2026 Cowboys Free Agency Thread…

Carp said:
Good. They were sniffing around Peter Woods and I don’t want to draft a DT.
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Woods would be great for years though, I gotta say.

We shouldn't overlook the need up front despite having the 2nd best guy in the NFL and bleeding badly at so many other positions. Our NT is average, which is OK so long as he's at least competent, but Clark is not a young guy and Woods fits in behind him and Williams perfectly. The draft is about the next three-four years, and I could see the need.

But I wouldn't draft him straight up at 12 or 20, if he falls only after a trade down and we have extra picks to address CB, LB, and EDGE.
 
Watched some all-22 on Bullard because I don't have anything better to do, and I gotta say I appreciate Parker's mindset defensively.

Bullard of course has absolutely no pass rush ability at this point in his career (if he ever had any), the Saints literally never put him on the field in clear passing situations in the five games I watched, and the only plays where he was actually on the field vs. a passing play was stuff like play action on 1st and 10 or down on the goal line when they were in base defense or lined up to play the run.

With all that said, the guy is a brawler vs. the run. He knows exactly who he is, he has no real interest in getting upfield to an OL's shoulder to go after the QB, he's just going to sit his big ass down against double teams and hold the POA to squeeze running lanes.

It kind of reminds me of what I appreciated about Zimmer, who was fine sacrificing a bit of pass rush in order to get bigger bodies like Linval Joseph on the field to make sure you could contain the run. It didn't really start to show until the second half of 2024, but I think the defense later in the season that year was actually half decent. If you could've transported that second half of 2024 defense to last season we would've 100% made the playoffs, and probably won the division.

Anyway, between Bullard and Ogbonnia (as opposed to lighter, more upfield players like Osa/Thomas) I appreciate the no-nonsense approach to stopping the run. Everybody knows they aren't going to provide a single whiff of pass rush, but I think having rotational guys to do the dirty work stuffing the run is really important when you have an elite pass rushing DT like Quinnen.

Throw in Gary's edge setting ability and I think we could be in business, if we can find another starting ILB.
 
We did bare minimum plus in FA. You got those hot cha cha cha secondary guys that we better have goddamn hit on.
 
boozeman said:
We did bare minimum plus in FA. You got those hot cha cha cha secondary guys that we better have goddamn hit on.
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They made one minor splash move in Thompson, did some reshuffling that ended up mostly neutral between Gary and Osa, and then signed a bunch of guys to deals that you would've seen in any other year.

I think they found a few solid rotational guys, and probably a starter in Durant, but nothing Earth shattering.

On the other hand, if we had the 18th ranked defense in the league last year we'd have won the division.
 
We've added 7 new players to the defense, and we're going to add probably at least 4 more from the draft. And I'm assuming we'll trade for or sign at least 1 LB. That's 12 new players on defense. At least.
 
Genghis Khan said:
We've added 7 new players to the defense, and we're going to add probably at least 4 more from the draft. And I'm assuming we'll trade for or sign at least 1 LB. That's 12 new players on defense. At least.
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Yea I feel ok enough about the defense but it's still mostly predicated on the assumption that better coaching will make a big difference.

The talent level is roughly only average and they weren't especially aggressive once you factor in the Osa trade and how much salary that cleared.
 
ravidubey said:
Outside of Thompson though, felt like accelerated roster churn. The kind of stuff we do anyways.
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Yea and sometimes that churn leads to nice finds (Javonte Williams, and I think this year Durant and maybe Locke), but for the most part it's business as usual.

They went hard after Crosby and Dean, so I definitely think they were more aggressive than usual, but the result isn't dramatically different outside of Thompson.

I still think there are moves to be made though like with Pickens after the draft, so I'm in wait and see mode. Trading for Brooks for example would be a big boost to the defense, he's older than Dean but a better player.
 
ravidubey said:
Outside of Thompson though, felt like accelerated roster churn. The kind of stuff we do anyways.
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They don't really think they've been doing anything wrong. It's just that gosh darn injury luck that gets them every time.

That's why Stephen put the infamous air quotes around the drought. He thinks they're doing everything the right way. So why would they change?
 
Chocolate Lab said:
They don't really think they've been doing anything wrong. It's just that gosh darn injury luck that gets them every time.

That's why Stephen put the infamous air quotes around the drought. He thinks they're doing everything the right way. So why would they change?
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I think the thing is though, that this defense at the very least will be largely different.

The main players they're keeping are

Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark on the DL
Sam Williams and Donovan Ezeiruaku at edge
Overshown and James at LB
Hooker at S
Revel, Bland and Carson at CB

I could be forgetting a couple guys but that's it for the most part. That's a lot of turnover and very much needed.

Sure, the top end of the defensive roster needed an infusion of talent and that's probably mostly coming from the draft. But the bottom end needed it too and mostly got it. At the very least the floor should be better for this defense.

I agree that the process and budget didn't really change this year and that's unfortunate.

But at least it's a lot of change. And at least it's mostly with competent if unspectacular players. Rather than Murray, Sanborn, and Elam.

I'm someone who hated what they did on defense last year and was calling out how bad they seemed at least as far back as training camp last year. This feels different.
 
Genghis Khan said:
I agree that the process and budget didn't really change this year and that's unfortunate.

But at least it's a lot of change. And at least it's mostly with competent if unspectacular players. Rather than Murray, Sanborn, and Elam.
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But last year we were probably saying the same thing: The defense was one of the worst in the league, and while there are no new stars, at least we added a bunch of new bodies... Like Murray, Sanborn, and Elam. :-/

We're basically pinning all our hopes on the new DC... Again like last year. :-/

And that's today's DFDC Moment.
 
Chocolate Lab said:
But last year we were probably saying the same thing: The defense was one of the worst in the league, and while there are no new stars, at least we added a bunch of new bodies... Like Murray, Sanborn, and Elam. :-/

We're basically pinning all our hopes on the new DC... Again like last year. :-/

And that's today's DFDC Moment.
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No amount of talent was going to save Eberflus last year though, theoretically anything is possible but I can't see Parker being anywhere near as bad.
 
Simpleton said:
No amount of talent was going to save Eberflus last year though, theoretically anything is possible but I can't see Parker being anywhere near as bad.
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Don't get me wrong, I can't either. That's the worst disaster I've ever seen on defense. Even our very mediocre talent wasn't that bad.

It is true though that we don't know how Parker will do. Even if he's a good one, it is his first time, and with a bunch of new coaches he doesn't really know yet.
 
Chocolate Lab said:
But last year we were probably saying the same thing: The defense was one of the worst in the league, and while there are no new stars, at least we added a bunch of new bodies... Like Murray, Sanborn, and Elam. :-/

We're basically pinning all our hopes on the new DC... Again like last year. :-/

And that's today's DFDC Moment.
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But I wasn't saying that last year. This looks better. Not amazing or anything but better.
 
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