MacMahon: Don't blame front office for Doug Free debacle

[Cotton]

Don't blame front office for Doug Free debacle

May, 14, 2013

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By Tim MacMahon | ESPNDallas.com


There’s no denying that Doug Free’s four-year, $32 million contract has been dreadful for the Cowboys.

Based on his performance the last two seasons, Free would be overpaid if he takes the massive pay cut the Cowboys have proposed. As it is, he’s the highest-paid right tackle in the NFL, which wouldn’t be such a big problem if he wasn’t also one of the least effective last season.

But the Cowboys’ front office isn’t at fault for the Free deal. The Cowboys deserve criticism for a lot of overly generous contracts they’ve given out in recent years, but Free’s deal doesn’t fall in that category.

No reasonable mind questioned the wisdom of locking Free up after the lockout ended in 2011. They really didn’t have much choice. He was a 27-year-old free agent coming off a terrific year in his first season as the starting left tackle. If the Cowboys didn’t give him legitimate left tackle money, the Philadelphia Eagles or Tampa Bay Buccaneers would have.

At the time, it appeared that the offensive tackles would be a strength for the Cowboys for years to come. They had just invested the ninth overall pick in Tyron Smith to replace Marc Colombo at right tackle and maybe make the transition to the left side after Free’s fresh deal expired.

How could the Cowboys have possibly projected Free to regress so drastically during what should have been the prime of his career?

Free went from being Pro Football Focus’ fourth-ranked offensive tackle in 2010 to No. 44 in 2011, resulting in Smith’s move to Tony Romo’s blind side being rushed. As a right tackle in 2012, Free fell all the way down to No. 66.

You can come up with all kinds of theories about what has caused Free’s career to go in reverse. Coaching can’t be solely blamed, however. He took several steps back under Hudson Houck and got worse under Bill Callahan.

The Cowboys’ problem now is that Free has some leverage despite his poor performance since signing the deal. That’s partially because the deal was restructured to free up some money for the Cowboys’ shopping spree last offseason. As a result, the Cowboys wouldn’t gain any cap space by cutting Free now and would create $7 million in dead money if they designate him as a post-June 1 cut.

Plus, the Cowboys don’t have a replacement plan in place. Jerry Jones can pump up Jermey Parnell until he’s blue in the face, but if the Cowboys were that confident in the former Ole Miss basketball player, Free would have spent most of last season watching from the sideline.

The best upgrade option, Tyson Clabo, went off the market when Miami signed him to a one-year, $3.5 million deal, a stark reminder of just how much Free is overpaid. For whatever reason, the Cowboys apparently aren’t so enamored with Eric Winston, a cap casualty in Houston and Kansas City the last two offseasons.

So the Free contract saga drags on. It’s a mess, but it’d be hindsight to hammer the Cowboys’ front office for this one.

 

[Smitty]

No reasonable mind questioned the wisdom of locking Free up after the lockout ended in 2011. They really didn’t have much choice. He was a 27-year-old free agent coming off a terrific year in his first season as the starting left tackle. If the Cowboys didn’t give him legitimate left tackle money, the Philadelphia Eagles or Tampa Bay Buccaneers would have.

That's nice, but any reasonable mind actually knew that he was far from dominant and was actually a sub-par run blocker, so kindly STFU when saying that no one "reasonably" questioned giving him that money, because some people actually did and it was quite reasonable.

 

[ravidubey]

That's nice, but any reasonable mind actually knew that he was far from dominant and was actually a sub-par run blocker, so kindly STFU when saying that no one "reasonably" questioned giving him that money, because some people actually did and it was quite reasonable.

Exactly. His "terrific" season was absolutely questionable given the team went fricking 6-10 and he failed to best any strong DE/OLB. Also, Romo got hurt from his side. Yeah it was Gronk's fault, but Free didn't exactly help.

Watching Free play LT in place of Flozell Adams in the 09/10 playoffs was comical. Allen kept bashing him backwards seemingly at will.

Overall, I don't see how he instilled any confidence in the backs and QBs. Bottom line is Jerry Jones wanted Free to succeed for his own reasons and did everything to promote the perception that he was a success. I sincerely doubt any NFL DE's privately thought so.

 

[Carp]

It is always nice to say that you knew something before it happened, but Free did show himself to be a legit starting T.

 

[ravidubey]

It is always nice to say that you knew something before it happened, but Free did show himself to be a legit starting T.

Barely. Statistically. By any measure it was a stretch to pay him market value for a strong LT, which they did. A good team understands he's average and nowhere near elite, offers him good money, and lets him go if he wants to break the bank.

Not a team GM'd by Jerry Jones. That franchise wants to tell the world they found their elite LT in the 4th round.

 

[Cotton]

I think a lot of why some thought Free was worth the money is because of all the crap that came before him. Most were desperate for a solution and wanted to jump at the first even halfway decent option.

 

[boozeman]

I feel pretty safe saying that the front office does deserve the blame for the contract he got. It has virtually no parachutes and is cap crippling.

I do recall the circumstances and due to the fact we had just released Colombo and Davis and were ready to release Gurode, his agent took that interest he got and carved out one of the most lopsided contracts in team history for a guy who had never proven to be a sure thing.

