Cowboys off season - training camp is almost here!!!

[DaBoys]

Without the Dez release I'd give us an easy A this off season. With It? C-.  As it stands I feel we are slightly worse than we were week 17. 

Dez > Hurns/Kony

[buddy_z34]

5 hours ago, DaBoys said:

Without the Dez release I'd give us an easy A this off season. With It? C-.  As it stands I feel we are slightly worse than we were week 17. 

Dez > Hurns/Kony

Talent wise maybe. But i honestly believe itll make the team better.

[Dallas94Ware]

We lose a lot by losing Dez but I think the team still breaks out pretty even. Hurns can do 800-1000 for sure, and 4-7 TDs. Main thing will be how the team responds with the draft. Of course on paper their picks can look terrible or golden, but if they step out there, contribute, play well, earn starting jobs, boost weak groups that needed an injection of rock solid play, we still come out on top.

[DaBoys]

I think on paper we were an 11 or 12 win team last year. A NFC conference favorite. A Superbowl contender. We finished worse, for several reasons, and we get 9 wins. Everyone would agree we under achieved.

 

Without considering our schedule at all, and pre-draft, I feel we are currently built like a 9 or 10 win team. A wild card contender. Not the browns, but not quite '16, '17 

 

I could see 10 wins, a wild card, and maybe Divisional round appearance as our ceiling. With 7 uninspiring wins as a floor. 

[Dallas94Ware]

I called 9-7/8-8 last off season after the draft and studying the schedule. Football is a game of matchups, and that schedule had some bad matchups for this team. Thomas and Sanders were clearly going to eat up our young seconday. Atlanta was clearly going to be too fast, but player wise and pace wise, for our inexperienced and zone heavy defens that lacked depth at LB and DB. The Eagles D was built perfectly to get pressure up the middle, our weak spot in pass protection even when we still had Leary in there. Etc

It was a bad mix and match of what one teams strong points were vs this teams weak points. As it is now, I can see this team doing 10-5/9-7 based on schedule matchups, but we will see how well Dak is coming along, how good draft day additions are, and how well the D, as a whole, has continued to improve their cohesion.

11 or 12 wins possible with a draft pick capable of making early season plays. 

But way too ewrly to be sure. Lets see how the draft and the second round of FA plays out.

[Calvert28]

10 hours ago, Dallas94Ware said:

I called 9-7/8-8 last off season after the draft and studying the schedule. Football is a game of matchups, and that schedule had some bad matchups for this team. Thomas and Sanders were clearly going to eat up our young seconday. Atlanta was clearly going to be too fast, but player wise and pace wise, for our inexperienced and zone heavy defens that lacked depth at LB and DB. The Eagles D was built perfectly to get pressure up the middle, our weak spot in pass protection even when we still had Leary in there. Etc

It was a bad mix and match of what one teams strong points were vs this teams weak points. As it is now, I can see this team doing 10-5/9-7 based on schedule matchups, but we will see how well Dak is coming along, how good draft day additions are, and how well the D, as a whole, has continued to improve their cohesion.

11 or 12 wins possible with a draft pick capable of making early season plays. 

But way too ewrly to be sure. Lets see how the draft and the second round of FA plays out.

No, no more setting low expectations and just "waiting" till next year. I get what your saying. But we need to reach the NFC championship game at a minimum this year. Or we need to find a new FO. I'm fine with keeping SJ on. But JG and co need results this year. Serious results. 

[Texas_OutLaw7]

David Irving's girlfriend hacked his twitter. Talking about jail and drugs.

[Dallas94Ware]

3 hours ago, Calvert28 said:

No, no more setting low expectations and just "waiting" till next year. I get what your saying. But we need to reach the NFC championship game at a minimum this year. Or we need to find a new FO. I'm fine with keeping SJ on. But JG and co need results this year. Serious results. 

Its not chamo game or bust. Oh come the heck on lol. This sky is falling stuff gets so boring to keep reading.

[D82]

1 hour ago, Texas_OutLaw7 said:

David Irving's girlfriend hacked his twitter. Talking about jail and drugs.

