Archer: Stephen Jones - 'It's all coming together' for Cowboys

Cotton

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Stephen Jones: 'It's all coming together' for Cowboys

Todd Archer, ESPN Staff Writer

IRVING, Texas -- A week from Wednesday, the Dallas Cowboys will hold their state of the union news conference in Oxnard, California, but to hear executive vice president Stephen Jones speak about the topic on Tuesday, the state of the Cowboys is strong as they enter the 2015 season.

“It’s very exciting, and I do believe we’ve put together a team here that’s one of the better ones we’ve had in quite some time,” Jones said at the opening of the Dallas Cowboys Club inside Terminal A at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. “I do believe it’s all coming together for us.”

The Cowboys are still riding the high of signing Dez Bryant to a five-year, $70 million contract last week, which helped them avoid a gigantic headache had Bryant followed through on his threat to sit out of training camp and possibly regular-season games if he didn’t have a long-term deal.

In fact, this year is the first time in quite a while the Cowboys enter camp drama-free. A year ago at this time, it almost seemed as if 8-8 was a wildly optimistic prediction for the Cowboys. Tony Romo was coming off his second back surgery in two years and didn’t take part in the preseason, and some believed that the defense would be historically bad.

Last year, the Cowboys surprised everybody -- except maybe themselves -- and won the NFC East and advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs. Because of that finish and what the Cowboys accomplished in their offseason, expectations are raised for 2015.

The Cowboys’ biggest loss was DeMarco Murray, who led the NFL with 1,845 rushing yards in 2014 but signed with the Philadelphia Eagles. They also lost key defensive parts in Justin Durant, Bruce Carter, Henry Melton, George Selvie and Sterling Moore.

But they feel like they added pieces to a strong core.

The Cowboys added the best pass-rusher in free agency in Greg Hardy and received good news when his 10-game suspension was reduced to four games. Hardy is contemplating whether to seek a further reduction through the legal system, but Jones said the Cowboys play no role in that process. In the draft, despite having just one first-round pick, the Cowboys added three first-round-caliber talents in cornerback Byron Jones (first round), defensive end Randy Gregory (second round) and guard La’el Collins (undrafted).

The Bryant signing capped it all off.

“He’s such a big part of our team, not only from his skill level and what he does from that standpoint, but he’s also an emotional leader for our team as well,” Jones said. “People look up to him. He brings a lot of energy to the practice field. When you’re in the dog days of training camp, he brings everything up another level. It’ll be great having him from day one at training camp.”

The player-acquisition job does not end when training camp begins. In fact, it might be more important. But training camp gives the first glimpse into what the Cowboys can be.

“I’m not a big fan of grading an offseason,” Jones said. “Everybody thinks when they draft players they did well because they drafted them where they had them on their board. The question is, was your board accurate? The same thing with free agents and same thing with signing contracts. It’s all about the production on the field. We obviously feel like we got a lot accomplished. Whether we did or not remains to be seen, and it’ll all be in whether we have a successful season. We theoretically got done what we felt like we needed to do to make our team better and take the next step. Now we’ll see if it happens.”
 

Cowboysrock55

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I just hope the defense is ready to take the next step. I have total faith in this offense. We have built a perfect foundation on offense with an elite offensive line, a go to receiver and a play making QB. We have some great niche players to work around that like a top notch slot WR, an excellent deep threat number 2 WR, a great TE.

The defense still concerns me but it has potential. I really like our front 7, minus one starting DT. It's the back end that still concerns me. Namely safety where we still look god awful. I hope the pass rush will make them appear much better then they did last year.
 

ravidubey

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“I’m not a big fan of grading an offseason,” Jones said. “Everybody thinks when they draft players they did well because they drafted them where they had them on their board. The question is, was your board accurate?
Refreshing
 

L.T. Fan

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Sounds like that Garrett may be going to soft pedal TC with several key players. Every year they do this they look look like crap early in the season. They cannot have a slow start with some of the key players that will be out plus soft conditioned starters or they will be at the bottom of a hole trying to dig out all season.
 

ravidubey

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Sounds like that Garrett may be going to soft pedal TC with several key players. Every year they do this they look look like crap early in the season. They cannot have a slow start with some of the key players that will be out plus soft conditioned starters or they will be at the bottom of a hole trying to dig out all season.
Yep. Going soft with Romo basically cost us the first game. Maybe the season.

Sunday games are way too physical to be practicing one-quarter to half speed.
 

Cotton

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Yeah, getting smoke blown up my ass is a refreshing experience.
To me it's the exact opposite of that. What his Daddeh does is blow smoke. This is a very honest and humble statement. It is very refreshing.
 

Chocolate Lab

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Yeah, getting smoke blown up my ass is a refreshing experience.
:lol

Yep, hard to give him credit for his humility when his first comments in the article are that he's put together the best team in years and this is the year it all comes together.
 

