been doing? Not paying WR's monstrous contracts!!!!!!!

Bob, it really is an apples and oranges comparison. We are now paying 114 mil/season to 3 players. Which teams that are winning super bowls are doing that?

 

[kskboys]

I think Henry’s cap hit after his $9 mil signing bonus is just $5.1 million. Below are Henry’s numbers on Spotrac…
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/player/_/id/18994/derrick-henry

And Zeke is making 2 mil.

Henry is making 5 mil this season, and 9 mil next. And has 2 mill in incentives in 2025.

So, it's not only this season, we'd have had to make 9 mil of room next season. And that's w/ Parsons coming up.

 

[quickccc]

- Washington has no major stars at RB ... nor supposed All star studs on their OL .. yet they manage a better run game than what our
utter mess is here in Dallas ?

- We're supposed to have Tyler Smith and Zack Martin on our OL, but the OL blocking scheme is an utter mess (per OL coach Solaru)
Our run design scheme is still an utter mess with OL and RB coaches

- Front office literally gave the coaches jack squat non-factors at RB personnel with a slow lumbering zeke ..Rico whose
barely decent at best, ..and whose really our best run skill RB ...and then there's sympathic draft pick Deuce Vaughn whose
skill set shiftiness and short stature is useless in this Solari/McCarthy offense.
If there's a worse RB personnel unit in the NFL, i'd wonder what team would that be.

- An undrafted RB Jordan Mason can jump into a Shanahan system and scheme and still bring productivity.
We simply do not have such a coaching system or scheme to get away with such an access., much less player personnel.

- We won't be able to survive such a mess at RB and OL scheme this year - next offseason the hope is we can overhaul the
entire coaching staff (save TE coach Luma Well) ..and re-start it with a new, improve staff - with hopefully a Shanhan like
creative coaching staff and then address the RB issue in the NFL draft and FA.

 

[quickccc]

The lions? Cz will convince me david Montgomery would look good in Dallas

Even RB Derrick Henry would not look good with this pathetic coach scheme ... they are so useless and clueless, imo.

 

[noshame]

I think the opposite applies to our offense. We have got to back people off if we're gonna ever have a running game.
Because against McCarthy, teams just sit on the short passes and run game.
I'm not saying it will solve everything. because our blocking scheme and rookies are suffering a wee bit

 

[Beaker42]

Many of us predicted how this was going to go, and so far it has gone exactly as called. Malpractice at the GM level is directly hampering the season when there were many easy fixes for cheap during the off season. Just unbelievable that this franchise is held back this way.

Unfortunately it’s just like my Blackhawks - took Bill Wirtz’s passing for the franchise to thrive and prosper. Then again, Rocky Wirtz was Einstein compared to Jethro Stephen.

 

[Cowboys5217]

Henry's making 8 mil. Zeke is making 2-3. Not a good example.

Come on, man. Don't be that pedantic. The point is that Zeke is a waste of time, and Henry could've been acquired easily without any cap issues. It doesn't have to be a perfect pennies to pennies ratio for that to be correct.

 

[kskboys]

- Washington has no major stars at RB ... nor supposed All star studs on their OL .. yet they manage a better run game than what our
utter mess is here in Dallas ?

- We're supposed to have Tyler Smith and Zack Martin on our OL, but the OL blocking scheme is an utter mess (per OL coach Solaru)
Our run design scheme is still an utter mess with OL and RB coaches

- Front office literally gave the coaches jack squat non-factors at RB personnel with a slow lumbering zeke ..Rico whose
barely decent at best, ..and whose really our best run skill RB ...and then there's sympathic draft pick Deuce Vaughn whose
skill set shiftiness and short stature is useless in this Solari/McCarthy offense.
If there's a worse RB personnel unit in the NFL, i'd wonder what team would that be.

- An undrafted RB Jordan Mason can jump into a Shanahan system and scheme and still bring productivity.
We simply do not have such a coaching system or scheme to get away with such an access., much less player personnel.

- We won't be able to survive such a mess at RB and OL scheme this year - next offseason the hope is we can overhaul the
entire coaching staff (save TE coach Luma Well) ..and re-start it with a new, improve staff - with hopefully a Shanhan like
creative coaching staff and then address the RB issue in the NFL draft and FA.

I don't understand. What does having major stars have to do w/ anything?

WASH has Robinson and Ekeler at RB. Either one is easily better than our entire RB corps combined.

 

[jaythecowboy]

When it gets blamed for not being able to sign a good RB for cheap (Henry), but you decide to count a washed up RB like Zeke twice against the cap, then yeah, it's one hell of a big lie.

paying a third qb $5 million that will never play a snap for you as well

 

[kskboys]

Come on, man. Don't be that pedantic. The point is that Zeke is a waste of time, and Henry could've been acquired easily without any cap issues. It doesn't have to be a perfect pennies to pennies ratio for that to be correct.

1. Zeke is a waste of time, agreed.
2. It would've been difficult to fit Henry's contract under the cap.

 

[jaythecowboy]

- Washington has no major stars at RB ... nor supposed All star studs on their OL .. yet they manage a better run game than what our
utter mess is here in Dallas ?

- We're supposed to have Tyler Smith and Zack Martin on our OL, but the OL blocking scheme is an utter mess (per OL coach Solaru)
Our run design scheme is still an utter mess with OL and RB coaches

- Front office literally gave the coaches jack squat non-factors at RB personnel with a slow lumbering zeke ..Rico whose
barely decent at best, ..and whose really our best run skill RB ...and then there's sympathic draft pick Deuce Vaughn whose
skill set shiftiness and short stature is useless in this Solari/McCarthy offense.
If there's a worse RB personnel unit in the NFL, i'd wonder what team would that be.

- An undrafted RB Jordan Mason can jump into a Shanahan system and scheme and still bring productivity.
We simply do not have such a coaching system or scheme to get away with such an access., much less player personnel.

- We won't be able to survive such a mess at RB and OL scheme this year - next offseason the hope is we can overhaul the
entire coaching staff (save TE coach Luma Well) ..and re-start it with a new, improve staff - with hopefully a Shanhan like
creative coaching staff and then address the RB issue in the NFL draft and FA.

I think it is the scheme with the Niners but I also think Mason is a better runner than what we have even as a udfa.

 

[jaythecowboy]

1. Zeke is a waste of time, agreed.
2. It would've been difficult to fit Henry's contract under the cap.

No it wouldn't have been. The Cowboys have plenty of cap space and have even more in 2025. And that is without any restructures.

 

[TequilaCowboy]

It matters because then you are saying Dak is gonna carry this team to the promised land. We all know for a fact that’s not happening. He falls apart when the pressure is on. This team would have to be about 75% run oriented. And even then, I still wouldn’t trust Dak to do his part.