You have to hope that there is a reassessment going on

[Vinnie2u]

Garrett and the whole Coaching staff needs to go. Last season was a abomination. Jerry and Company need to stop thinking they are the smartest guys in the room. They are not. Stop drafting shiny new toys. Jaylon, Gregory and Escobar. Problem fixed.

 

[SlammedZero]

What is crazy, that just never comes to mind to me, is when you said 8 years. It's been 8 years with Garrett. That is nuts. Somebody slow this ride down, please.

 

[thisiscowboyscountry]

Church was the best we let go.We moved on.

Agreed, I thought of all the guys in the secondary he's the one we should have made a play to retain.

 

[Verdict]

I sort of disagree with your primary theme. There really haven't been any great finds in free agency that haven't been back breakers to the teams that signed them. Poe may have been a bit of an exception.

The Giants are lauded for paying out the *** for Vernon to build a great defense. And it worked-for one season- and it came at a cost. They let Hankins walk which hurt that defense immeasurably.

The Giants' offensive line is woeful. It's like a sieve and it is killing that team in the same way that our defense is killing us, only a hell of a lot worse and their cap is totally ****ed. I mean ****ed.

If there was an awesome free agent we could have had for cheap/reasonable cost then it's fair to criticize the GM but most of the free agents have been very overpaid.

I think the most valid criticism for the GM is paying too much for nothings and calling them mid tier free agents.

My current biggest problem with the team is Marinelli absolutely sucks in terms of talent evaluation and scheme. He is doing nothing with the talent we have and playing guys like Taco over more "ready" players who can do a little something rather than nothing at all.

 

[Verdict]

They're also missing the mark on home grown talent. Crawford, Witten, and Dez aren't close to living up to their contracts.

All 3 are over paid progress stoppers. And we spend all our time trying to "get them going" to validate the piss poor contracts.

 

[Sydla]

I sort of disagree with your primary theme. There really haven't been any great finds in free agency that haven't been back breakers to the teams that signed them. Poe may have been a bit of an exception.

The Giants are lauded for paying out the *** for Vernon to build a great defense. And it worked-for one season- and it came at a cost. They let Hankins walk which hurt that defense immeasurably.

The Giants' offensive line is woeful. It's like a sieve and it is killing that team in the same way that our defense is killing us, only a hell of a lot worse and their cap is totally ****ed. I mean ****ed.

If there was an awesome free agent we could have had for cheap/reasonable cost then it's fair to criticize the GM but most of the free agents have been very overpaid.

I think the most valid criticism for the GM is paying too much for nothings and calling them mid tier free agents.

My current biggest problem with the team is Marinelli absolutely sucks in terms of talent evaluation and scheme. He is doing nothing with the talent we have and playing guys like Taco over more "ready" players who can do a little something rather than nothing at all.

You actually kind of agreed with me.

I didn't say anything about spending like a drunken sailor. I more was pointing out the team hits the bargain bin and ignores the middle ground of FA between what the Giants did and what the Cowboys do.

PS - the Giants cap isn't that awful. Per over the cap, they are projected to have a minimum of 30MM in cap space next year.

 

[Verdict]

Agreed, I thought of all the guys in the secondary he's the one we should have made a play to retain.

No he was just a guy. Limited range, etc.

 

[Idgit]

Don't think they're reassessing the coaching, or how they've gone about assembling the team. I do think they're probably looking carefully at their defensive personnel this week. Gotta field LBs who are assignment sound, even if they're limited. Not sure if March-Lillard is that guy, or just a ST player. Andrew Gachkar is out there, though, if we need a body that knows the system.

And they have to use the time to nail down the secondary and to fix the problems at S. Maybe that's Awuzie. Maybe it's Woods. But somebody needs to put some snaps pressure on Heath if he can't play better.

As far as the 1 tech goes, who knows? They'll rotate Crawford and Irving and Price in there for now, but that doesn't sound like a long term solution.

 

[Verdict]

You kind of proved my point.