Yeah, I saw that. I'd be making her an ex pretty fast.

[D82]

Some have suggested we won't be bringing back Irving or Lawrence after this year. To me, that's a mistake. Unless both prove to be one-year wonders or some other issue comes up, I'd think re-signing at least one of them should be a priority. Aside from the two of them, we really don't have any proven players on the DL. 

[Calvert28]

2 minutes ago, Dallas94Ware said:

Its not chamo game or bust. Oh come the heck on lol. This sky is falling stuff gets so boring to keep reading.

So mediocrity is your expectation? Because 20 years of the same FO. And about 10 with this coaching staff. 

[Dallas94Ware]

19 minutes ago, Calvert28 said:

So mediocrity is your expectation? Because 20 years of the same FO. And about 10 with this coaching staff. 

Was 2016 mediocrity? 2014? The hasnt been mediocre whatsoever. They had a down year fow a slew of reasons that we have gone over for months now. But this is not a mediocre team and they have had a tremendous turnover in roster over the last few years. They are built for the long haul, through the draft, with building blocks set up for success. 

Will McClay has not been here for 20 years. He has been the main personnel guy for the last handful of years. And he has no business going anywhere else. JG has an eye for talent and is a damn good leader of the men. You might want to scapegoat him for some crappy years of 8-8 and 9-7, but tjose 8-8s? Look what roster he had. Terrible. 9-7? Look what problems kept bouncing up. Yet he kept on leading, keeping them afloat. 2016 was not mediocre. 2014 was not mediocre. 2015 would have been amazing if Romo didnt get drilled into the turf the way he did. 

Dont hand me this sky is falling crap anymore. This the team sucks its mediocre everyone.needs firing crap. Because NO ONE was saying this when the team was 13-3. Or 12-4. Only after a rough year of 9-7.

The team wins? They are great, the players arw HOF bound, everyones the best. The team loses? Everyone sucks, the staff needs to be fired, trade off all of our stars for picks and do a full Madden 18 rebuild because its so easy to do it Madden we can totally do it in real life.

Yawn. Its boring to keep reading this stuff. You read it after every loss during the season. You read it after an unpopular decision. Yiu read it after a playoff loss after going 13-3. Its seriously like wqtching a soap opera sometimes with the sky is falling nonsense.

Sometimes, the other team just manages to win a game. Sometimes, the other team just made a better play. Theres 22 people on the field every play. Not 11. And all 22 are trying to win. Not everything needs a scapegoat.

[matt79511]

22 minutes ago, Desperado82 said:

Some have suggested we won't be bringing back Irving or Lawrence after this year. To me, that's a mistake. Unless both prove to be one-year wonders or some other issue comes up, I'd think re-signing at least one of them should be a priority. Aside from the two of them, we really don't have any proven players on the DL. 

I think we tag one of them (would be roughly $14M for Irving or $20M for Lawrence I believe) but both are asking for way too much for our liking on long term deals. I think our FO has kind of developed a philosophy of not paying defensive linemen, stemming from the idea that you want them when they’re young and explosive and playing for a contract and not after that. You look at some of the massive, mega-extensions that pass rushers and DTs have signed in the last 10 years (Haynesworth, Mario Williams, Dareus, Vernon, Suh to name a few) and how they’ve gone, and it kind of makes sense.

[D82]

9 minutes ago, matt79511 said:

I think we tag one of them (would be roughly $14M for Irving or $20M for Lawrence I believe) but both are asking for way too much for our liking on long term deals. I think our FO has kind of developed a philosophy of not paying defensive linemen, stemming from the idea that you want them when they’re young and explosive and playing for a contract and not after that. You look at some of the massive, mega-extensions that pass rushers and DTs have signed in the last 10 years (Haynesworth, Mario Williams, Dareus, Vernon, Suh to name a few) and how they’ve gone, and it kind of makes sense.

I could see that point of view, but by doing so you better hope you can draft/sign players that are able to produce. Just seems to be too much of a gamble for me.

[Texas_OutLaw7]