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By Bob Sturm Oct 5, 2020
Seven Dallas Cowboys constitute roughly 63 percent of their total cap dollars. In today’s NFL, that is about the maximum number of players you can extend the lion’s share of your salary cap to cover. In almost all cases, Dallas drafted each of the following and then handed them enough money ensure their grandkids (who won’t be born for years) will never need to wonder where the college money came from:
- DeMarcus Lawrence, 5 years, $105 million — $65 million guaranteed
- Amari Cooper, 5 years, $100 million — $60 million guaranteed
- Tyron Smith, 8 years, $97 million — $65 million already paid out.
- Ezekiel Elliott, 5 years, $90 million — $50 million guaranteed
- Zack Martin, 6 years, $84 million — $40 million guaranteed
- Jaylon Smith, 6 years, $68 million — $35 million guaranteed
- Dak Prescott, 1 year, $31.4 million — all guaranteed for this year, and likely much more virtually guaranteed.
Enough is enough.
Sunday featured an unacceptable performance from a team that has, once again, frustrated its fanbase in record time. And if the rookies or league-minimum players are the ones disappointing you, then perhaps you built too top-heavy a roster.
But this first month has not been that, has it? This has been about almost every name on that above list not playing to the level they’re asked to. I realize it takes two to make a contract, so some of those above deals were not advisable because the team thought more highly of a player than he has proven to be. There are at least three names up there that come quickly to mind.
They have started 1-3. History indicates Dallas teams that start 1-3 do not enjoy the remainder of the year very often. In four such seasons, they did manage to make the playoffs once, in 1996. But I assume that in this crazy year, within a horrid NFC East and even the expanded playoffs, there will be plenty of reasons to continue down this road and see what develops. I might also argue that the team is in the spot it is in because we are not seeing great performances from many on that list above.
DeMarcus Lawrence has been as quiet as can be in the season’s first four games. Yes, he appears to be hurt, and I will always support those who try to give the team everything they have rather than sit out and wait until they feel fully capable. But he can at least lead with anger and accountability. I am sorry, but the super-flex after making a play while down 41-22 suggests a lack of awareness not usually indicative of a team leader. Show all the emotion you want, but giving the stadium the personal “Hey, look what I just did” when your team is getting rolled is usually what a veteran would pull a rookie aside for. We care about giving up 300 yards on the ground to a team that we knew could not beat us through the air.
Amari Cooper is a fantastic player, and I am quite pleased he was signed in the spring. But yesterday showed more moments that make us wonder what is going on in his head. How do you stop on a slant and not cross the face of your man when the QB is trusting you to do so? It reminds me of the scene in Major League where Jake Taylor has to talk to Roger Dorn about coming up with a grounder that could have cost them the game. Jake liked Roger a lot more before he became some interior decorator and told him, “If you ever, ever tank another play like you did today, I’m gonna…”
That was honestly on my mind when Amari made a business decision late in the game, allowing Denzel Ward to easily pick off a pass to end a game that had probably already ended. I’ve never questioned Cooper’s ability, but I occasionally question how much he loves the adversity and grind. When things get toughest and the day is hard, he needs to emerge. Not just when they’re fun and easy.
Ezekiel Elliott plays as hard as anyone you will ever see. But the Cowboys don’t need hard as much as they need hard and smart. He is putting the ball on the ground at a pace that is just absurd in 2020. In 2019, he fumbled once every 118 touches. In 2020? Once every 31. And they are all brutally damaging. Not to mention the drops. Again, we all know he is good, but he’s also a team leader taking up a huge chunk of the Cowboys’ cap resources. Don’t also be the weakest link for the issues killing this team’s chances at winning.
(Photo: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Jaylon Smith has a tremendous story and a likable personality. But he is also playing the worst football of his career in 2020. There may be reasons that make plenty of sense and give him alibi for much of it. I am sure Leighton Vander Esch being lost a few plays into 2020 thwarted some of the big ideas of putting Jaylon more up in the defense and allowing him to play to his strengths. But plans change. As the communicator, leader and face of the defense, he cannot play at this level if this defense is going to turn things around. Most guys on this list that we have named here we know are excellent at what they do. Jaylon is being graded among the very worst at his position, and if it weren’t for the contract he signed, many would be asking if linebacker is a place to upgrade. Instead, the Cowboys are married to him and will rely on him to sort these constant issues causing many of their defensive problems.
Dak Prescott is probably the least of the Cowboys’ worries, despite being the biggest lightning rod. His job is to make plays and to lead this team. He does that at a very high level. He is called upon to fight until the fight ends, and I am not sure there is a player who does this better. But he also needs to ensure he is not sabotaged by trying to do too much. For instance, if you see Terence Steele against Myles Garrett, you have to know that the matchup will not go very well. You want to believe in the guys in front of you, but realize that if you get blindsided while trying to throw to the left, the ball might come out and the game might change in a moment. It is a lot to ask a QB to read the entire field and monitor each of his protectors to make sure they are doing their job, so I am definitely not laying the blame on Prescott here. But at the highest level of QB play, awareness is the best way to stay out of this mess. The bigger issue is anyone who thinks Steele is a better option than Brandon Knight after a month of 2020. Knight is definitely not Tyron, but poor Steele is drowning. He’s doing the best he can; it just isn’t good enough this early in his career.