I didn't say anything about spending like a drunken sailor. I more was pointing out the team hits the bargain bin and ignores the middle ground of FA between what the Giants did and what the Cowboys do.

I get the theory but a good deal on a mid level free agent is pretty much a unicorn. Dallas is over paying for low tier free agents and pretending they are mid tier free agents. I'm not saying avoid free agents entirely. But don't overpay them.

Draft well. Don't piss off picks. Don't pay a player based on what the market says. Pay based on your evaluation and stick to it.

We way over paid for Dez. The market said pay him $70 million but he wasn't worth half of that. Leary was worth the money and we let him walk. Which would have been a better decision?

 

[Sydla]

Don't think they're reassessing the coaching, or how they've gone about assembling the team. I do think they're probably looking carefully at their defensive personnel this week. Gotta field LBs who are assignment sound, even if they're limited. Not sure if March-Lillard is that guy, or just a ST player. Andrew Gachkar is out there, though, if we need a body that knows the system.

And they have to use the time to nail down the secondary and to fix the problems at S. Maybe that's Awuzie. Maybe it's Woods. But somebody needs to put some snaps pressure on Heath if he can't play better.

As far as the 1 tech goes, who knows? They'll rotate Crawford and Irving and Price in there for now, but that doesn't sound like a long term solution.

I doubt they are thinking coaching now.

But they'd be foolish to not assess parts of the staff if this season results in a non playoff season.

 

[Verdict]

I doubt they are thinking coaching now.

But they'd be foolish to not assess parts of the staff if this season results in a non playoff season.

I agree with your post. What move would you make if the team misses the playoffs?

 

[Sarek]

I don't know about next season. This season this team needs to regain it's identity for bullying opponents with the run game from start to finish. It all just feels like the whole org coaches players owner everybody is just going through the motions.

 

[Direwolf63]

I agree with your post. What move would you make if the team misses the playoffs?

You have to start with the DC. The game has clearly passed Marinelli by. He has been in Dallas 5 or so years and hjs defense is worse than ever.

The defensive system needs to be modernized and we need a guy to get the maximum from the players we have. We need a Cowboys version of Jim Schwartz.

A special teams coach may need to be replaced. Other than Bailey, there is nothing special about it.

 

[DandyDon52]

The season is certainly not lost after 5 games but the slope is a lot harder to climb at this point with the schedule ahead of us. So while the playoffs isn't impossible, it's looking improbable at this point barring a major shift in how this team is playing on both sides of the ball.

Regardless, as Cowboys fans, we need to hope that the front office it taking a long hard look at how they operate and why we seem to be on this endless rollercoaster that doesn't result in any great success season after season.

The coaching issues have been hashed out over and over so there's no need to do it again. But the front office really has to stop making excuses for Garrett. 8 years will be a wide sample and if the Cowboys cannot make the playoffs this year, how they could justify bringing him back from a coaching perspective would be puzzling. You have to hope that emotion and loyalty aren't the overriding factors.

More importantly, they better look at how they construct teams, specifically through FA. I applauded them when they seemed to say, "Gee, this spending wads of cash and blowing all our cap space on high priced vets isn't working, so we will be more prudent in FA". I saw that and hoped that they, while being judicious, would also be willing to spend a little extra for that one FA who made sense.

But the pendulum swung the entire other direction. Now they just sift through the crap bin and "hope" that their scouting can uncover young gems trashed by other teams and give crud veterans a rebirth. You look at the last few years and we've had very little success in FA, largely because they simply think they are smarter than anyone else and can turn other people's crap into gold. They clearly aren't Midas, that's obvious considering Thornton and Carroll and even Mayowa (granted, he's not been terrible), etc. To be fair, I really liked the Thornton signing but even I had some reservations that he might not be a 1 tech when he was a 3-4 DE in Philly. So who made the decision that Thornton could be a 1 tech? Who made the decision that despite sucking, Carroll would be a solid zone CB here?

