Draft Grades

Jiggyfly

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Yeah, that was written before rounds 4-7.
And how many 4-7 rounders are even in the NFL 3 years later?

Did we or did we not get better as a football team with this draft?

Yes we did and that's all I really care about.
 

Cotton

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And how many 4-7 rounders are even in the NFL 3 years later?

Did we or did we not get better as a football team with this draft?

Yes we did and that's all I really care about.
We got worse at RB which is what won games for us last year.
 

jsmith6919

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We got worse at RB which is what won games for us last year.
I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to the "you can't blame Garrett for abandoning the run when it isn't effective" threads sure to come :art
 

Cotton

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RB is not the only thing that won games for us last year.

Murray averaged 3.7 yards before contact.
That's such a stupid stat to quote. He is the reason he averaged well over that after contact. Now, the question is do you think the RBs we have on the roster now can get that kind of YAC. and, if you're being honest with yourself the answer is no.
 

Cotton

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I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to the "you can't blame Garrett for abandoning the run when it isn't effective" threads sure to come :art
Exactly, and just as soon as the running game falters he will go right back to throwing it all over the field. Just so stupid to completely ignore the position.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Exactly, and just as soon as the running game falters he will go right back to throwing it all over the field. Just so stupid to completely ignore the position.
Our running games faltered at times last year and we stuck with the run.

22 carries 58 yards
31 carries 81 yards
19 carries 75 yards

These are just a few examples of games where it would have been easy to give up on the run but we didn't. There is no reason to believe we suddenly will next year.
 

Cowboysrock55

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That's such a stupid stat to quote. He is the reason he averaged well over that after contact. Now, the question is do you think the RBs we have on the roster now can get that kind of YAC. and, if you're being honest with yourself the answer is no.
I don't know, what was Randle's YAC last year? Also curious how that works if the defender is juked or misses all together instead of making contact. Murray kind of runs towards contact so his YAC would tend to be a little higher.
 

Cotton

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I don't know, what was Randle's YAC last year?
He didn't get contacted much from what I saw. Most of his runs of decent distance he had a hole I could have run through.
 

Genghis Khan

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That's such a stupid stat to quote. He is the reason he averaged well over that after contact. Now, the question is do you think the RBs we have on the roster now can get that kind of YAC. and, if you're being honest with yourself the answer is no.
the stat that he quoted to you was before contact, not after. I still don't like the stat because there are a lot of variables to that but it does reflect the offensive line at least to some degree.
 

L.T. Fan

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RB is not the only thing that won games for us last year.

Murray averaged 3.7 yards before contact.
That's precisely what made him an exceptional back. He got yardage when most would have gone down. Dallas didnt screw up the RB position via the draft. The did it way before the draft by allowing Murray to get away. The folks talked themselves into a belief that he was done. Time will tell whether it will be correct.
 

Cotton

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the stat that he quoted to you was before contact, not after. I still don't like the stat because there are a lot of variables to that but it does reflect the offensive line at least to some degree.
I know, and I was making the point that it was the RB that took it from a poor YBC to a very good TAC. So, ignoring the position is even more stupid when you look at it that way.
 

Cowboysrock55

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He didn't get contacted much from what I saw. Most of his runs of decent distance he had a hole I could have run through.
The 40 yard run against the Jags he was contacted about 15 yards short of the goal line, broke 3 or 4 tackles and went another 15 yards for the TD.

Randle went 60 against the Skins. Broke a tackle right at the line of scrimmage.

Against Seattle he had a beastly run too for 39 yards where he made multiple guys miss tackles.

His 20 yard TD against the Bears he broke a tackle after about 4 yards to go the other 16.

So yeah, I disagree and so do the actual runs. Not that the blocking wasn't part of it because it was a huge part of it. Just like it was a massive part of Murray's success.
 

Genghis Khan

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I know, and I was making the point that it was the RB that took it from a poor YBC to a very good TAC. So, ignoring the position is even more stupid when you look at it that way.
I'd guess 3.7 before contact is quite good, assuming the stat is accurate.
 

Cotton

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Jiggyfly

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That's precisely what made him an exceptional back. He got yardage when most would have gone down. Dallas didnt screw up the RB position via the draft. The did it way before the draft by allowing Murray to get away. The folks talked themselves into a belief that he was done. Time will tell whether it will be correct.
I don't think Murray was exceptional, good but not exceptional he left a lot of yards on the field.

I don't think any of the backs we have now are as good as Murray but I don't think they are drastically worse.
 

Jiggyfly

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I'd guess 3.7 before contact is quite good, assuming the stat is accurate.
I was wrong about that stat I thought I read it somewhere.

It's 2.2

Murray routinely had gulf-wide holes to run through, making it to the second-level untouched on numerous occasions. Murray averaged 2.2 yards per attempt before contact last season, the seventh-highest average among 42 backs with at least 100 carries. Lowering the treshhold to 50 carries, you see that Murray's backup, Joseph Randle, averaged 2.5 yards before contact per carry, the fifth-highest average among 76 such backs.
 

VA Cowboy

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Had we done something like trade down in the 3rd, we may have still gotten Green and maybe picked up an earlier 5th and taken Ajayi. And the draft for me would have been much more palatable.

It's hard to fathom that we went through one of the deepest running back drafts in years and didn't come away with a running back despite needing one pretty badly.
That would mean we value draft picks which we clearly don't. I think trading down in '09 from the late 2nd to the third and missing out on Max Unger means that option is forever off the table. Of course the difference is Unger was a late 2nd/early 3rd prospect whereas Green was a 5th-6th rounder we thought was too valuable to pass up on in the bottom of the 3rd.
 
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