Your thoughts on the team now compared to 6 months ago

[Alexander]

I never suggested that...I'm suggesting this offense will be fine with an average run game..we don't need an elite run game this year...rest of team is way better

The offset is the issue. Has the D improved to the point that we can now impose our will like the run game did last year?

Are we ready to allow this to be a defensive-driven team?

I am not prepared to say that.

 

[Nightman]

Compared to 6 months ago, we are ready to win the SB

We added Hardy, Gregory and a healthy Lee, Claiborne and Lawrence to an improving D. We were also able to bring back RMcClain and all his talents and troubles on the cheap. Hitchens, Wilson and BJones are solid draft picks.

We brought back the entire OL and added LCollins for nothing, jackpot. The signing of Dez seemed like a no-brainer but went to the wire for dramatic effect. Beasley also got re-signed and Lucky looks like a decent replacement for DHarris.

The RBBC by committee was the biggest question mark. Adding DMC after losing Murray seemed like JJones was pulling another Switzer. After the draft and FA failed to deliver things looked bleak. But just today the FO was able to pull a trade and brought in a quality vet RB with young legs. His stout frame is a perfect fit for this RBBC and should answer the last remaining question.

The Super Bowl is definitely a realistic goal.

 

[Hardline]

Unless the running game continues where it left off the defensive improvements are moot.

 

[EPL0c0]

Compared to the same point last year:

QB: much happier with a healthy Romo

RB: Murray was a significant loss; I think Randle and Michael are underrated, DMC should be a good 3rd down guy, still not as good as last year

OL: Much better than last year with TFred and Zach proven commodities. I worry about swing tackle but also think they re-jig the line if Free goes down again with Zach at RT and someone else stepping in at RG.

WR: Much happier now that Cole and TWill are more proven overall

TE: Pretty much the same

DL: World's better than last year even without Hardy on opening day

LB: A bit better than last year if Lee stays healthy. Much better if RMC comes back with his head screwed on straight.

DB: About the same as last year due to better depth but losing OScan hurt a lot. I don't think Mo can fill that gap but White has looked really good so far in camp and preseason. Patmon also has been a find.

STs: Hard to judge but Harris was a loss on coverage units

Overall the components of the team look quite a bit better especially in the trenches and at QB which is where games are won and lost by and large. This team will pass more and despite the board's concern I think that will probably be a good thing.

Pretty much everything I had typed out as well.

I think an improved Pass rush should help the 2ndary. Losing Scandrick does hurt, but overall depth is better IMO. Jones' flexibility is a big plus.

 

[Deep_South]

Obviously the running game is a concern, but getting torched by backup quarterbacks and a one-legged Aaron Rogers is something I'm still concerned about, at least for the first four weeks of the season. When we get our whole D on the field and finally get a consistent pass rush, one would think that would take care of it once and for all.

 

[Rockport]

On paper, we're much better than last year. But football is a game of heart as much as it is physical talent. All 53 have to be on the same page, have each other's back, give their all for the sake of the team and not individual accolades. Team chemistry is big. Believing in the coaching staff. All signs are positive but until the games begin and they get kicked in the mouth, which will happen, how they respond will be a great indication. Last year they never gave up and always answered or at least tried. I expect the same again this year. Can't wait for Sunday night to begin the quest for Seis.

 

[Wolfpack]

Commitment to the run game is the thing that is most important. I care less who is running than that we are back Romo being asked to do it all ( from shotgun).

Don't forget the loss of Callahan who really helped the Ol/run game.

Defense should be generally better overall.

 

[xwalker]

How do you feel about the team and roster now, compared to various times over the past year.
A year ago or so, we had doom and gloom widespread, for mediots to fans. Injury to Lee, Romo back surgery, Ro signing and low expectations of him and the defense. Murray staying healthy, and a pass happy offense was being talked about. We did not know the OL would beast out like they did either.

How did you feel going into the season and how did that change by the end of the year, being cheated out what could have been a possible SB appearance. And needing to retain or replace many FA's and how we could do.

Then how did you feel going into the draft, needing to replace Murray, and after when he didn't. But added some great potential on Defense.

Then throughout TC, wondering how the RB situation was going to turn out.
Then now, getting Michaels added to the RB group. How has your opinion changed going into game one.
Has your opinion of our running game changed a lot that it will be fine now, or do you feel the same, or having a wait and see approach. We all should feel much better about the defense for sure. And Romo being healthy, and the OL playing well again.

Right now, to me is how will the RBs perform, and how will the ST's do.

So what I guess I am asking, how has your opinions changed over the last year, and over the last few days.

There were 4 reasons they lost in Green Bay.
Refs
Lack of Pass Rush
Murray's fumble
Sterling Moore getting torched by Adams.

