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I usually do not bother with stuff that Mike Fisher or his little minion Drummond write at the Scout.com site as it is invariably homerific nonsense. But this one takes the cake. A lot doesn't format, so you will need to follow the link...but bottomline this guy has us signing Bryant, McClain, Free in-house and coming away with not only Justin Houston, but Devin McCourty, two of the top ten FAs available.
So um, yeah, like there aren't an ass-load of teams who could offer each external FA a bunch more money than the Cowboys could fart out...
http://dal.scout.com/story/1509095-cowboys-offseason-manifesto-free-agency-fire?s=112
Feb 04, 2015 | 12:33 pm[h=1]Cowboys Offseason Manifesto: Free Agency Fire[/h]
KD DrummondSenior Columnist
Dallas has stayed quiet over the last few years of free agency, as the team has waded in the waters of mediocrity. Now they have catapulted to the top of the league. With numerous holes remaining, will we see the return of an open-wallet Jerry Jones? Should we?
The 2014 NFL Season is now complete and a champion has been crowned. 31 other teams now have the task of improving themselves to a level capable of overthrowing the champions. The SuperBowls’ two contenders, New England and Seattle both finished the regular season as their conferences number one seeds with a 12-4 record, the same as Dallas. The Cowboys weren’t far away at all, however…
If Dallas wants to make the next step in their quest for a sixth Lombardi, drastic steps will need to be made. There are holes in the roster that need to be addressed. A great way of looking at a championship caliber team is one that has an All-Pro level player at every level of the team, as well as one dominating unit. Dallas has some work to do to achieve this.
As discussed in Parts One (here) and Two (here), Dallas has a finite window of opportunity that circles around the health and longevity of a soon-to-be-35-year-old quarterback in Tony Romo. Franchise quarterbacks rarely excel past 36, and almost never past 37. Dallas cannot remain complacent and assume similar success awaits them, even if they sign enough players to have a similar roster to last year. For the first time in years, we are advocating that Dallas become spenders in the free agent market. At the same time, though, the Cowboys need to avoid the pitfalls of other franchises that foolishly wade into a “win-now” mode by signing big ticket free agents with warts of age or unsustained greatness in contract seasons. The Dallas “splash” free agents must be players that are coming off of their rookie deals, and preferably ones that are finishing off just their third or fourth years.
This allows Dallas to get superstar players that can contribute superstar skillsets immediately, but they also are players with little risk that they will be underperforming by the time they reach the back-half of their contracts; presumably the next few years after Romo’s window closes. A savvy front-office that puts a Romo successor in place over the next two years could even keep a championship window open with a new franchise quarterback. If the deals are constructed properly, Dallas would still be able to walk away from said players after the 2-3 window closes anyway.
Scanning the list of players still on the Dallas depth chart, here is our interpretation of the biggest holes that need to be addressed.
Offensive Needs: WR1, WR3, RB3 , RT1
Defensive Needs: DE1, DE4, LB1, LB4, FS1, CB3, 3T2
Special Teams Needs: P, KR, ST Ace
Most observers would agree that Dallas is in need of better pass-rushing. Yet, there is solid, irrefutable, concrete evidence that says a team is very unlikely to get that production out of a draft pick. CowboysHQ’s Joey Ickes ran the numbers; since 2005 rookie pass rushers taken in the top 100 picks of the draft, average just 2.46 sacks in their first seasons. Over on BloggingTheBoys, they looked at Pro Football Focus’ grades for Rookie DEs and reached similar conclusions. The solution for Dallas at defensive end for 2015 will not likely come from a draft pick, especially down at Pick 27.
The Cowboys defense is also in need of a ball-hawking safety. Fans should be wary though, this has become one of the hardest positions to grab in the draft with immediate success. There were 21 first or second-year safeties that played over 25% of their team’s defensive snaps in 2014. Only two of them, Bradley McDougle of Tampa Bay and Tyrann Mathieu of Arizona, graded above +3.0 in pass coverage on the season according to Pro Football Focus. Dallas has been noted for their aversion to spend big resources on the position, but showed they may not be as opposed to it as thought when they would have used their 2013 first rounder on Kenny Vacarro had the Saints not snatched him up. Note that Vacarro isn’t on this list +3.0 coverage guys.
See where this is going?
Here, we take a look at a possible gameplan for Dallas to attack their roster deficiencies. This is simply our take on the Free Agent landscape; Will McClay and Stephen Jones would have to agree on not only the players fit into what Dallas does but at the pricetag they command for these marriages to occur. As we pointed out in Part Two of our Offseason Manifesto, Dallas has several cap moves at their discretion that they can use to create cap room upwards of $45 million. Dallas doesn’t have to make all of these moves in advance, either. They will be under the cap by the start of the league year and can base their reallocations on which players they bring in.
