Simpleton
DCC 4Life
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2013
- Messages
- 17,500
One of the biggest arguments swirling around our top 4-8 pick revolves around the idea of taking a QB for the future, and in turn foregoing the immediate impact of taking a LB, CB, DL, WR, etc., and whether or not we should plan for the future in terms of a QB or maximize Romo's remaining time by going for the immediate impact of another position. It's a valid argument for sure, but to me there is a simple way to maximize Romo's time left while also attempting to solidify our future by investing that high of a pick in a QB, and that is by more or less mortgaging the future to some extent by going all out in free agency this offseason and next.
First, you have to look at what our supposed window with Romo is, and to me it is 2016 and 2017, and some may say 2018, but I can't imagine any realistic person can argue that Romo will still be able to play at a high level by the 2019 season. So with a 2-3 year window in mind you have to then look at what large contracts we have on the roster right now, what those players statuses will be by about 2018 and then look at what potentially large contracts we will have to give out between now and then.
Right now the largest deals on the team are clearly Romo (can be released in the 2018 offseason, freeing up damn near 15% of the cap), Witten (who expires after the 2017 season), Tyron (reasonable long-term deal who will clearly be a cornerstone for nearly another decade), Carr (will clearly be gone this offseason or next), Dez, Lee, and Crawford, all of whom will only have 2 years remaining on their deals following the 2017 season and could reasonably be released at any time, although they could all still be playing at a high level. Then you have to assume that we will have to hand out somewhat large deals to Martin, Frederick and Collins sometime between the 2017 and 2019 offseasons.
Our cap situation has been cleaned up a bit and we seem to have a bit of room this offseason, so what this tells me is that if we can use some sleight of hand with the cap for 2016 and 2017 we should be able to splurge a bit on free agency to fill certain needs, while also retaining guys like Hardy if we so choose. Now, I'm not advocating that we hand out a combined 80 million guaranteed to Josh Norman and Muhammad Wilkerson, but I do think that we can make some shrewd moves in terms of a run-stuffing DT (Ngata, Damon Harrison, Terrance Knighton, Akiem Hicks), an athletic LB (Demario Davis, Danny Trevathan), a competent safety (Eric Weddle, Tashaun Gipson), versatile DL depth (Jason Jones, Kendall Reyes, Malik Jackson, Olivier Vernon, Vinny Curry) or a RB to pair with McFadden (Miller, Forte, Ivory, Murray if he is cut).
I'm not saying we need to go after one out of each of those groups of players that I listed, I'm just attempting to illustrate that there are guys out there who would fill holes for us and wouldn't break the bank in most cases.
In short, what I'm getting at is that I think we can plan for the future by taking a QB in the top 5 while also maximizing Romo's remaining 2-3 years by upgrading the roster through free agency with the plan being that we backload these contracts with the idea of resetting the roster once Romo is done (either following 2017 or 2018), and moving on from guys who currently have huge deals at the same time (Witten, Lee, possibly Dez and Crawford). We then reset the roster around what is hopefully a young franchise QB on a rookie contract who has sat behind Romo for 2-3 years, a dominant OL that will be in its prime (Smith, Frederick, Martin and Collins will all be around 26-28 by 2018), and whatever other talent we've hopefully drafted in between.
Would Jaylon Smith give us a better chance to win in 2016 and 2017 than Jared Goff assuming Romo generally stays healthy?
Obviously, but I think we can more or less have our cake and eat it too by upgrading the roster and also grooming what is hopefully a franchise QB that can take us to damn near 2030.
First, you have to look at what our supposed window with Romo is, and to me it is 2016 and 2017, and some may say 2018, but I can't imagine any realistic person can argue that Romo will still be able to play at a high level by the 2019 season. So with a 2-3 year window in mind you have to then look at what large contracts we have on the roster right now, what those players statuses will be by about 2018 and then look at what potentially large contracts we will have to give out between now and then.
Right now the largest deals on the team are clearly Romo (can be released in the 2018 offseason, freeing up damn near 15% of the cap), Witten (who expires after the 2017 season), Tyron (reasonable long-term deal who will clearly be a cornerstone for nearly another decade), Carr (will clearly be gone this offseason or next), Dez, Lee, and Crawford, all of whom will only have 2 years remaining on their deals following the 2017 season and could reasonably be released at any time, although they could all still be playing at a high level. Then you have to assume that we will have to hand out somewhat large deals to Martin, Frederick and Collins sometime between the 2017 and 2019 offseasons.
Our cap situation has been cleaned up a bit and we seem to have a bit of room this offseason, so what this tells me is that if we can use some sleight of hand with the cap for 2016 and 2017 we should be able to splurge a bit on free agency to fill certain needs, while also retaining guys like Hardy if we so choose. Now, I'm not advocating that we hand out a combined 80 million guaranteed to Josh Norman and Muhammad Wilkerson, but I do think that we can make some shrewd moves in terms of a run-stuffing DT (Ngata, Damon Harrison, Terrance Knighton, Akiem Hicks), an athletic LB (Demario Davis, Danny Trevathan), a competent safety (Eric Weddle, Tashaun Gipson), versatile DL depth (Jason Jones, Kendall Reyes, Malik Jackson, Olivier Vernon, Vinny Curry) or a RB to pair with McFadden (Miller, Forte, Ivory, Murray if he is cut).
I'm not saying we need to go after one out of each of those groups of players that I listed, I'm just attempting to illustrate that there are guys out there who would fill holes for us and wouldn't break the bank in most cases.
In short, what I'm getting at is that I think we can plan for the future by taking a QB in the top 5 while also maximizing Romo's remaining 2-3 years by upgrading the roster through free agency with the plan being that we backload these contracts with the idea of resetting the roster once Romo is done (either following 2017 or 2018), and moving on from guys who currently have huge deals at the same time (Witten, Lee, possibly Dez and Crawford). We then reset the roster around what is hopefully a young franchise QB on a rookie contract who has sat behind Romo for 2-3 years, a dominant OL that will be in its prime (Smith, Frederick, Martin and Collins will all be around 26-28 by 2018), and whatever other talent we've hopefully drafted in between.
Would Jaylon Smith give us a better chance to win in 2016 and 2017 than Jared Goff assuming Romo generally stays healthy?
Obviously, but I think we can more or less have our cake and eat it too by upgrading the roster and also grooming what is hopefully a franchise QB that can take us to damn near 2030.