Murray and Moore are gone and the pass rush could be the strength of the team this season.

 

[gimmesix]

I don't think my concerns about the RB position will be quelled until one of them emerges as the primary back in the committee.

Other than that, I think I felt better about our depth at linebacker before camp. Ro getting suspended and Brinkley not showing much concern me, but I do like the way Gachkar came on, so maybe we can weather Ro's suspension with Gachkar and Wilber chipping in to help Lee and Hitchens.

Losing Scandrick hurt the CB spot, so even though we have a lot of depth there, we don't have a lot of proven depth. The pass rush may help out there, though, and I'd say Gregory, Lawrence, Russell and Coleman have given us hope that it will be improved even without Hardy for a few weeks.

I also was pleased to see Williams and Beasley showing improvement as the second and third WR options. That makes our passing game even more potent.

 

[Idgit]

Is the pass defense going to be better? If so, barring injuries, the team is going to be better.

And the pass defense is going to be a lot better.

 

[darthseinfeld]

How do you feel about the team and roster now, compared to various times over the past year.
A year ago or so, we had doom and gloom widespread, for mediots to fans. Injury to Lee, Romo back surgery, Ro signing and low expectations of him and the defense. Murray staying healthy, and a pass happy offense was being talked about. We did not know the OL would beast out like they did either.

How did you feel going into the season and how did that change by the end of the year, being cheated out what could have been a possible SB appearance. And needing to retain or replace many FA's and how we could do.

Then how did you feel going into the draft, needing to replace Murray, and after when he didn't. But added some great potential on Defense.

Then throughout TC, wondering how the RB situation was going to turn out.
Then now, getting Michaels added to the RB group. How has your opinion changed going into game one.
Has your opinion of our running game changed a lot that it will be fine now, or do you feel the same, or having a wait and see approach. We all should feel much better about the defense for sure. And Romo being healthy, and the OL playing well again.

Right now, to me is how will the RBs perform, and how will the ST's do.

So what I guess I am asking, how has your opinions changed over the last year, and over the last few days.

Adding Michael made me feel alot better. I think ultimately he will phase Randle out and be a bell cow runner and split snaps with McFadden. Him and McFadden could be a very good duo and compliment each other well. As a player I worry that Randle may be a Troy Hambrick. He looked good last year as a reserve, but struggled when call upon to start in 2013. Could be be that he wasnt ready. Could be that he is not suited for a heavy workload. I see him as a good back up, as a runner he is decent to solid across the board but he is just middling to me to be a quality starting caliber back. Michael has the ability to impose his will on a defence and paired with McFaddens speed and rounded skill set as a blocker and pass protector and ground game got much better

 

[MapleLeaf]

I am concerned about Special Teams and who will stand up and lead the charge here.

Without Harris who leads?

 

[jazzcat22]

I am concerned about Special Teams and who will stand up and lead the charge here.

Without Harris who leads?

I think this is why they brought MCray back is to help replace Harris to be that leader. Gachkar is supposed to be a good ST player too. Heath is also there on ST's too.

Same as last year, we will need to see how they perform, last 2 preseason they looked bad, but regular season was better. I still have concerns though too.

 

[rwalters31]

How do you feel about the team and roster now, compared to various times over the past year.
A year ago or so, we had doom and gloom widespread, for mediots to fans. Injury to Lee, Romo back surgery, Ro signing and low expectations of him and the defense. Murray staying healthy, and a pass happy offense was being talked about. We did not know the OL would beast out like they did either.

How did you feel going into the season and how did that change by the end of the year, being cheated out what could have been a possible SB appearance. And needing to retain or replace many FA's and how we could do.

Then how did you feel going into the draft, needing to replace Murray, and after when he didn't. But added some great potential on Defense.

Then throughout TC, wondering how the RB situation was going to turn out.
Then now, getting Michaels added to the RB group. How has your opinion changed going into game one.
Has your opinion of our running game changed a lot that it will be fine now, or do you feel the same, or having a wait and see approach. We all should feel much better about the defense for sure. And Romo being healthy, and the OL playing well again.

Right now, to me is how will the RBs perform, and how will the ST's do.

So what I guess I am asking, how has your opinions changed over the last year, and over the last few days.

Well, I feel better about the defensive line being able to catch a one leg-get QB this year! Over all 1) Offense will be efficient like last year; 2) defense will support the offense instead of the other way around; and 3) the special teams will suck and keep us out of the SB. We draft 30th next year.

 

[Eskimo]

There is a big difference between what happened in the last quarter of the season last year versus what could happen if the running game falters this season to begin with.

We established dominance in the running game. And it made defenses react. And that carried through. You cannot ignore the tape even if Murray was "slowing down". We still ran the ball and still had teams respect what had been displayed before.

