JJT: 'Romo-friendly' offense reality at last

jsmith6919 said:

talk about revisionist history

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It is not revisionist history, it is a flat out lie.

To hell with Romo-friendly......our offense is defense-friendly and that's more important, IMO.

1bigfan13 said:

To hell with Romo-friendly......our offense is defense-friendly and that's more important, IMO.

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I think they are equally important. The line being able to better keep players off of Romo and holes big enough even Julius Jones could find them greatly helps as well.

of course, the other revisionist history is that this is not at all what Jerry meant when he was talking about Romo friendly back in 2009. this is not the culmination of some grand five year plan.

Clay_Allison said:

Correlation is not causation in this case.

Garrett never wanted to draft OL before he was promoted to HC, he always wanted toys and weapons. I don't think he was as big pushing to draft OL as you desperately want to believe. We also didn't load up on OL like we were in a hurry to fix it, we took 4 freaking years to rebuild it. And as has been stated before, he wanted another damned TE instead of Frederick.

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I think as an organization the OL became a clear priority to the Cowboys after 2006 when backup OTs and poor RG play prevented them from attacking the Seahawk secondary.

- In 2007 they drafted Marten and Free and signed Davis. Clearly they went after the position hard. Garrett had just come aboard so I doubt he influenced these choices much.

- In 2008 they suffered from a lack of OL prospects and I think they felt they were in a "win now" mode having just gone 13-3. Hence the famous Garrett pitch for Felix Jones. Still they missed drafting any OL. By mid-2008 they traded away their first and third picks for Roy Williams. I think this was a Jerry move, and you've got to think Garrett was consulted by that point regarding how he might fit into the offense. I think "win now" fever overtook common sense for all involved.

- In 2009 they traded down when their 2nd round target, center Max Unger, wasn't available. They then reached for Robert "Punky" Brewster because he could play special teams. This demonstrated a clear desire for OL upgrades before Garrett was HC, but utter incompetence in drafting.

- In 2010 they drafted Dez and Sean Lee. Why they bailed on the OL entirely in this deep draft is beyond me. The combination of two trades up was a killer. Dez I could understand, but they needed to let Sean Lee go, and stick with their plan of drafting Bowman. Then they'd have had a 3rd rounder which it's possible might have been an OL.

- In 2011 they drafted Tyron, Arkin, and Nagy. They had no choice as they had dumped Davis, Columbo, and Gurode. Garrett was non-interim HC at this point and it's clear he was at least on board with the overhaul. It may be have been a significant demand on his part that the team get younger up front. Hard to tell, but it makes sense.

- In 2012 they drafted no OL but did sign UDFA Ronald Leary. They dumped Kosier and signed Livings and Bernadeau, clearly in full scramble-mode to rebuild the OL, though it was a secondary priority to CB.

- In 2013 they drafted Frederick, fulfilling Jerry's promise to Romo as the OL had all but failed to this point with Free regressing badly in 2012. You've got to believe Garrett was on board, but listening to Jerry this was his "Mohican" pick.

- In 2014 they drafted Martin, solidifying a position that had become a strength with Free's solid 2013.

I think it's safe to say Garrett agreed with the need to build the OL, but lacked the foresight to have insisted upon it the moment he joined the organization. Clearly he was down with getting shiny toys like Williams and Felix at a time when the OL talent was at the cusp of rapid decline.

I think this is fine, Garrett isn't a GM and has had to learn the hard way what it takes to keep the position stocked.

ravidubey said:

I think as an organization the OL became a clear priority to the Cowboys after 2006 when backup OTs and poor RG play prevented them from attacking the Seahawk secondary.

- In 2007 they drafted Marten and Free and signed Davis. Clearly they went after the position hard. Garrett had just come aboard so I doubt he influenced these choices much.

- In 2008 they suffered from a lack of OL prospects and I think they felt they were in a "win now" mode having just gone 13-3. Hence the famous Garrett pitch for Felix Jones. Still they missed drafting any OL. By mid-2008 they traded away their first and third picks for Roy Williams. I think this was a Jerry move, and you've got to think Garrett was consulted by that point regarding how he might fit into the offense. I think "win now" fever overtook common sense for all involved.

