Early Off-season Moves Discussion

[BigD88]

So moving onto next season, what moves do you make if you’re in charge? And what do you focus on in the draft? Only listing players of consequence below off the top:

Potential cuts or cap savers:

Ezekiel Elliott

Jourdan Lewis

Tyron Smith

 

Free agency decisions:

Terrence Steele (RFA)

Donovan Wilson

Dalton Schultz

Tony Pollard

Leighton Vander Esch

Connor McGovern

Anthony Brown

———————————————-

The way I see it, you cut Zeke and Lewis (just rip the bandaid off with Zeke).  I resign LVE at the right price. Keep Steele around. Just ride out Tyron Smith’s contract. We simply can’t afford to let quality OL walk out the door if they still want to play. And you can’t just force Smith to move to LT to try and justify the 1st rd pick and make your interior weaker in the process. My heart bleeds for him, but depending on the diagnosis, that injury may have cost Pollard a lot of money.

This is a cold-blooded business. If there is any potential of him not being the same player after this, then you can’t bring him back. The value of the runningback position does not warrant expending resources for that level of risk. 
 

Draft/FA needs: Need another CB. DT was relatively good today, but overall a stout 1-tech is sorely, SORELY needed on the DL. The LB room needs another number there (what happened to Damone Clark?). Perhaps another WR, preferably a slot. As asinine as it was to just give away Amari Cooper for no good reason and rely on a gimpy Michael Gallup instead, I expect him to be much better next year as he’s another calendar year removed from the injury. But a third weapon is still needed given the state of the NFL these days.

Edited January 23, 2023 by BigD88

[Northland]

I'm just looking at the division right now.  The Eagles have a great front office.  They have proven that they will do whatever they have to in order to remain relevant and a threat.  They aren't going anywhere.  The Giants are ascending.  Daboll gets my vote for Coach of the Year.  They are going to get better.  Should Washington land a QB the division gets that much more competitive.  It's a pivotal off season simply from that perspective.  Astute cap management and personnel decisions become even more important given the competitive landscape of the division.  That being said in no particular order I think Dallas needs to address:

WR - struggled most of the year to find a compliment to Lamb

OL Depth - Martin isn't getting any younger.  Steele is coming off an injury.  Who knows how healthy Tyron will be?

TE Depth - I like Hendershot and Ferguson but Schultz is gone

Zeke needs to take a paycut or send him packing.

Will LVE be back?  He played pretty well.  What happened to Clark?  Need some depth there.

You have a couple of CB's coming off serious injury.  Won't be surprised if the position is addressed early in the draft.

Draft a QB.    Dak's contract will be up before you know it.  It would be nice to have some options at that position vs being held to ransom because all of your eggs are in Dak's basket.

Find a talented disruptive DT who can help stuff the run.

Try to resign Quinn.  Can't stand in his way though if he wants a HC gig.

 

[matt79511]

I think you just move on from Tyron, personally. Man has missed 13+ games in 2 out of the last 3 years- and “only 6” the year in between. I think it’s time. $9M savings with $8M dead cap is palatable.

Steele and LVE strike me as the most vital pieces to retain. Maybe Wilson and McGovern next? I’d throw Pollard in there if not for his injury today- probably knocks him all the way down from a franchise tag candidate to someone you only keep if his market is frigid. Schultz, Brown, Brown, goodbye. Maher gets a couple hundred thousand guaranteed to earn his spot in camp.

CB, WR in some order figure to be our first two picks, but OL depth is also reaching a breaking point. I like Aviante Collins as much as the next guy, but we’re on a knife’s edge there presently. I don’t think you run it back with Peters and I made my stance on Tyron clear. OT and iOL need bodies, and particularly on the interior someone who could become a full time starter in the next 1-2 years.

[WizardHawk]

I’m cutting ties with Tyron and Zeke.  One is incapable of staying healthy and the other hasn’t the legs. Both are post 6/1 cuts. Save $25m

Revamp the iDL. Try to re-sign Hankins. Gallimore/Bohanna do nothing for me personally.  Push for  Khalen Saunders/Dalvin Tomlinson and/or add via draft.

Dallas butchered the WR room in a bad, bad way. They gambled and lost with Gallup. He’s a #3. Need to find a viable WR2 and probably another one for depth. 

Re-sign LVE. He was solid all year long. 

CB and LB depth need addressed. 

Maybe they ride it out, but I figure Dak is getting an extension. I don’t think they’re letting him sit on the books for $50m cap hits.

 

 

 

[project T.O]

Sign LVE he’s improved a ton this year and if you get a nice nose tackle to eat yo blockers in front of he’ll do even better. 
 

