Archer: Proof of Purchase - Tyrone Crawford

Cotton

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Proof of Purchase: Tyrone Crawford

January, 16, 2014

By Todd Archer | ESPNDallas.com


In some ways 2013 did not answer enough questions for the Cowboys regarding personnel. NFL Nation reporter Todd Archer looks at players the Cowboys don’t know about for a variety of reasons.

IRVING, Texas -- When the Dallas Cowboys passed on taking a defensive lineman in the 2013 draft, they kept pointing to Tyrone Crawford.

Crawford played in every game as a rookie in 2012 and had 33 tackles but he did not have a sack and had only five quarterback pressures. He bulked up to close to 300 pounds to play in the Cowboys’ 3-4 scheme and showed some promise.

With the shift to the 4-3, Crawford was viewed as something of a super sub. He dropped down to 284 pounds and could play the strongside defensive end spot and both tackle spots in passing situations.

Then in the first practice in Oxnard, Calif., he tore his Achilles and was done for the season, setting off a chain of events that kept the Cowboys playing musical chairs along the defensive line for the full season.

Crawford’s rehab to date has gone without a hitch. He was doing some resistance training by the end of the season. After seeing the return of Barry Church in 2013 from a torn Achilles suffered in Week 3 in 2012, the Cowboys can be encouraged Crawford can be a viable help to a defensive line that will need a lot of help.

But he is still a question mark. To the draftniks, Crawford was a solid pick in the third round. To others he was something of a reach albeit with a high ceiling on what he could be. He had 13.5 sacks in two seasons at Boise State. He was disruptive, with 27 tackles for a loss in two seasons.

The Cowboys need more of that on a defensive line that could be without its leader in sacks in Jason Hatcher, most natural pass-rusher in DeMarcus Ware and Anthony Spencer, who had 11 sacks in 2012 because of free agency or salary-cap purposes.

The Cowboys should enter 2014 believing anything they get from Crawford is gravy, not something that is set in stone.

Proof of purchase

Lance Dunbar
Morris Claiborne
Gavin Escobar
 

data

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IRVING, Texas -- When the Dallas Cowboys passed on taking a defensive lineman in the 2013 draft, they kept pointing to Tyrone Crawford.
:lol

Other teams use upcoming drafts to bolster depth. The Cowboys use past drafts to bolster our depth.

Bruce Carter's coming back! Matt Johnson's coming back! Jason Beriault's coming back!

1.5 draft!!!!!
 
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Genghis Khan

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:lol

Other teams use upcoming drafts to bolster depth. The Cowboys use past drafts to bolster our depth.

Bruce Carter's coming back! Matt Johnson's coming back! Jason Beriault's coming back!

1.5 draft!!!!!

It's ridiculously retarded.

We need to separate our evaluations of our own players from our talent acquisition decisions. It's just common sense, since most people have clouded opinions of their own stuff.

Talent acquisition is about collecting talent. You are almost always better off getting a great player at an already stacked position than a merely good player at another position (and you are always better off getting a good player at an already stacked position then a bad player at any other position, which is more often our problem).

It's not like you can't trade players if you truly are overcrowded somewhere. And at worst you are helping your cap situation because you can let older good players walk rather than overpay them.

Good front offices know all this.

Jerry loves pointing to the 9-7 Giants in saying you just have to get in the playoffs and anything can happen. But come draft time Jerry conveniently forgets that those same Giants overloaded the defensive line and got a lot of mileage out of it.
 
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Cowboysrock55

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It's ridiculously retarded.

We need to separate our evaluations of our own players from our talent acquisition decisions. It's just common sense, since most people have clouded opinions of their own stuff.
You have to be careful with that otherwise you could end up with a third string TE every year. You can't just ignore the current talent on your roster when picking players. When you have a proven stud at a position who isn't going anywhere any time soon, you shouldn't be spending top resources every year on his backup. The real problem is that we over inflate the evaluations on our scrubs. Just because a guy has hung out at the bottom of our roster for a couple of years does not mean he is a proven commodity in any way.
 

Genghis Khan

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If we weren't talkingaboutthe Cowboys I'd say I'd think it's obvious you don't draft backup kickers or 5th TEs.
 

Genghis Khan

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You have to be careful with that otherwise you could end up with a third string TE every year. You can't just ignore the current talent on your roster when picking players. When you have a proven stud at a position who isn't going anywhere any time soon, you shouldn't be spending top resources every year on his backup. The real problem is that we over inflate the evaluations on our scrubs. Just because a guy has hung out at the bottom of our roster for a couple of years does not mean he is a proven commodity in any way.
This line of thinking gets teams in trouble way more often than BPA does.
 

Cowboysrock55

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This line of thinking gets teams in trouble way more often than BPA does.

You can do BPA while still considering the positions of strength on your roster. It's called trading. It's why taking less value last year to trade down in the first still paid off with excellent dividends. We got two excellent players out of our first round pick even though we supposedly didn't get enough in the trade down.
 

ravidubey

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You can do BPA while still considering the positions of strength on your roster. It's called trading. It's why taking less value last year to trade down in the first still paid off with excellent dividends. We got two excellent players out of our first round pick even though we supposedly didn't get enough in the trade down.
We didn't get enough at face valuebecause the depth of the draft was good and Jerry can't get the better of any deal in today's NFL. The deal only panned out because Dallas landed a very good player in Williams in the 3rd round. Kind of a surprise for Dallas because they never get good dependable pros in the 3rd round like other teams do.

Williams might become that very rare exception.
 

Genghis Khan

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You can do BPA while still considering the positions of strength on your roster. It's called trading. It's why taking less value last year to trade down in the first still paid off with excellent dividends. We got two excellent players out of our first round pick even though we supposedly didn't get enough in the trade down.
I'm talking about making picks. Trade downs are fine if it makes sense. I was fine with last years trade down.
 

Clay_Allison

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You have to be careful with that otherwise you could end up with a third string TE every year. You can't just ignore the current talent on your roster when picking players. When you have a proven stud at a position who isn't going anywhere any time soon, you shouldn't be spending top resources every year on his backup. The real problem is that we over inflate the evaluations on our scrubs. Just because a guy has hung out at the bottom of our roster for a couple of years does not mean he is a proven commodity in any way.
Yeah, there's a lot of difference between Jason Witten and Tyrone Crawford.
 

boozeman

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I bet anything they are actually counting on this guy to contribute to the point they start looking at niche players instead of linemen in the draft.
 
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