In the end, I don't know who makes the end decisions on FA personnel. Is it Jones? Is it McClay? How much say does Marinelli, Garrett and Linehan have? But at some point, whoever is making the decisions has to do a better job. This team cannot simply rely on the draft alone, at some point, they have to have some success in FA.

Great post especially about free agency. This leads to what I think is the main problem with the Cowboys and something that isn't going to change and that is the Jones boys Steven and Jerry .

They blew up the 2014 team when they resigned Dez and gave Crawford the money they should have used to resign Murray.
the 2016 team was then blown up letting all the defensive players go and letting Leary getaway.
they are the ones that control free agency they are why we are going cheap and trying to get bargain players like Gregory .
and that throws a big wrench in the wheel of success.
They also control the draft, although they do listen to the others like McClay a little more now. And they hired the coaches and they stay with the coaches so all the problems start at the top and the top isn't going to change we are stuck with the Jones and that's sad but that's the way it is.

 

[Aven8]

The Dallas Cowboys all time record after a bye week = 25-14
The Dallas Cowboys record after a bye week under Garrett = 3-4

Hope all you want.

Thanks for the pick me up........

 

[cowboyblue22]

IF they lose to the 49 niners and go to 2 and 4 you can pretty much wrap up the season this game against the niners is really close to a must win

 

[lukin2006]

I fell for the hype coming out of training camp...never again. This team is so over rated. The best thing to have happen is a complete collapse this season, that’s the only way I see this coaching staff getting replaced...only to be replaced by another yes man as a head coach.

 

[Sydla]

I agree with your post. What move would you make if the team misses the playoffs?

What would I do? I'd fire the entire staff. Garrett would have been here 7 full seasons, with only 2 playoff seasons and only one play off win. That's more than enough evidence for me to go in another direction.

What I think will happen if they miss the playoffs will be the Jones family will cover for Garrett like they always do and there will be a staff shake up somewhere, possibly Marinelli being pushed out. I guess I could live with that but it wouldn't be my ideal outcome.

 

[jazzcat22]

the owner needs to realize that his hand-picked clapper is not the answer...Jones is so desperate to look "smart" that he is driving the team into the ground trying to get Garrett to look like a legit HC...he isn't...good guy? yes...want him in the organization somewhere? sure..what are those departments called that their sole job is "rah-rah"?

that all being said, this will never, ever happen...in my mid 50's so I have to wonder who will last longer, me or the jones crew before we sniff a championship

Maybe he can become the new Rowdy...because ever since 1996 when the current one came about (unless they switched out a few times) we have been the 8-8 version of the Browns. Maybe it's time to make this change.

 

[Verdict]

What would I do? I'd fire the entire staff. Garrett would have been here 7 full seasons, with only 2 playoff seasons and only one play off win. That's more than enough evidence for me to go in another direction.

What I think will happen if they miss the playoffs will be the Jones family will cover for Garrett like they always do and there will be a staff shake up somewhere, possibly Marinelli being pushed out. I guess I could live with that but it wouldn't be my ideal outcome.

As much as many of you hate Garrett, and there are valid reasons for doing so, I think we could do worse than him. Some of the guys we would like to have as coaches have their own warts you just don't notice them as much.

The really good coaches tend to be real *******s and don't stay in one place long. I would probably let The Clapper stay but I would for sure get rid of Marinelli. The team is good enough to win a SB on offense and the defense is the issue.

I would also make a commitment philosophically to run the ball. If it is spending a high pick or some free agent dollars on an OL so be it. I would make that the identity of this team and would grind teams to death. I would have Jerry give a private mandate to the staff that we WILL be physical and we will run the ball.

I would look to get a pay cut out of Dez and Witten and relegate Witten to spot duty around the goal line as a receiver. Witten would be a cheap situational chain mover and nothing more.

I would spend some draft resources to get a stud #2 running back who could carry the load of Zeke went down and very little quality drop off on rest substitutions for Zeke.

The very best cover corners are only marginal at tackling Zeke. Do you let them blanket Dez I Can't Catch A Cold Bryant or have them tackle Zeke 10 times per game? Which one favors us?