Simpleton

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On paper this is the best team we've had in years. In fact I'd argue that last years team was the best team that we've had since 1995, so the fact that we have seemingly improved on paper makes a statement like that very plausible.
 

ravidubey

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On paper this is the best team we've had in years. In fact I'd argue that last years team was the best team that we've had since 1995.
Offensively it was up there with 2007 and 2006, but we were nowhere close defensively which killed us in the end.

Dallas was defending Aaron Rodgers on fumes. If he wasn't gimpy we might not have been in that game, not matter how well we ran.
 

GForce78NJ

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Offensively it was up there with 2007 and 2006, but we were nowhere close defensively which killed us in the end.

Dallas was defending Aaron Rodgers on fumes. If he wasn't gimpy we might not have been in that game, not matter how well we ran.
I'm not going to say next season, but our defense should be even better in 2-3 years than that team. I think 2017 is the year we make a serious playoff run, but I've been surprised way too many times to consider my predictions remotely plausible.
 

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I'm not going to say next season, but our defense should be even better in 2-3 years than that team. I think 2017 is the year we make a serious playoff run, but I've been surprised way too many times to consider my predictions remotely plausible.
I think the team makes a run this season if they get off to a quick start and give the absentees on defense a chance to come in and shore up the defense. I think the offense can move the ball early but I am concerned about the backs as the season wears on. If they can hold up and keep the passing game to a respectable ratio then it's off to the races. Everyone will know by the 6th or 7th game how solid the team is.
 

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Yep. Going soft with Romo basically cost us the first game. Maybe the season.

Sunday games are way too physical to be practicing one-quarter to half speed.
Or going soft on the guys early led to them staying healthy and destroying everyone late in the season. There are two sides to that coin.
 

Simpleton

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Offensively it was up there with 2007 and 2006, but we were nowhere close defensively which killed us in the end.

Dallas was defending Aaron Rodgers on fumes. If he wasn't gimpy we might not have been in that game, not matter how well we ran.
I'd give the nod to the 2014 team when you look at the season as a whole. The 2007 team peaked when they beat Green Bay towards the end of November when both teams were 10-1 or 11-1 or whatever it was, after that they kind of went in the tank and were beaten in their first playoff game by a team they already beat by double digits twice.

The team last year showed alot more fortitude with comeback wins on the road, they peaked as they were going into the playoffs and it took a bullshit call, as well as some miraculous throws by Rodgers to eliminate them. The defense may have been better on paper, but the team last year really played with toughness and heart, which is more than I can say for the 2007 team towards the end of that season.

Do you think the 2007 defense could've held a team in the playoffs to 6 points in 3 quarters after spotting them 14 on the first 2 drives, allowing the offense to slowly climb back into the game?

I sure as shit don't, nor do I think the offense would've climbed back in if they even got the opportunity considering how they were playing at the end of the season.
 

L.T. Fan

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I'd give the nod to the 2014 team when you look at the season as a whole. The 2007 team peaked when they beat Green Bay towards the end of November when both teams were 10-1 or 11-1 or whatever it was, after that they kind of went in the tank and were beaten in their first playoff game by a team they already beat by double digits twice.

The team last year showed alot more fortitude with comeback wins on the road, they peaked as they were going into the playoffs and it took a bullshit call, as well as some miraculous throws by Rodgers to eliminate them. The defense may have been better on paper, but the team last year really played with toughness and heart, which is more than I can say for the 2007 team towards the end of that season.

Do you think the 2007 defense could've held a team in the playoffs to 6 points in 3 quarters after spotting them 14 on the first 2 drives, allowing the offense to slowly climb back into the game?

I sure as shit don't, nor do I think the offense would've climbed back in if they even got the opportunity considering how they were playing at the end of the season.
It's funny now but the defense of last season was predicted by most to be one of the worst ever.
 

Simpleton

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It's funny now but the defense of last season was predicted by most to be one of the worst ever.
The defense still pretty much sucked, but they played over their heads and generally played tough/smart. The 2007 defense was infinitely more talented but couldn't hold god damn Eli Manning from tying the game at 14-14 with just 1:30 or so before halftime after the offense just drained the entire 2nd quarter to take a 14-7 lead.

Last years defense did not have enough talent, and when faced with an insurmountable talent like Aaron Rodgers they weren't able to come all the way through, but by and large they played above their heads and got everything they could out of what they had. I can't say the same about the 2007 defense.
 

L.T. Fan

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Agree with your comments but will add that the Green Bay game plan was chiefly responsible for the poor performance. It was a primary a coverage scheme for a one legged QB with a very accurate arm.
 

townsend

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The 2014 defense produced a lot of turnovers. It also had a knack for holding up in the clutch. They also adjusted pretty well in the 2nd half, there were quite a few games where it looked like the team could score at will at first, only to lose steam later on (New York and Detroit stand out)

Wade never seemed to adjust as well.
 
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