Cowboys Free Agency Thread

Simpleton

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Need, what, 10 mil for the rookies? Hard to know when the higher minimums kick in
Spotrac says 6.7, which leaves roughly 18 in space, not accounting for the 8 that could be opened up by cutting Crawford (lol).

So basically they can sign whoever they want, they just don't want to have to pry open their precious war chest.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Spotrac says 6.7, which leaves roughly 18 in space, not accounting for the 8 that could be opened up by cutting Crawford (lol).

So basically they can sign whoever they want, they just don't want to have to pry open their precious war chest.
This is exactly right.
 

Simpleton

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I watched a good amount of Clinton-Dix and I can see why the rumors are that he was signed to play FS. He's really fluid in space and has good range but he's very passive when crashing down to support the run, he is pretty timid when attacking the run and goes low almost every time. He more or less refuses to take on blockers down field and attempts to work around them, although he is surprisingly solid when attacking receivers after the catch.

He seems to not like taking on RB's once they have a head of steam, and I haven't seen him actually engage an OL downfield once in 3 games as he always looks for ways around them.

The upside is that he seems reliable on the back end and rarely gets beaten as the last line of defense. One of the games I watched was KC and he did a good job keeping over the top of Hill on several occasions where Hill completely roasted the CB and had opened up a good 4-5 yards of vertical separation with Clinton-Dix as the single high safety.

He's very aggressive breaking towards the ball once he reads route combinations and sees the QB setting up to throw, which is presumably why he has about as many INT's as our entire secondary combined in the last 5 years.

Long story short, he's a legitimate starting safety with ball skills and range, yet is very unreliable as a tackler in the open field against RB's especially.
 

Cotton

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I watched a good amount of Clinton-Dix and I can see why the rumors are that he was signed to play FS. He's really fluid in space and has good range but he's very passive when crashing down to support the run, he is pretty timid when attacking the run and goes low almost every time. He more or less refuses to take on blockers down field and attempts to work around them, although he is surprisingly solid when attacking receivers after the catch.

He seems to not like taking on RB's once they have a head of steam, and I haven't seen him actually engage an OL downfield once in 3 games as he always looks for ways around them.

The upside is that he seems reliable on the back end and rarely gets beaten as the last line of defense. One of the games I watched was KC and he did a good job keeping over the top of Hill on several occasions where Hill completely roasted the CB and had opened up a good 4-5 yards of vertical separation with Clinton-Dix as the single high safety.

He's very aggressive breaking towards the ball once he reads the route combinations and sees the QB setting up to throw, which is presumably why he has about as many INT's as our entire secondary combined in the last 5 years.

Long story short, he's a legitimate starting safety with ball skills and range, yet is very unreliable as a tackler in the open field against RB's especially.
Good stuff, man.
 

Cotton

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Including last week’s moves, the Cowboys have locked up four of their eight 2016 draftees to second contracts worth at least $123.5 million in guaranteed money in the last eight months: Ezekiel Elliott ($50 million), Jaylon Smith ($35.4 million), Dak Prescott (estimated $30.1 million) and Anthony Brown ($8 million). Whenever Prescott signs a long-term deal, that figure will grow exponentially higher. As a reminder, Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys and Texas Stadium for $140 million in 1989.



Todd Archer, ESPN Staff Writer 56m ago
 

Simpleton

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I just worry that their run defense sucked last year and it was Poe and McCoy leading the charge. Kind of a scary sign for me.
Agreed, although they kind of really shook up their defensive front last year so I wouldn't be surprised if that was part of it. Their run defense was middle of the pack in 2018.

Poe was also out for the last 5 games last year when they really got ran up on, allowing 248, 159, 154, 218 and 115 yards, their run defense wasn't great before that point but those 5 games really blew their ranking out of the water. I have no idea what their ranking looks like excluding those games but I'd have to guess it's not "league worst".

PFF had him as their "number 3 overall interior run defender" last year, for whatever that's worth. I'd have preferred Suh or Harrison but if we sign a 320+ lb. run stuffing NT who has generally been a good to very good player for most of his career, I'll take it.
 

ravidubey

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I just worry that their run defense sucked last year and it was Poe and McCoy leading the charge. Kind of a scary sign for me.
Poe’s injury history is concerning. They were so good at rushing the passer yet seemingly the opposite at stopping the run.

Bruce and Mario were not great run stoppers, so you’d expect the interior guys to have picked it up. Maybe Poe’s lateral movement is gone or maybe the scheme just sucked... hard to say.

But Lawrence is terrific vs the run, and the biggest help there frankly is the Cowboy offense keeping the other team under pressure to score.

Still, even with Poe we need some depth and rotation. Right now Crawford is looking to be our RDE... not great.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Poe was also out for the last 5 games last year when they really got ran up on, allowing 248, 159, 154, 218 and 115 yards, their run defense wasn't great before that point but those 5 games really blew their ranking out of the water. I have no idea what their ranking looks like excluding those games but I'd have to guess it's not "league worst".
That actually makes me feel a lot better.
 

UncleMilti

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Harrison is a better player. Not sure why the brain trust has zeroed in on Poe.
 

P_T

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I just worry that their run defense sucked last year and it was Poe and McCoy leading the charge. Kind of a scary sign for me.
Panthers couldn't score for shit last year, so teams could stay committed to the run, if we can get back to scoring 30 ppg, it'll take pressure off our run D. Plus, I think our rotation (at DT) should be better than what the Panthers had.
 

Simpleton

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Harrison is a better player. Not sure why the brain trust has zeroed in on Poe.
Poe brings more pass rush and is a bit younger, although I think Harrison is probably still better against the run while Suh is the most well-rounded of the three, but he's the oldest.

It's hard to argue that there's a clear cut best option but I'd probably go with Suh if we're talking a 1 year deal and ignoring the money.
 
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