Regardless, Prescott will feel pressure as he accumulates gaudy statistics while wins elude him. He will be blamed for it all by the voices on TV. He will then be tempted to force things, and that is where the interceptions or near-interceptions will start to be found more frequently. There are 1,000 miles between Jameis Winston and Dak Prescott, but Jameis will tell you that he started throwing more YOLO balls when he realized 30 points were not necessarily enough to win. QBs cannot do that in the NFL without hurting the cause. You have to stay in the play and in the moment.
I didn’t mention Zack Martin and Tyron Smith above, but neither had a perfect month. Martin had a rough night in Los Angeles, which is rare. Tyron has already missed a few weeks. Again, I would not call either a big part of the problems.
This is the Cowboys’ crucial seven. There are others who come and go, and still others who might join this group someday. But Mike McCarthy had no say in any of these contracts save for Amari. And, of course, the team had no idea CeeDee Lamb was about to fall to them when they made Cooper even wealthier than he was. I assume that had they known they could replace him with Lamb, they would have done so. But that’s all water under the bridge.
The bar is set for them to lead. For them to hold themselves and the room accountable. This sport doesn’t work if you allow someone to join this upper tier and then “worry about themselves.” That is what bad teams have. But the best teams have leaders who refuse to let their team down and take it very personally when they get embarrassed by a team that is just not good enough to score 49 points as their QB threw for 165 yards. Mayfield didn’t exceed that number, of course, because he was never forced to do so. The Browns scored and scored and scored with ease and laughs. Trick plays and basic concepts alike. They all worked.
McCarthy is already being held to the fire by the public. Surely, he was promised to all to provide hope and change. But he inherited a mess of a franchise that has not been to consecutive playoffs since 2006-07. Seldom are you hired to continue a dynasty of dominance. There was something rotten going on, and it was his job to fix it — posthaste. Even if you do not have an offseason program. Your evaluation will be televised starting in September.
Here we are, Coach. Some are already waxing nostalgic for the previous regime. Where is Garrett? Kris Richard and Rod Marinelli? They never conceded 307 on the ground to a team that lost their star running back early in the game!
It was a franchise record, so no, there has never been a game like yesterday. The Cowboys have seldom lost games where they score 38. They have never let anyone run for 307 on them.
In fact, the Cowboys now move to 1-59 all-time when allowing 30 points and less than 205 passing yards. Those are arbitrary sample sizes, I am sure, but nevertheless, when you get steamrolled without the forward pass being a big factor, you aren’t winning games — no matter what your offense does. The last time they had that combo? Well, it was the playoff game in 2018 in Los Angeles. Same thing. Dallas was gashed on the ground and beaten badly.
Nine giveaways in three weeks. Minus-8 on the turnover differential. The most giveaways in the NFL. The most giveaways in the first half. The worst starting field position and second-worst starting field position differential.
Yes, the defense is bad. But why the further sabotage from “strengths” on offense? If you are giving away the ball and allowing short fields at crucial parts of games, are you the problem or the solution?
As you can see, this team has a million issues. They look poorly coached. Mike Nolan may not have a clue, but in the last 12 months, we have heard this defense is too simple and then too complex. Guys, it can’t be both. It might just be bad — and mostly because with a number of coordinators, it seems to remain bad. We can bring in George Edwards downstairs to take a look, but evidently, he isn’t bringing the peak Vikings personnel with him.
This mess is either on the people who wrote those huge contracts, (Jerry and Stephen Jones) the people who signed their names to them (the big seven above) or both. The names are above. Either those seven lead them out of this mess, or they need to be closely reviewed to see if they are part of the current build.
Spare me blaming the guys who just got here to try to fix it. I would certainly allow nothing short of two full seasons before I start to believe that these guys have forgotten what they are doing. I do not think McCarthy is the greatest coach in the league. He’s probably not close. But he does know what he is doing and is a major upgrade around here. Major.
Here’s a quick reminder, especially for those who never knew it: 2006 was Mike McCarthy’s first year in Green Bay. Those Packers started 1-4 and 4-8 before winning their final four games for a rather insignificant 8-8 first year. By his second year, they were in the NFC Championship Game. By his fifth, they won the Super Bowl.
Very few players remained from his first team to his fifth. There was a lot of mediocrity and quit in the old guard. Mike Sherman left a bit of a mess.
It takes time to clean it up and figure out who gets to stay and who has to go. But blaming the guy who was hired to clean it up is too silly to even consider one month in.
