Graziano: Can Cowboys afford to sign a tackle?

Cotton

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Can Cowboys afford to sign a tackle?

May, 1, 2013


By Dan Graziano | ESPNDallas.com

I get the sense that Dallas Cowboys fans would feel better about the team if it signed one of these free-agent offensive tackles. Tyson Clabo and Eric Winston are the names you're hearing, and it's pretty obvious either would be an upgrade over Doug Free. Neither has yet signed elsewhere, so there's no real reason to panic. But with all of the salary cap problems the Cowboys have had this offseason it's understandable to worry whether they can afford to sign one of these guys.

Calvin Watkins reports, however, that the Cowboys have more than $5 million in cap room at the present time, not counting the $2 million they'll get in June when the release of Marcus Spears takes effect and not counting the $7 million (post-June 1) they could save by cutting Free. This would seem to indicate that they can sign someone like Clabo and still sign their draft picks (especially since their first-rounder ended up being No. 31 and not No. 18, a distinction likely to save them somewhere around $300,000 against this year's cap). The picks don't need to be under contract prior to June 1, so the Cowboys can wait until then to take care of that even if they sign Clabo in the meantime.

The issue appears to be Free, and how they handle his contract situation. It's easy for us to sit here and say they should cut him based on the way he's played since they signed him two offseasons ago. But the Cowboys don't like to give up on their guys, and it's likely they'd prefer to keep Free at a much lower salary and as a backup tackle. If Free would agree to the pay cut now, they'd add to their cap room and could make a move on a Clabo with more clarity about their overall 2013 cap situation. But if Free won't agree to the pay cut the Cowboys have in mind, then they're a month away from being able to cut him and things could get held up.

As you know, I like the move the Cowboys made to take center/guard Travis Frederick in the first round last week. Along with fellow first-rounder Tyron Smith, he'll give the Cowboys at least two offensive line starters about whom they can feel good. Adding a veteran such as Clabo, whom they appear to like, would up that number to three, and then they could throw a bunch of Phil Costa/Mackenzy Bernadeau/Nate Livings types into the mix for the other two spots and hope that competition pushes two of them to play better.

The Cowboys have enough talent on their roster to be a playoff team in 2013, but they have to get better offensive line play in order to cash in on that. Step 1 was the first round of the draft. Step 2 remains up in the air. But it appears they do have the resources to pull it off.
 

Carp

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Who is the fucking asshole who did not think we could sign a player?

:tippytoe
 

Smitty

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Why the fuck do we want to keep this guy around as a backup?!?! We have Parnell to be the swing tackle!

Christ this FO is retarded.
 

Lotuseater

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It'll be even worse when they decide to 'give him another chance'. Coach m up.
 

ravidubey

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This front office utterly fears having to admit to a double failure, first in drafting and then in re-signing Free to a huge second contract. In their minds Free taking a pay cut allows them to save some measure of face, though I don't really get how considering his best position might just be backup LT.

But that's the situation you deserve when you don't understand how marginal a LT Free was from the instant he took over for Flozell Adams and got reliably blown backwards everytime he faced elite or even strong competition. Jerry nonetheless pounced at the opportunity to extend Free to a massive contract for no other reasons than his contract was due and statistically it wasn't Free who broke Romo in 2010. I guess if Jerry signed Free to enough cap-crushing money he could on the surface convince everyone he was a genius for drafting him in the 4th round.

Instead he's just confirmed how much of a retard he really is. Again. This kind of crap only repeatedly happens to bad franchises, and this is a bad franchise because of Jerry Jones.
 

Clay_Allison

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Free did legitimately have one good year in 2010, but it's time to admit that it was an abberrus and move on to get a legit pro in here to play the RT position. We can't afford NOT to sign a RT.
 

ravidubey

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Free did legitimately have one good year in 2010, but it's time to admit that it was an abberrus and move on to get a legit pro in here to play the RT position. We can't afford NOT to sign a RT.
The team started 1-7 that year and the line was mostly to blame for it. Free is fine against average RDE's, but all of his bad plays came against strong competition. The offense also couldn't afford to make big throws with turds like Barron and Colombo starting which in turn made Free look much better statistically than he was.

To sign him to a huge deal like that was just... Jerry Jones.
 

boozeman

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Our $5 million in cap space will not get it done with Clabo or Winston for that matter. Watkins is a grade A idiot.
 

Smitty

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The team started 1-7 that year and the line was mostly to blame for it. Free is fine against average RDE's, but all of his bad plays came against strong competition. The offense also couldn't afford to make big throws with turds like Barron and Colombo starting which in turn made Free look much better statistically than he was.

To sign him to a huge deal like that was just... Jerry Jones.
Free wasn't that good that year. He was good in pass protection maybe. The guy has always been subpar as a run blocker.
 

Smitty

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Our $5 million in cap space will not get it done with Clabo or Winston for that matter. Watkins is a grade A idiot.
Graziano wrote this article.... Watkins only reported the amount of cap space.
 

boozeman

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Graziano wrote this article.... Watkins only reported the amount of cap space.
Watkins wrote this:


Right now, the Cowboys are on target to have enough space to take care of draft picks and free agents before and during the season.
My original point stands.
 
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