- In 2009 they traded down when their 2nd round target, center Max Unger, wasn't available. They then reached for Robert "Punky" Brewster because he could play special teams. This demonstrated a clear desire for OL upgrades before Garrett was HC, but utter incompetence in drafting.

- In 2010 they drafted Dez and Sean Lee. Why they bailed on the OL entirely in this deep draft is beyond me. The combination of two trades up was a killer. Dez I could understand, but they needed to let Sean Lee go, and stick with their plan of drafting Bowman. Then they'd have had a 3rd rounder which it's possible might have been an OL.

- In 2011 they drafted Tyron, Arkin, and Nagy. They had no choice as they had dumped Davis, Columbo, and Gurode. Garrett was non-interim HC at this point and it's clear he was at least on board with the overhaul. It may be have been a significant demand on his part that the team get younger up front. Hard to tell, but it makes sense.

- In 2012 they drafted no OL but did sign UDFA Ronald Leary. They dumped Kosier and signed Livings and Bernadeau, clearly in full scramble-mode to rebuild the OL, though it was a secondary priority to CB.

- In 2013 they drafted Frederick, fulfilling Jerry's promise to Romo as the OL had all but failed to this point with Free regressing badly in 2012. You've got to believe Garrett was on board, but listening to Jerry this was his "Mohican" pick.

- In 2014 they drafted Martin, solidifying a position that had become a strength with Free's solid 2013.

I think it's safe to say Garrett agreed with the need to build the OL, but lacked the foresight to have insisted upon it the moment he joined the organization. Clearly he was down with getting shiny toys like Williams and Felix at a time when the OL talent was at the cusp of rapid decline.

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Signing Livings and Bernadeau isn't "full scramble mode" it's "WGAS, let's get some cheap JAGs, Romo can run for his life mode". Meanwhile we franchise Spencer and blow 50 million on Carr. Signing Chris Myers and Ben Grubbs would have been "full scramble mode".

Clay_Allison said:

Signing Livings and Bernadeau isn't "full scramble mode" it's "WGAS, let's get some cheap JAGs, Romo can run for his life mode". Meanwhile we franchise Spencer and blow 50 million on Carr. Signing Chris Myers and Ben Grubbs would have been "full scramble mode".

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Yes, the "scramble" clearly meant Romo would be scrambling.

As nice as it is to have a great OL now, if Garrett was the OL guru he's being made out to be, we would have fixed the OL back in 2012. I'll give him a pass on 2011 due to the lockout. We should have signed at least one major free agent, and we could have afforded 2 if we'd gone for a cheaper CB.

Ironically, [MENTION=24]mschmidt64[/MENTION] was the loudest voice in favor of that, but his coach let him down.

Omg

Carp said:

Omg

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Hey, I tried to talk about possible coordinator options if one or both of our bolt for other jobs, but this is the only topic that's moving.

Clay_Allison said:

He may be more interested than Jerry. Which is nice. But it seems like the guy making those calls on draft day, including arm twisting Jerry away from drafting Manziel, is Goof Son, not Garrett.

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Goof son has been around for years like daddy. Why did it change as soon as Garrett took over?

ravidubey said:

I think it's safe to say Garrett agreed with the need to build the OL, but lacked the foresight to have insisted upon it the moment he joined the organization. Clearly he was down with getting shiny toys like Williams and Felix at a time when the OL talent was at the cusp of rapid decline.

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This is probably true to an extent, but I still think he helped make it acceptable to put it on the first round shopping list. Definitely have heard he was in the Tyron Smith corner.

ravidubey said:

They dumped Kosier and signed Livings and Bernadeau, clearly in full scramble-mode to rebuild the OL, though it was a secondary priority to CB.

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I see what you did there

I don't think anyone here has the first clue about what is really going on in the front office. But if it is between giving the credit to Jerry Jones or Jason Garrett, I'm giving it to Garrett on principle.

It truly doesn't matter how it happened or why. The point is, someone in the crystal palace got wise to the notion that a strong offensive line is important and made it a priority. Let's hope they remember that in the future and just because they've built a good line don't take another 20 years to make it a priority again. Let's work on the defense now, but still work in good line picks where appropriate because they aren't going to be able to pay all of them and they will eventually need to be replaced. Plus, a great line can make a good QB so much better they may not need to use a first to find Tony's eventual replacement.