So um, yeah, like there aren't an ass-load of teams who could offer each external FA a bunch more money than the Cowboys could fart out...
http://dal.scout.com/story/1509095-cowboys-offseason-manifesto-free-agency-fire?s=112
Feb 04, 2015 | 12:33 pm[h=1]Cowboys Offseason Manifesto: Free Agency Fire[/h]
Dallas has stayed quiet over the last few years of free agency, as the team has waded in the waters of mediocrity. Now they have catapulted to the top of the league. With numerous holes remaining, will we see the return of an open-wallet Jerry Jones? Should we?
The 2014 NFL Season is now complete and a champion has been crowned. 31 other teams now have the task of improving themselves to a level capable of overthrowing the champions. The SuperBowls’ two contenders, New England and Seattle both finished the regular season as their conferences number one seeds with a 12-4 record, the same as Dallas. The Cowboys weren’t far away at all, however…
If Dallas wants to make the next step in their quest for a sixth Lombardi, drastic steps will need to be made. There are holes in the roster that need to be addressed. A great way of looking at a championship caliber team is one that has an All-Pro level player at every level of the team, as well as one dominating unit. Dallas has some work to do to achieve this.
As discussed in Parts One (here) and Two (here), Dallas has a finite window of opportunity that circles around the health and longevity of a soon-to-be-35-year-old quarterback in Tony Romo. Franchise quarterbacks rarely excel past 36, and almost never past 37. Dallas cannot remain complacent and assume similar success awaits them, even if they sign enough players to have a similar roster to last year. For the first time in years, we are advocating that Dallas become spenders in the free agent market. At the same time, though, the Cowboys need to avoid the pitfalls of other franchises that foolishly wade into a “win-now” mode by signing big ticket free agents with warts of age or unsustained greatness in contract seasons. The Dallas “splash” free agents must be players that are coming off of their rookie deals, and preferably ones that are finishing off just their third or fourth years.
This allows Dallas to get superstar players that can contribute superstar skillsets immediately, but they also are players with little risk that they will be underperforming by the time they reach the back-half of their contracts; presumably the next few years after Romo’s window closes. A savvy front-office that puts a Romo successor in place over the next two years could even keep a championship window open with a new franchise quarterback. If the deals are constructed properly, Dallas would still be able to walk away from said players after the 2-3 window closes anyway.
Scanning the list of players still on the Dallas depth chart, here is our interpretation of the biggest holes that need to be addressed.
Offensive Needs: WR1, WR3, RB3 , RT1
Defensive Needs: DE1, DE4, LB1, LB4, FS1, CB3, 3T2
Special Teams Needs: P, KR, ST Ace
Most observers would agree that Dallas is in need of better pass-rushing. Yet, there is solid, irrefutable, concrete evidence that says a team is very unlikely to get that production out of a draft pick. CowboysHQ’s Joey Ickes ran the numbers; since 2005 rookie pass rushers taken in the top 100 picks of the draft, average just 2.46 sacks in their first seasons. Over on BloggingTheBoys, they looked at Pro Football Focus’ grades for Rookie DEs and reached similar conclusions. The solution for Dallas at defensive end for 2015 will not likely come from a draft pick, especially down at Pick 27.
The Cowboys defense is also in need of a ball-hawking safety. Fans should be wary though, this has become one of the hardest positions to grab in the draft with immediate success. There were 21 first or second-year safeties that played over 25% of their team’s defensive snaps in 2014. Only two of them, Bradley McDougle of Tampa Bay and Tyrann Mathieu of Arizona, graded above +3.0 in pass coverage on the season according to Pro Football Focus. Dallas has been noted for their aversion to spend big resources on the position, but showed they may not be as opposed to it as thought when they would have used their 2013 first rounder on Kenny Vacarro had the Saints not snatched him up. Note that Vacarro isn’t on this list +3.0 coverage guys.
See where this is going?
Here, we take a look at a possible gameplan for Dallas to attack their roster deficiencies. This is simply our take on the Free Agent landscape; Will McClay and Stephen Jones would have to agree on not only the players fit into what Dallas does but at the pricetag they command for these marriages to occur. As we pointed out in Part Two of our Offseason Manifesto, Dallas has several cap moves at their discretion that they can use to create cap room upwards of $45 million. Dallas doesn’t have to make all of these moves in advance, either. They will be under the cap by the start of the league year and can base their reallocations on which players they bring in.