Keep smith for the right price. He’s had injury issues and he’s getting up in age, but he’s still playing at a pretty high level. But not up to what hes making.  
 

Steele needs to be signed again provided injury hasn’t slowed him down. He looked really good before the injury. Was an absolute beast in run blocking. 
 

brown frustrates me to no end, but he’s solid in coverage on short passes ( just awful at playing the ball). So if we can get him at a decent price it’s worth it at Least for depth. 
 

pollard needs to be signed, but that injury does put a bit of uneasiness in that franchise tag.. 

 

Schultz is a for the right price guy. He’s been good all year, but he’s got two young guys behind him who have shown flashes as receivers and been considerably better as run blockers. So I don’t think the loss would be too great. 
 

zeke if we can’t get a very team friendly deal done I’d keep him. If not he prob needs to be cut. 
 

Needs through draft and free agency  WR, cb, ol, run stuffing dt and maybe lb and Rb. 

[The_Slamman]

The cap situation is horrible for next year.  If we cut Zeke (post June 1) and re-sign nobody, we will have enough money to tender Steele as a RFA and sign all of our draft picks and not much else.  
 

if we cut Smith post June 1, we could maybe re-sign 2 of the following 3… LVE, Anthony Brown or McGovern.  
 

But, it should make us all feel warm and fuzzy that Dak will be making $50M next year.  Obviously, he’s the type of generational talent that justifies the high salary because he make up for the team’s shortcomings.  So, we’ve got that going for us.

[Danger]

Any guys likely to be restructured? 

[matt79511]

28 minutes ago, Danger said:

Any guys likely to be restructured? 

There really aren’t any obvious candidates- clear lack of young guys on LTDs without injury histories. You can tack on another void year to Martin and Lawrence I guess- would free up quite a bit. Or -gulp- Dak.

[BigD88]

38 minutes ago, Danger said:

Any guys likely to be restructured? 

That’s what got Dallas into this mess.

Restructuring Romo and Tyron like a credit card despite injury histories caused us to not take advantage of Dak on a rookie deal.

But restructuring and “void years” makes Stephen Jones feel like he’s the smartest kid in the class. So here we are.

Like seriously, take a second and imagine using Tyron Smith as a credit card so you could give a mammoth second contract to a runningback.

Imagine if Philly did that with Lane Johnson or Jason Kelce so they could give $90 million to Miles Sanders.

Edited January 23, 2023 by BigD88

[matt79511]

6 minutes ago, BigD88 said:

That’s what got Dallas into this mess.

Restructuring Romo and Tyron like a credit card despite injury histories caused us to not take advantage of Dak on a rookie deal.

But restructuring and “void years” makes Stephen Jones feel like he’s the smartest kid in the class. So here we are.

Like seriously, take a second and imagine using Tyron Smith as a credit card so you could give a mammoth second contract to a runningback.

Imagine if Philly did that with Lane Johnson or Jason Kelce so they could give $90 million to Miles Sanders.

Philly has restructured Lane Johnson incessantly, along with all kinds of guys on that team. It really does come down to the second part of your comment. The Zeke contract was a disaster from the start and ended up basically costing us Amari (or at least Byron). Philly knows those positions (WR and CB- not RB) are meant to be prioritized cap-wise

[BigD88]

18 minutes ago, matt79511 said:

Philly has restructured Lane Johnson incessantly, along with all kinds of guys on that team. It really does come down to the second part of your comment. The Zeke contract was a disaster from the start and ended up basically costing us Amari (or at least Byron). Philly knows those positions (WR and CB- not RB) are meant to be prioritized cap-wise

No doubt.

[WizardHawk]

I forgot one….Maher. I don’t want to see him again. 

[plan9misfit]

1 hour ago, matt79511 said:

There really aren’t any obvious candidates- clear lack of young guys on LTDs without injury histories. You can tack on another void year to Martin and Lawrence I guess- would free up quite a bit. Or -gulp- Dak.

You don’t restructure Dak. You shorten the amount of time he’s with the team and dump him as soon as you can. A restructure only extends the misery.

[matt79511]

2 minutes ago, plan9misfit said:

You don’t restructure Dak. You shorten the amount of time he’s with the team and dump him as soon as you can. A restructure only extends the misery.

Unfortunately neither you, I, nor anyone else on this forum make decisions for this team.

It’s hard to envision them sitting on that $49M cap number after he was in the high teens the last two years. If they don’t end up touching his contract again I would think it means he’s finally, for real this time, playing for his job. We shall see.

[Nextyearfordaboyz]

2 hours ago, WizardHawk said:

I forgot one….Maher. I don’t want to see him again. 

I’m pro-bringing back Triple Threat Brett