2026 Training Camp Thread...

Cotton said:
Hey, since Booze is lazy and won't do it anymore, I wonder if we can find someone (I don't know, maybe someone that may possibly have posted in this thread recently, but not real sure) to start writing Primers for the games? Because I'm quite sure that person (who may or may not have posted recently in this thread) would be very good at it. :)
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What the heck does this entail?
 
Simpleton said:
What the heck does this entail?
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It is so nice of you to volunteer! :unsure Just a normal primer, brother. Injuries, key matchups, news leading up to the game, etc. And, don't feel obligated to do this. I was mostly kidding, although I do think you would be good at it.
 
Cotton said:
It is so nice of you to volunteer! :unsure Just a normal primer, brother. Injuries, key matchups, news leading up to the game, etc. And, don't feel obligated to do this. I was mostly kidding, although I do think you would be good at it.
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Thanks, I'd be open to splitting with @boozeman every other week, although I'd mainly be doing bullets/quick hitting type stuff, not long form stuff as much.
 
First thirty years of the Super Bowl era - 8 Super Bowl appearances, 5 Super Bowl wins, 16 championship game appearances (more than half!!!).

Second thirty years of the Super Bowl era - 0 Super Bowl appearances, 0 Super Bowl wins, 0 championship game appearances.

Ugh.

You can't say "the goal remains the same" when the goal was realistically to appear in half the Championship games over a 30 year period, and now you are trying to work on 1 out of 30.
 
PS, holy shit, this board has been around since what, 2004? We have seen more than two thirds of the team's futility through the focal point of this forum.

Bet none of us thought back in 2005 that it would ever have come to this. We were echoing the same criticisms about Jones back then as now.
 
Smitty said:
You can't say "the goal remains the same" when the goal was realistically to appear in half the Championship games over a 30 year period, and now you are trying to work on 1 out of 30.
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These guys (media) are such pathetic toadies.

And speaking of that, was about to post how different guys like Nick Harris are from the old days when media people were actually critical. I'm not sure these guys realize how Boy Crying Wolf they are about touting all these new guys when they were doing the exact same thing last year for Eberflus and Kair Elam. Or maybe they don't care and are just there to fire up the fans.
 
Smitty said:
PS, holy shit, this board has been around since what, 2004? We have seen more than two thirds of the team's futility through the focal point of this forum.

Bet none of us thought back in 2005 that it would ever have come to this. We were echoing the same criticisms about Jones back then as now.
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I believe I am still inebriated from the draft. I am secretly rooting for Downs to be a damn SOB at least to rookie Roy Williams. I know low bar, but I am excited about the team, just not sold on a few areas. Defensively there literally is no reason why we can’t get to the middle of the league at least.

Long story short, I am not as interested in bitching about Jones. Now I reserve the right to do so at a later time.
 
boozeman said:
I believe I am still inebriated from the draft. I am secretly rooting for Downs to be a damn SOB at least to rookie Roy Williams. I know low bar, but I am excited about the team, just not sold on a few areas. Defensively there literally is no reason why we can’t get to the middle of the league at least.
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Sounds like you went to the Cowboys Low-T Clinic.
 
boozeman said:
Well that was a hurtful comment.
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No, you just said a few weeks ago you were kinda low-T on this season. Glad you're feeling more into it.
 
Chocolate Lab said:
These guys (media) are such pathetic toadies.

And speaking of that, was about to post how different guys like Nick Harris are from the old days when media people were actually critical. I'm not sure these guys realize how Boy Crying Wolf they are about touting all these new guys when they were doing the exact same thing last year for Eberflus and Kair Elam. Or maybe they don't care and are just there to fire up the fans.
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They're paid mouthpieces, it's obvious that the league and individuals teams have a level of control over how the media covers the sport.
 
boozeman said:
I believe I am still inebriated from the draft. I am secretly rooting for Downs to be a damn SOB at least to rookie Roy Williams. I know low bar, but I am excited about the team, just not sold on a few areas. Defensively there literally is no reason why we can’t get to the middle of the league at least.

Long story short, I am not as interested in bitching about Jones. Now I reserve the right to do so at a later time.
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It's all relative, are we a strong SB contender? Obviously not, but can we win 10-12 games and/or win the division?