That is why Romo was able to be so efficient in the first place and how he was able to step up comfortably when needed.

I just do not understand how fans still think that Romo is better throwing 35+ times each and every week.

I'm not so convinced that this is why we dominated down the stretch. The key factor was really the offensive efficiency and that was mostly driven from passing out of empty backfield sets with Cole, Witten and Dez just dominating the opposition secondary.

You could even argue that the running game was acting as some form of a brake on the overall offense throughout the year. Given our splits between Romo under center (running 80% of the time) and in shotgun (passing 90% of the time) I think the defense knew when to respect the running game and when to play the pass and it didn't seem to help them that much.

In regards to Romo, obviously the more times he drops back the greater the risk of injury. However, I suspect this OL is about to make a big leap in pass protection compared to last season and DMC is a good pass protector from the RB spot. I do think we need to be better prepared for blitz-heavy teams but the way we destroyed the Skins in week 17 leads me to believe that Linehan made the necessary adjustments. It also seems like we are running more crossing routes with WRs which are tougher to cover in man schemes which always seemed to be a bit of a deficiency in attack style.

My main worry at RB is more in regards to goalline and short yardage but I still think the OL is much more important than the RB in those situations. This year maybe we can trot out Collins as a TE in those situations to get the edge? My second worry is pass protection but I think this is the main reason DMC is here. I think they should have invested more but I think getting Michael is a bit of a gift - would have been happier if he got a full TC and preseason with us but price probably was much higher back then. I do believe him and Randle can be a potent duo with complementary styles.

It should be a good season and hopefully another playoff appearance. It'd be our first back to back playoff appearances since 2006&7. Prior to that I think you have to go back to the late 90s.

 

[starfrombirth]

Better about the defense. Worlds better.

Very worried about the running game being even close to the identity is was last year.

And wondering if the defense improved enough to offset.

Last year at this time, almost to a man we were all worried if Demarco was going to be healthy because we had no one behind him and we weren't all that sure about him either. For myself, I feel much more confident about the running game. Still worried about the backup qb but to have only 1 or 2 question marks going into a season is pretty remarkable, I think.

 

[perrykemp]

6 months ago I thought the Cowboys were better than the Seahawks and

I am worried about the secondary more now with scandrick out. we are depending on a busted first round pick in Claiborne and carr who is just average. then patmon is unproven and we are depending on him to take the slot corner job. then jones who has been up and down all preseason. then having to depend on Wilcox who was burned multiple times in the playoffs. I am also concerned about the backup tackles especially if free is not able to play a full season again. I think that the running back rotation will take care of itself we have four players I think we will find two guys who can carry the load.

This is my concern. Brandon Carr and Mo Claiborne are a very lackluster set of CBs. A lot of the outlook depends on whether you feel you are going to get the Carr from the playoffs or the Carr from the regular season from the past two years.

 

[tyke1doe]

Much better.
Many fans wanted to make a big deal about Murray not being here and the Dez catch.
What stopped us from getting to the Super Bowl is defense. But we've upgrade that unit, particularly the pass rush.
I think Gregory is going to have a Javon Kearse-like impact. Even though I believe Hardy was culpable in his domestic abuse case, I was hoping he'd prove me wrong by challenging his four-game suspension. I hope his absence doesn't hurt too much, but from a football stance, he was a great addition.
I think the C. Mike acquisition will be huge.
Dez is going to tare it up, and Romo is going to be on fire. And I don't even need to mention the offensive line.
If we can stay healthy, we should at the very least be in the NFC Championship Game.

 

[Crown Royal]

There is a big difference between what happened in the last quarter of the season last year versus what could happen if the running game falters this season to begin with.

We established dominance in the running game. And it made defenses react. And that carried through. You cannot ignore the tape even if Murray was "slowing down". We still ran the ball and still had teams respect what had been displayed before.

That is why Romo was able to be so efficient in the first place and how he was able to step up comfortably when needed.

I just do not understand how fans still think that Romo is better throwing 35+ times each and every week.

I don't like any offense that relies on a QB throwing that much.

And yeah - the end of the season had teams putting 8-9 in the box. Romo has never had the luxury of throwing against man to man single high as much as he did last December. My only hope is that teams come out early in the season showing those same fronts to scare the Cowboys out of the run and Romo burns them back, then our running attack owns the rest of the year.

 

[Crown Royal]

To answer the question. I remember after 2009 I was excited about the next few years. I was naive and thought that if we just kept that team it would get better. Well we made no changes and regressed FAST.

This season the team figured out how dumb that is. They improved or changed where they could on defense and switched the offense a little. Plus Romo is healthier than he has been in a while.

Hard not to be excited.