 

[Carp]

Barely. Statistically. By any measure it was a stretch to pay him market value for a strong LT, which they did. A good team understands he's average and nowhere near elite, offers him good money, and lets him go if he wants to break the bank.

Not a team GM'd by Jerry Jones. That franchise wants to tell the world they found their elite LT in the 4th round.

Sure, but the player has to share some of the blame. He showed to be much better than he was the last couple years, what did Jerry do exactly to make him lose those skills?

 

[boozeman]

Sure, but the player has to share some of the blame. He showed to be much better than he was the last couple years, what did Jerry do exactly to make him lose those skills?

He made a misevaluation. A huge one. Sorry, can't blame the player for getting the contract he did. You can blame him for slacking, if that's even the case. My thing is if he didn't...and the team is saying the skills are still there...why are they asking for a pay decrease but yet still maintain they want him back. Oh yeah, we got snookered.

 

[Carp]

He was a much better player, something tells me his preparation has not been as good. I wish we had the money back we gave him, but Free is more to blame IMO.

 

[ravidubey]

He was a much better player, something tells me his preparation has not been as good. I wish we had the money back we gave him, but Free is more to blame IMO.

He hasn't been injured, which is what you'd expect from a player that slacked in preparation and conditioning. I think he is mentally not a natural RT, lacks the ability to anchor for either the running game or a strong punch, and physically isn't powerful enough to be a LT. For him to even begin to overcome those deficiencies, he has to be a monster technique-wise, and everyone has his number.

I think he's a good swing tackle but just isn't starting material for a playoff team.

Dallas needs a gimmick like the draw play they ran in 2009 or a read-option to make the most of their investment in Free.

 

[Genghis Khan]

Of course you blame the front office.

Even if you could argue that many or most people agreed with the decision to give Free this contract, the front office is supposed to know better. Fans, media, and anyone else can have their opinions on this stuff, but a good front office evaluates this correctly and makes the right decision. This front office did not.

To absolve them of blame just because fans and media agreed with them is kind of retarded. They are supposed to know better than fans and media.

Of course you blame the front office.

The fact that they continually make mistakes like this is a huge part of the team's problems over the years.

 

[Smitty]

Of course you blame the front office.

Even if you could argue that many or most people agreed with the decision to give Free this contract, the front office is supposed to know better. Fans, media, and anyone else can have their opinions on this stuff, but a good front office evaluates this correctly and makes the right decision. This front office did not.

To absolve them of blame just because fans and media agreed with them is kind of retarded. They are supposed to know better than fans and media.

Of course you blame the front office.

The fact that they continually make mistakes like this is a huge part of the team's problems over the years.

^ This.

Plus the fact that it was actually easy to see that Free was not anywhere close to a top 10 tackle. So there is plenty of blame for the front office for not seeing that.

He was a misevaluation by our front office plain and simple. Now, is Free destined to be as bad as he was last year when he was one of the worst starting tackles in football? No, he was definitely better in 2010 than he was the last 2 years. But even if he gets back to that level he's still part of the problem and not part of the solution when it comes to our abysmal run blocking. Which is approximately 50% of his grading. A player that completely flunks on half of his evaluation is not a player you want to keep at any salary.

 

[asklesko]

The front office signed him. I think that leaves them with the blame.

 

[Clay_Allison]

The main reason we shouldn't have given him that contract is we could have had Clabo or Bushrod for less. We could have gotten Cliff Avril for way less than we payed Spencer and we never picked up the phone to call him either. That's on the front office, they never explore their options. If we would use other free agents as leverage the way our free agents use other teams, we'd never be in this kind of mess.

 

[Smitty]

The front office signed him. I think that leaves them with the blame.

There are situations where this would apply. Like say if, right after we signed Ware to his last deal, he all of a sudden fell off the face of the earth. There would have been no indicators that he was gonna tank.

That is not the case here.

 

[Plan9Misfit]

He made a misevaluation. A huge one. Sorry, can't blame the player for getting the contract he did. You can blame him for slacking, if that's even the case. My thing is if he didn't...and the team is saying the skills are still there...why are they asking for a pay decrease but yet still maintain they want him back. Oh yeah, we got snookered.

It's because this team, like many idiots, believes that an inferior player with a reduced contract is worth keeping rather than dumping the player and actually upgrading the position. They place value on performance to contract size rather than on-field performance as the sole benchmark.

 

[Carp]

There are situations where this would apply. Like say if, right after we signed Ware to his last deal, he all of a sudden fell off the face of the earth. There would have been no indicators that he was gonna tank.

That is not the case here.

What indication did you have that Free was going to fall off the face of the Earth?

 

[ravidubey]

What indication did you have that Free was going to fall off the face of the Earth?

True, no one could have possibly known Free would evolve into a total fuck-up on the field.

But I strongly disagreed with him receiving high-end LT money though and would have offered less or allowed him to walk.

 

[VA Cowboy]

The FO/JJ blame goes to neglecting the OL for so many years. We didn't draft an OL in the first or second round after 2004 until we took Tyron Smith in '11. And the few we did take over the years in the mid rounds were busts like James Marten, Robert Brewster, David Arkin, etc.
They may get a pass on Free, but the neglecting of the OL and then the horrible evaluation/picks we did make at the position for over a decade is the real problem.