Most definitely.

There's always a range of outcomes but if the offense is roughly as good as last year and the defense gets up to league average we'll win 10-12 and probably win the division.

We're definitely better defensively on paper, it just comes down to whether or not Parker is anything close to the hype.

The two biggest issues with Jones right now is that he fosters a toxic environment, which usually comes to roost in the playoffs as the pressure rachets up, and he's a low key cheap fuck who has created an organization around himself where there's no real accountability.

But we can be competitive in any given year, and maybe make a run with some luck, but I think the little something extra SB teams have (belief, us against the world mentality, desperation, whatever) is missing because of Jerry.
 
On Jerry (booze added that last part after I posted), I don't feel like bitching about him as much now either, because this year he actually let the football people make decisions on the new coaches, plus he didn't trade away valuable mid-round picks for players who can't play.

Problem is, if we make progress this year, good chance he steps back up again next year.
 
boozeman said:
I believe I am still inebriated from the draft. I am secretly rooting for Downs to be a damn SOB at least to rookie Roy Williams. I know low bar, but I am excited about the team, just not sold on a few areas. Defensively there literally is no reason why we can’t get to the middle of the league at least.

Long story short, I am not as interested in bitching about Jones. Now I reserve the right to do so at a later time.
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Yeah, I mean, my complaints about Jones are ever present and wouldn't even really be ameliorated by winning a Championship game, maybe not even a Super Bowl, at this point.

I mean, we're the Dallas Cowboys and with our resources should be at the top of the league consistently, at least as much as the other 5-8 best franchises in any given decade, two decade period, etc. So appearing in and winning one Super Bowl out of thirty isn't getting any monkeys off anybody's back. It would be a start, worthy of congratulations, but hardly vindicating thirty years of doing it ass backwards.

But, that being said, I feel pretty half decent about this team, especially if the OL comes together and we stay relatively injury free. And even if Dak gets dinged up we have a terrific backup option for a short period of time (and that's not a joke or sarcasm, Howell has real upside and can really sling it around, I mean, if you want to say Cooper Rush was better, because somehow he managed to bus drive the team to winning records while Prescott was out, fine, he played mistake free football, but the offense was limited. Howell could come in and run the offense effectively, actually).

And to be honest I feel like the defense, other than lacking an Ace pass rusher like a Ware or Parsons (which, fairly enough, is mandatory to be a truly great defense), is probably the most complete defense we've had in... I dunno how long.

Like, did at any point during the McCarthy years you feel like this defense didn't have a glaring hole somewhere? It had some higher end guys - Parsons, Diggs intercepting 11 passes, Bland setting the return record, but, it also was always having guys like Jayron Kearse and Damontae Kazee at safety, or, Carlos Watkins and Tarrell Basham seeing major minutes on the DL, Keanu Neal starting as a fake LB, or rolling in off the street Jonathan Hankins to desperately stop the run.

Maybe the pass rush won't be able to get it done by committee this year and that will be the Achilles heel, and we will look back and say that we should have moved heaven and earth to get Myles Garrett or something. But other than you'd really like a 12 sack guy on this roster, I think I feel better about every other position on the defense than pretty much at any other time during the McCarthy era.

Offense too, even during the McCarthy years, how many times did we have to see something like, Rico Dowdle is our starting RB, or our second best WR is Noah Brown, so we are bringing in TY Hilton in December, or importing washed up Brandin Cooks, etc. The offense is as complete as I can remember seeing it in quite some time if Guyton can be solid.

That being said they better make some noise this year because the team is starting to age and they've cashed in too many future assets.
 
Smitty said:
PS, holy shit, this board has been around since what, 2004? We have seen more than two thirds of the team's futility through the focal point of this forum.

Bet none of us thought back in 2005 that it would ever have come to this. We were echoing the same criticisms about Jones back then as now.
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Here's the sad part. Back then, it seemed like a really long time since we'd won anything.

:budd
 
Mostly agree with Smitty's screed, but I disagree that you need an ace edge rusher to be an elite defense. Seattle didn't have one last year, nor Philly last year or the year before when they won the SB.

Seattle last year in particular was very average on the edge.
 
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